Woman Tells Her Story After Wedgie Chafing Sparks Life-Threatening Illness

Published October 4, 2021

One of the scariest things about life is how unpredictable it is and to get a sense of that, we need look no further than our own bodies.

And that's because we never truly know what's going on under the hood. Part of that has to do with the fact that some of the biggest health emergencies we go through in life have the subtlest warning signs.

But sometimes, there aren't any ways of knowing our bodies' secrets or predicting how they'll react to a given situation. I had a friend back in high school who only knew that he had absorbed a twin in the womb when the remnants became infected and threatened his life.

And while one woman's story didn't start with such a dramatic revelation, she was nonetheless blindsided by a similarly frightening situation.

Over three years ago, a North Carolina woman named Sam went on a full-day date with the man who is now her boyfriend.

TikTok | @imtoooldtobeonthis

In a video posted to TikTok, she said she had purchased the jean shorts you see here that were very popular at the time to look good on this date.

But in addition to being very expensive, these shorts were uncomfortable and kept making her underwear bunch up, which gave her a stubborn wedgie.

And while she picked it throughout the day, it nonetheless left her feeling sore for multiple days.

When this persisted, she went to her doctor and received antibiotics for her unfortunately-placed skin infection.

TikTok | @imtoooldtobeonthis

However, this would turn out to be too little, too late as her discomfort only got worse the following day.

As she described in her original video on the subject, "Can't walk so go to ER and insist I'm in the worst stabbing pain."

And as the caption we see here reveals, this was because her wedgie had given her a skin infection called cellulitis, which triggered a life-threatening response from her body known as sepsis.

This meant that she would need to spend a week in the ICU.

TikTok | @imtoooldtobeonthis

And while she seemed a little embarrassed by the fact that she had to keep showing doctors her buttocks while this was going on, Sam was far more concerned by the fact that they were debating debridement surgery for her.

If this term sounds unfamiliar, she told Buzzfeed that this would have involved surgically removing the infected part of her butt.

Fortunately, we can see in the caption above that this turned out not to be necessary and she was able to recover.

And while Sam told Buzzfeed that the infection returned a month later, it was more easily treated with antibiotics that time.

She also said in a follow-up video that while she had only known her date for two weeks by that point, he had remained very sweet and supportive while she was in the hospital.

As a result, she now considers her relationship with him one of the only good things to come out of that situation.

h/t: Buzzfeed

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