Do you know what Sepsis is?
It is a state when the body cannot cope with the illness and several symptoms begin to develop.
From Healthline:
One or more symptoms may indicate sepsis, and if the patient is vulnerable i.e. a baby, child or elderly speak to your GP immediately or go to A&E. If the patient is adult or yourself then check with 111 on what to do.
The symptoms are:
patches of discolored skin.
decreased urination.
changes in mental ability.
low platelet (blood clotting cells) count.
problems breathing.
abnormal heart functions.
chills due to fall in body temperature.
unconsciousness.
My experience of this is with my grandchild and we did take him to the GP several times but the GP refused to listen. When I pointed out his low temperature I was told it was fine at 35.1 c, when I pointed out his mottled patchy skin, I was told we don’t take any notice of that. 6 visits later with a crying, coughing baby who was off his food and the GP finally agreed to a longer course of antibiotics.
The concern of the GPs is the use of antibiotics. The GPs are so frightened about using them, if they do prescribe they prescribe shorter courses which is now 5 days. The thinking is that the bacteria is killed by the antibiotics within 3 days and another two days makes certain.
In my day this wasn’t the case, the course was always 7 days sometimes 14. I can remember friends worrying about their sick child saying that the antibiotics didn’t work, I said: Did you finish the course? They said: No. I said you need to finish the course because it kills the bug off completely; if you don’t the bug grows back stronger.
The bug grows back stronger because it has a ‘clean slate’ to breed from. Good bacteria keeps the bad bacteria in check but antibiotics kill good and bad bacteria. Therefore antibiotics weaken the protection of the good bacteria and the bad bacteria not completely killed can breed again.
The Duke University Medical Centre discovered that the gut becomes proliferate with good bacteria after a bout of diarrhoea when the gut had been completely emptied. They feel that the immune system cells found in the appendix and gut is to protect the good bacteria and allow it to grow.
The new thinking about the length of a course of antibiotics does not make any sense whatsoever. What is happening is that the shorter courses are not killing off the bug completely and because the course ends sooner, the bug grows back even stronger as was the case with my grandson.
With cancer treatment, chemotherapy – a cocktail of drugs, kills the cancer. The drugs are not very good for the rest of the body either. But the point with this argument is that the chemotherapy is extremely powerful to kill the cancer.
If antibiotics are going to be used, then enough needs to be used to totally see the infection out.
But maybe we need to go back to old-fashioned practices.
In Florence Nightingale’s time the way to nurse and inhibit infection was with barrier nursing and the three Bs – Burn, Boil or Bleach. Bedding and even mattresses were burnt to thwart reinfecting anyone after the patient was well and allowed out of the sick room. Clothes were boiled and floors and beds were bleached.
Barrier nursing is wearing aprons, gloves and masks that are removed and burnt after leaving the sick room. The patient was confined to the sick room and no visitors were allowed.
We need to rethink our nursing, caring and hygiene practices.
Signs and symptoms of hypothermia
HANDi Paediatric app by NHS Taunton and Somerset The GPs need to learn everything that is on this app. Funnily enough a GP recommended it to me and if only the GPs we saw had been trained with the same information as the app, my grandson would have been treated sooner.