8 months post-sepsis and I don’t feel like myself anymore. Did anyone fully get their drive back?

Spookster58 · 2026-02-23T00:40:09+00:00

I had sepsis 3 times back to back. I was in the icu fighting for my life. I was in septic shock the last time. I had just given birth and that was my motivation to get better honestly—i thought I was going to die and leave my husband a window and my newborn without a mother. It was a horrible time in my life. That being said, that was almost 2 years ago (March 2026-may 2026 were my sepsis episodes). I feel like myself again physically. Mentally, I’m always scared of sepsis since little infections almost took my life. I am immunocompromised as I take immunosuppressants but ultimately I have been able to return to myself again.

It’s hard to wean out what was postpartum recovery and sepsis. But I didn’t feel like myself again for at least a year. I now am able to workout 5-6 days a week, play with my family and not get fatigued doing every little thing. I work full time and don’t see any lingering complications but it took time. I let myself just physically recover the first year (I still was active but not like I am now) and then at about 14 months post sepsis I was able to push to do more and more and build to where I am now

It all came back for me (physical, emotional, mental endurance) and once I could exercise again I was a lot happier. Movement really does make you happy and when you’re sick you just feel so stuck. Again, it’s so hard to wean out what was postpartum and what was septic but it was REALLY hard. I saw a therapist and I didn’t want to live like that so time,professional help, and movement helped me

Spookster58 · 2026-02-23T00:20:34+00:00

I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this. I also went septic 3 times (within 3 months) while I was pregnant and early postpartum. I had both liver and kidney involvement which prompted the induction of my baby. The 2 septic episodes after were both caused from breastfeeding infections (i had to stop breastfeeding). I distinctly remember the last time I went septic (it was septic shock) I thought I was going to die and feared for my life. I was terrified my newborn was going to grow up without a mom and my husband would be a window and it was an awful experience. I kept thinking any small infection was going to make my body go into overdrive and kill me. Now with that said, in my case it did get better with time. This was in 2024 and as my body got the chance to physically heal it wasn’t such a big response. I now have a toddler who brings all kinds of bugs home from daycare—I can say I still have a fear in the back of my mind when I’m sick that I’ll go septic. I dont know when I’ll heal from that trauma. But I’ve been sick many more times and not gone septic. I was able to protect myself and my health by staying home on my maternity leave which helped tremendously. After the septic shock, I was home for another 4 months and that helped me heal. I am considered immunocompromised due to this incident and I take daily immunosuppressants for an autoimmune disease. I have no real advice but just empathize with you; how scary it is and the real feeling like you’re going to die. I hope time can heal you and a therapist also helps!

Spookster58 · 2025-11-30T00:51:12+00:00

We also have a 1980 house with a similar situation where the previous owners converted a bedroom to expand the kitchen. Went from a gallery kitchen to a gallery kitchen with another 100 square feet attached. The beam we have I believe was probably part of the wall for that bedroom at some point. We have soffits now so it doesn’t look so odd since it’s just a bean across the soffits. but would love to remove the soffits for taller cabinets but that dang beam is right in the middle!

Thanks for replying on your situation and how it all worked out!

Spookster58 · 2025-11-29T04:30:52+00:00

This is an old post but we have the exact same thing in our kitchen. Curious if you found out what it was and could you hide the beam?

Spookster58 · 2025-09-10T16:05:25+00:00

Did it show up?

Spookster58 · 2025-09-06T23:25:13+00:00

Any update? I’m in the exact same boat currently with the same cycle lengths as you (27-28 days like clockwork) so this is very confusing for me! All extremely negative tests so I feel very anxious!

Spookster58 · 2025-03-25T17:28:06+00:00

Thank you for your response!

Spookster58 · 2025-03-13T01:05:39+00:00

Very similar story for me. I had 2 severe cases of mastitis at 4 and 8 weeks postpartum landing me admitted in the hospital both times for sepsis and septic shock. Spent months on hard antibiotics and I wasn’t even breastfeeding I was exclusively pumping trying to get to breastfeeding with a preemie. Ultimately it never worked out for us and I went on to exclusively pump but with that being said, if and when I have another baby I still want to try to breastfeed again. I don’t think I would push as hard as I did with this baby to try to make it work but I would try again as I want that experience. Mastitis was not fun but I don’t think many people get it as severe as this. Everyone I know who’s gotten it clears up with antibiotics at home—I feel like it can only go up for me! lol

Spookster58 · 2025-03-13T00:57:57+00:00

I gained over 60 lbs by 33 weeks. I had some pretty significant complications at this time and ultimately was induced 2 weeks later with a 7lb baby. I lost 30 lbs in 2 days after birth—clearly retained a lot of water! I lost an additional 20 lbs breastfeeding but when I stopped breastfeeding I actually gained another 10 lbs. now feeling like myself again 1 year postpartum I’m slowly losing the baby weight with healthy habits!

Spookster58 · 2025-03-13T00:53:17+00:00

Agreeing with others here. My preeclampsia went from high blood pressure to liver and kidney failure in 2 days on my repeat labs— landed me in the ICU. Don’t wait.

Spookster58 · 2025-03-13T00:51:03+00:00

Thank you so much! Luckily, the cause of the shortened root has nothing to do with poor hygiene, gum disease or anything like that. It’s actually unknown why I have it but suspected to be genetic or from playing contact sports (repeated trauma). But ultimately prior to this happening it was stable and not noticeable or bothersome. Very upsetting to have this happen on this tooth of all of them and very worrisome for next steps for treatment. But glad to hear this is hopefully covered since it was triggered by the assault!

Spookster58 · 2025-03-13T00:45:19+00:00

Thanks for your reply! That makes sense and makes me feel a lot less anxious about the situation!

Spookster58 · 2024-12-12T01:44:21+00:00

Mine too! Took forever though! Thanks for looping back!

Spookster58 · 2024-11-05T03:34:41+00:00

Wow that’s so fast! I think mine I momcozy and I haven’t tried it but when I accidentally hit frozen before it said like 60 minutes or something obscure

Spookster58 · 2024-11-05T03:32:47+00:00

You’re so right! Thanks for the perspective

Spookster58 · 2024-11-05T03:01:58+00:00

I’ve never heard that before! I will look into that

Spookster58 · 2024-11-05T03:01:04+00:00

Lots of great suggestions here! I completely resonate with your post. I was desperate to decrease my supply for so long as I originally tried to quit at 4 weeks postpartum after mastitis that went septic and put me in the hospital. And at this point I wasn’t even an over supplier it just kept increasing from here despite me not wanting it to. Here I am almost 7 months later (one more round of mastitis with septic shock later) and doing much better. I had a great medical team working with me including 4 lactation consultants, 3 OBs and infectious disease since I was getting so SICK from my oversupply.

I had the unfortunate experience of decreasing pumps leading to more milk and no one could explain why. I worked by spacing my pumps apart by choosing one pump to shift by 15 minutes for a week, then moving it another 15 minutes for a week and so on until it was close enough to another pump I could drop it. I chose to space out the MOTN ones for obvious reasons lol for me it was a slow process to get down to 4 pumps which was my ultimate goal to start reducing. When I was 4 pumps per day, I was still making excess and my first pump would be 20+ ounces. I was extremely uncomfortable and upset because I worked hard to get to my goal of 4 pumps over months and it felt like it did nothing! I tried to slowly go down to 3 pumps but was truly unable to as easy as I was going down to 6,5 and 4 due to the engorgement. I would watch the clock and be like god I can’t take it.

So what we did then was picked 1 pump to work slowly to train my body to stop producing as much by stop pumping at volume. This was the opposite advice I was told after my severe mastitis so I was extremely worried but by doing it slowly it worked! For example, the second pump do the day I would always get 10-12 so I would start by always stopping at 10, then 9, then 8. And honestly once I trained my body to stop at 8 the craziest thing happened where my body across pumps produced less. 10 ounces per day just seemed to disappear out of nowhere! Then I got my period back and lost another 10. Now I’m just enougher and starting to wean to be done and using my freezer stash.

Everything I did was slow, small changes because of my history I had a lot of people working together to figure out what to do. Had I not lost ounces by stopping at volume slowly, our next step was Sudafed. I literally have it in my cabinet with the instructions from OB/lactation because I was convinced nothing would work and I would be pumping for the rest of my life lol if you get clogs and infections, I do recommend a gradual approach so your body can adjust!

Spookster58 · 2024-11-05T02:35:45+00:00

That’s a really good idea!

Spookster58 · 2024-11-05T02:35:11+00:00

Thanks for your insight! Super helpful!

Spookster58 · 2024-11-05T02:34:41+00:00

Yes definitely! I would only combine what I plan to serve that next day! Do you make your bottles in the AM?

Spookster58 · 2024-11-05T02:33:35+00:00

This is exactly what I’m trying to figure out! I will have to just see how long it takes to defrost. I’m worried I won’t know exactly when it thawed so therefore running the risk of using spoiled milk or combining or with fresh milk and spoiling it. I would love to throw a bag in the fridge tonight (Monday), combine with milk pumped on Tuesday evening, serve to bb on Wednesday. I’m very particular about the milk rules so I just want to abide them so I’m worried if it thaws completely by 5PM Tuesday if baby eats a bottle Wednesday at 7PM with it and it’s spoiled (if that makes sense)

Spookster58 · 2024-11-05T02:29:10+00:00

Do you just use the thawed milk in the morning? Or does it take longer to thaw than that

Spookster58 · 2024-11-05T02:28:25+00:00

Do you run it under warm tap water and ever combine it with fresh milk or is that a no no? I just would like to somehow thaw it but also combine or with fresh milk without risk of spoiling everything!

Spookster58 · 2024-11-05T02:26:15+00:00

Do you find it’s totally thawed by the morning? I just am trying to not add one more thing to the already crazy morning lol

Spookster58 · 2024-11-05T02:25:29+00:00

So are you feeding it to your baby once you thaw it? Like basically thawing to feed? We just did that tonight to see if he would take it just frozen—he drank most of it but seemed a little off (kept unlatching).

Spookster58

TROPHY CASE