Mum officially died for a second...
But this week, we are celebrating her 77th birthday.
Menstrual Toxic Shock Syndrome (mTSS) is a rare but serious bacterial infection that can be (but not always) caused by tampons.
In the 30 years since Mum's dalliance with death, it's very rare that anyone knows what I'm talking about when I mention mTSS.
So this week, to celebrate Mum's badass strength and victory over an illness that very nearly killed her...
⚠️ I'm bringing a little mTSS awareness.
When I was 9, I woke up to a strangely empty house. Running downstairs, something felt different. I stopped when I saw my next-door neighbour in the kitchen.
She said, "Mummy's been taken to the hospital during the night."
Everything in my little 9-year-old body froze. Overnight, my sense of safety and security was ripped away, and somewhere in my little brain, that meant the end of all things.
After having me and my brother, her periods had become a bit irregular; she’d used a super tampon, but it was too absorbent for her flow.
Taking it out to change it caused microscopic tears in the vaginal walls, opening the doors for a Staphylococcus infection to enter her bloodstream and ravage her system.
By the tail end of her period, she became so unwell, she’d forgotten she still had the last tampon in.
Dad called the GP that day at 2.30 pm to make a house visit.
It wasn't until the THIRD call to the GP (who was playing golf!) that he came... and then decided to admit her to the hospital at 11.30 pm that night.
Within 48 hours, the damage was done.
You see, some of the symptoms are...
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Rash
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Fever
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Nausea
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Vomiting
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Diarrhoea
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Confusion
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Headache
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Muscle aches
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Sore throat or problem swallowing
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Redness of eyes, mouth, and throat
The same symptoms that a feverish bug may cause!
It was a few days before we were allowed to see her.
I remember her being unrecognisable; tubes were coming from everywhere.
I remember the beeps of a life support machine that haunt me to this day, and a very frail, pale body in the bed that looked nothing like my Mum.
She had 5 emergency ops to find the source of the infection and 3 cardiac arrests.
👉 She was in a coma for 2 weeks.
👉 She went into kidney failure.
👉 She lost her hair, and her nails started to fall out.
👉 And stayed in the hospital for 2 more weeks to recover.
Mum spent a month in intensive care, and Dad sat with her day and night.
We went from friends to family and back again while he tried to juggle everything.
Dad got really good at doing pigtails.
And our lives were never the same again.
The trauma of it still lives with me and my family.
If you have never heard of mTSS, please educate yourself a little more.
Talk to friends and family and make them aware of the dangers, too.
Let's END the silence and shame around periods and menstrual health.
Have you heard of mTSS?