Saving Jessica

PAULA HULBURT

Jessica Simmons is adapting to life after a recent amputation.

When Jessica Simmons made the difficult decision to have her lower right leg amputated, it changed her life forever. She tells Paula Hulburt why she made the right choice and how she’s rebuilding her life after surgery.

The dull ache in her ankle disturbed her dreams and roused her from her sleep.

Waking in the half light of early morning, Jessica, 32, reached for her lamp before the truth hit; her ankle couldn’t possibly hurt, it was no longer there. Her heart beat a hurried tattoo of alarm before she carefully slowed her breathing and lay back down.

After the amputation of her lower right leg, surgeons had warned her about phantom feelings in the limb that had gone. She recalls brushing their concerns aside. “I didn’t think much of it to be honest but it’s true. It’s a very weird feeling and I guess it’s just going to take time for my brain to catch up with reality,” she explains. It is a bright sunny Marlborough morning and Jessica is all smiles as she uses a wheeled chair to move around the kitchen making breakfast. Back in Blenheim after 26 nights in hospital, Jessica is delighted to be home. “I cooked tea properly the other night so I’m feeling particularly proud of myself,” she explains as she grabs a small plate.

The hem of her floral dress flips as Jessica swivels to and fro. With her auburn hair sitting in a top knot and colour in her cheeks Jessica looks happy and healthy and, in the main, she is. A thick, white bandage is wrapped carefully around her knee, the only visible indication of the huge surgery she underwent in January. After three bouts of the potentially life-threatening blood infection septicaemia followed by sepsis Jessica has endured much but remains strong and optimistic about her future. She hopes that by highlighting the symptoms of the dangerous condition, she can help others get help sooner. Septicaemia is when a bacterial infection enters the bloodstream. It is dangerous because the bacteria and their toxins can be carried through the body causing sepsis, the body’s immune response to infection.

The orthopaedic register came in half an hour after the scan and said they would have to amputate. My mum wasn’t with me yet, so I just said ‘no.’ I told her not to talk to me about it again until my mum arrived. I wasn’t ready to hear it.

“It happened really fast. My foot just started swelling up and was really painful, especially considering as I had little feeling in my feet anyway. “I felt absolutely awful, my temp was more than 39 degrees and I kept vomiting.” Each admission to hospital meant intravenous antibiotics and surgery as surgeons cleaned out her badly infected foot. Each time, the infection flared up again, each time Jessica remained stoical and brave. Admitted to Wairau Hospital for a third time on New Year’s Eve, Jessica says she had been hopeful the infected foot was starting to heal. “I’d felt a bit funny the day before, but I thought the foot was looking good. The ulcer on the bottom was greatly healed. “It got to the point where I really thought I was on the homeward stretch,” she remembers with a small sigh. Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when she was 20 years old, Jessica also suffered with Charcot foot, a rare condition that affects the bones, joints, and soft tissues of the foot or ankle.

A padded moon boot she was given to wear rubbed, causing a blister which made an existing ulcer worse, ultimately leading to the amputation. At its worse, the pocket of infection in her foot measured 2cm wide by 4cm deep. Doctors had fought hard to clear the poison, packing the cavity with antibiotics and foam so it could heal from the inside out.

“The foot just ballooned and blood tests showed my infection markers were going up every day. I was airlifted to Nelson and had hardly landed on the tarmac when I had an MRI. There was no mucking around. The MRI results were not so great, there were pockets of infection everywhere.” Jessica pauses here, her gaze drifting to where her lower leg had been. There are moments when the enormity of what she has been through catch her by surprise.

PHOTO SUPPLIED

Type 2 diabetes and a diagnosis of Charcot foot meant Jessica’s foot got badly infected.

“The orthopaedic register came in half an hour after the scan and said they would have to amputate. My mum wasn’t with me yet, so I just said ‘no.’ I told her not to talk to me about it again until my mum arrived. I wasn’t ready to hear it. She arrived and I was crying, mum was crying and the registrar was trying to talk to us but we weren’t really listening,” Jessica explains. The distraught pair asked for more information and another opinion. The head of department spent time talking Jessica through her options, one of which included further surgery but with no guarantees. “There was only a five percent chance that I would have a healthy, functioning foot and I knew I just couldn’t keep doing all the surgeries. I knew there was a chance if I waited that I’d have to have an above knee amputation. It was a really big decision and a hard one but I knew what I had to do. I hadn’t really thought about the after, just the now because it was making me so sick.” Eyelids heavy with the groggy sleep of anaesthesia, the former Early Childhood Education teacher says she felt happy when first coming around after surgery. “I was quite bright, it was good to know it had been done, I was fine with it and it certainly helped that it had been my decision.” But just days later, reality arrived, hitting Jessica hard. “I didn’t take long and my little pity party was over,” she smiles. Her strength in the face of so much adversity is inspirational yet she is quick to downplay her achievement.

“I just got on with it,” she explains. An assortment of pills sit on a table next to where Jessica has quickly manoeuvred herself on to the couch. She has adapted well to her new normal. Jessica’s thoughts are firmly on her future now, a future she is determined will be as bright as possible. An ECC teacher for seven years, she has been studying online through Open Polytechnic for her Early Childhood Teaching degree. Once she is well enough to do the practical side of the course, she hopes to return to work. In the meantime, her sights are set on getting her prosthesis fitted in Wellington in three to four weeks’ time. While Nelson Marlborough Health will pay for her travel costs, she will face paying most of her accommodation costs. She also has her heart set on a mobility scooter. “It’s got to look cool,” she laughs. “I know I made the right choice. I feel much more like myself; I feel pretty much like me again and there’s no keeping me down.”

To keep up to date with Jessica’s journey and to make a donation visit givealittle.co.nz/cause/ please-support-my-amputation.