Everybody complains about Facebook, but I've been able to reconnect with many of the people I went to high school with. Michelle is one of those people. Her story is one that needs to be told, so I feel incredibly blessed that she is allowing me to share it with you all. I had heard about TSS (Toxic Shock Syndrome), but I never realized the deadly consequences of it. I'm pretty sure that most of us women have used a tampon once in our lives, so this is a story that needs to be read by all! Michelle's story in her own words . . . .
My story starts on June 23rd, 2007. I was at a Dance Nationals in Michigan. I had my period and I would change my tampoon every 2-3 hours. I had my old kind, but since I was going to a Dance Nationals I thought that I’d try a Sports kind. Within days of using the sports tampon, I started feeling sick to my stomach, fever, and just tired. We had all thought I had the flu, so we didn’t think anything of it. I don’t remember the ride home or how I even drove from my friend’s house to my house. On June 25th, I had to call into work to tell that I couldn’t make it in. They said that I was delirious and not myself. I had slept the entire day and don’t remember anyone coming in or out of my room or even trying to get me to eat something. When I woke up on the 26th, I was feeling so much better. I was ready to head into work when I started throwing up. My husband said that we are going to the hospital to get an IV in. They started taking my stats which my blood pressure was 70/40 and I had 104.6 temp, but I looked fine. The next thing I knew they had me in the ER with doctors and nurses flying all around, putting IVs in me, trying to find out what was wrong as my husband was calling my mom. That was the last thing that I remembered.
My mom had kept a journal of everything that happened while I was in the hospital. So the next parts are from her journal as well as from what my Mom and John (Michelle's husband) have told me…
About an hour later, my mom had arrived and joined John in the waiting room. My mom and husband were waiting when the doctor had come out, sat by them, and said that he doesn’t think that I’ll make it through the night and that he’ll keep me in his prayers. My husband and mom were so in shock. They were calling all the family members to get them in to say their goodbyes to me. My brothers were trying to drive up and fly in. The doctors didn’t know what I had — they thought Rocky Mountain Fever or a bug bite. My co-workers said I was on my period which made them look at it at a different way. I was in the ICU unit at one hospital when the new on call doctor came up to my husband and my mom and said that they need to transfer me to his other hospital he works at. They have a dialysis machine and that I need to get on it right now. At this point, my organs were starting to shut down and my body was starting to blow up. They transferred me to the other hospital via ambulance, which I don’t remember at all. At this hospital, I was in the ICU unit there for a week in a coma and with a breathing tube. I was on dialysis once a day and getting blood taking from me. My feet were starting to turn black and my hands were swelling up. The doctors said it was because my organs were shutting down and the hands and feet are the last things that they worry about. The first thing is to get my organs going. I was also bleeding from my eyes. They really didn’t know how serious this was till they saw me in the ICU. My family all came around and prayed for me. I was on so many prayers circles within my family, friends, dance community and their friends and families. My Grandma had a little prayer service for me in her own home. They didn’t want her to come and see me. They knew it would break her heart. My family had told me that I looked like a Sumo Wrestler. I had gained over 80 pounds from all the medicine. The doctor told my family about this $5,000 medicine that would help me fight this infection that was taking over my body. My family didn’t care about the money, they just wanted me get better. Within a couple of days of that medicine, my temp broke (on my mother’s birthday) and they felt I was starting to turn around.
It wasn’t until July 3rd, 2007 that I woke up. I remember my cousin Barb talking to me and telling me to wake up. She kept saying that if I wake up that they will take the breathing tube out. I finally woke up on July 3rd, 2007. I didn’t even realize how long I was out. I remembered looking at the date and saying that it was my niece’s birthday. They were so surprised that I remembered that from being in a coma for a week.
The one thing that I do remember is seeing my feet bandaged up. I was freaking out. I thought I would never walk again or better yet, dance again. Dancing had been my life since I was a little girl and the thought of never being able to do that again, I wanted to die. The let me see my feet and I just started to cry. They were all black, bloody, and swollen. They said that I could have lost my feet completely, but they were getting way better than they thought. For the next 12 days, they would come in and change the bandages as well as get me to start walking again. It was a long 12 days…there were some ups and downs and a huge struggle with learning how to do things again. Simple things like writing your name, getting dressed, walking, feeding yourself, folding clothes, etc… People were coming to see me and I didn’t know what I looked like until the day I saw my reflection in the mirror. It looked like I had a mask on my face. My eyes were sunken in and I had broken some blood vessels in my eyes. My hair was so thin and I just looked like someone else. It was heartbroken for me to see how this young person could have almost lost her life all from a Tampon…a new kind of tampon.
The day that I got to go home was July 15th, 2007. It was the first time that I got to walk out of the hospital, assisted with a cane, instead of being taken in by a gurney. My husband had to start changing the bandages, I couldn’t do much housework, I was completely helpless, and if you know who I am, that’s so not what I like to feel like. I usually am the one helping everyone and now I was the one that needed the help. When I went home, they wanted me to keep going to the doctor once a week till they were sure I was 100%. Every time I went to the doctor they would change their status on my feet. First it was the whole foot then just the toes, then just my big toes and finally it was the tip of my big toes. I had proven them all wrong. I came back saying that I was going to walk, dance and even leap again.
As days turned into weeks that turned into months, I had started losing my hair, my feet were starting to get a little better but I still had to use a cane and they had put me on mood stabilizers because they didn’t want me to have PTSD. I had to retrain my feet and started to wear hats. I was tempted to shave my hair off but was afraid it wouldn’t come back in. I started to be able to wear sneakers. Dance shoes were no longer in my bag. With all the damage to my feet, I figured I would never be able to wear dance shoes again. About 9 months after the whole incident, my hair grew back and came in super curly and I was back to my old personality. The only thing that was missing was the fact that I wasn’t able to leap, jump or dance like I used to. At least I still had both of my feet and I was able to still choreograph with the students knowing that I could only do things with just a gesture here or there. I had a huge support system from my family, friends and dance family. They were the ones that kept me going and kept me on the path of proving the doctors wrong.
About a year later, I actually got on a pair of tap shoes, even if it was only on for a few minutes. Then I started walking more, trying to build up my muscle back. By the start of the new dance season, I actually did my first leap in class. I stopped the class and about died. I never thought that I would be able to do that again. I say the power of prayer, love and God were the things that helped me get to that goal.
To this day, I no longer wear tampons. My infectious Doctor said that I could but it could only be for 5 minutes at a time or it could trigger it again. I don’t ever want to go through that again. I tell all my family members, friends and students that they really need to pay attention to the boxes, especially the labels. The one box of Sports tampons that I have, have different ingredients than the ones out now. If we are in class, I excuse them to change their tampon. I don’t want anyone else have to go through what I went through.
It has been five years since the last time that I used a tampon. I’m still teaching and starting to adapt to the way my feet are. I’m going to chiropractors whom are working miracles on them as well as my back. I also had a daughter in 2010, something that my husband and I didn’t think that we were able to have. She has been a miracle to us and I want to be the one to educate her and any other young woman out there. I’m so blessed to be here and to have a wonderful, loving support system. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of what happened and how my life could have gone. I’m truly blessed for all the 15 doctors I had as well as the ones that are still helping me now. I can’t thank everyone enough for being there for me, praying for me and helping my family when we needed you the most.
The pictures (at the beginning of this post) are the phases in my life…the first one is 6 months before…the next two are when I had TSS and didn't know it…the next two are of the hair loss as well as the cane that kids decorated for me…the next two are how the curls came in…the say the hair loss and the curls are the result from the shock to my body. And the last ones are of something that I never dreamed of having. We thought we couldn't have children…but God had a different plan. 🙂
Thank you again Michelle for letting me tell your story. Now, for all you readers out there, here are the possible signs and symptoms of toxic shock syndrome:
A sudden high fever
Low blood pressure (hypotension)
Vomiting or diarrhea
A rash resembling a sunburn, particularly on your palms and soles
Confusion
Muscle aches
Redness of your eyes, mouth and throat
Seizures
Headaches
Please take Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) seriously, and if you experience any of these symptoms while menstruating and using a tampon, please call your doctor! It could save your life!
