lcu delirium.

[kefalonia1]

To anyone who has suffered or is still suffering from flashbacks of horrendous hallucinations post lcu induced coma as l was, or just time spent there, l found a video on youtube. lt's called AFTER THE ICU BY NANCY ANDREWS, TEDX. l am now 2 years post AVR on the 6th Feb but l remember dreading this second op 5 weeks after the first which failed five weeks earlier because of the terrible vivid visions due to the drugs. lt took me 18 months to banish these flashbacks from my brain because they were so real, hundreds of them including one nurse who l was convinced was a robot trying to kill me with a lethal injection into my canula. This video helped me make sense of it all so much. l hope it will also help others who have or are still experiencing this in silence. Take care, Sue.

[Prada47]

Good Morning

I was OK in ICU but, one guy was screaming they wanted to murder him, by drowning him in chocolate !! He told me after he thought it was pouring through the roof vents and he was screaming for the Nurse to turn it off.

Regards

[kefalonia1 in reply to Prada47]

Hi, lucky him only having to drown in chocolate. One of my worst ones was in an Olympic sized swimming full of poo, myself and loads of African slaves and chiefs had to dance in the poo all night in order to survive, but we did. ln the morning when l awoke l was exhausted but l didn't tell anyone. Thanks for your reply, Sue.

[Recoder_Bill]

Hi Kefalonia1,

Oh yes, I’ve had hallucinations.

I’ve had a number of serious and not so serious ops and varying bouts of hallucination. Mainly they’ve been benign but the first bout I had in 1995 was similar to yours in that I was convinced the nurses were robots and that we were all being milked of our fluids for some unknowable reason.

I lost all contact with reality. My bed allowed me to look into the widow of the building next door where I, in my hallucinatory state, could see rows of beds with people in them and “nurses” moving between the beds tending them. It was only when one day I could see there were trees outside and just desks with computers on them in the building opposite that I realised I was back in the real world, very scary at the time.

I think in my case it was fuelled by the fact that it was very quiet, except for the noise of the machines, there was subdued lighting and that the nurses on the whole were quite short so I couldn’t see their legs and they seemed to just glide between beds.

On one of the other occasions I thought that the various pieces of equipment in the ICU were singing to each other and playing a sort of concerto, I am slightly musically orientated. I had that “music” going on in my head for months afterward. So much so that I got my partner to write it down as I hummed it to her. I was going to try to work it up into a small piece and orchestrate it but we lost the notes and now, some years later, the “music” has stopped. I was going to call it “Bed23 Cheltenham CCU”.

Regards, Phil

[kefalonia1 in reply to Recoder_Bill]

What a great reply mate, nice to know it wasn't only me having these episodes l had plenty of time for them to play on my brain being in hospital for three months and close to death twice but now l can see the funny side of some of them and wonder what my family and friends thought, truthfully they thought l was insane for a while. l wonder where this robot thing comes from? that nurse had a lucky escape with me because l saw on tv if you bite a robot they don't bleed proving you right, l was close to doing that but stopped myself. lf your music returns and you write it down we will all download it !!! Take care, Sue

[Love100cats]

My husband told me there was a theatre above the ward and the man in the next bed was an actor and that the nurses were bringing in children and babies. It's hard to keep a straight face but you do because you know it's medication. On another occasion he started screaming at a male nurse because he thought he was a plumber going to inject him. Problem is you remember clearly afterwards.🤔

[kefalonia1]

That's the problem you do remember clearly afterwards, you are in a unfamiliar place trying to balance fantasy and reality, completely out of your comfort zone. l too was an actor in my mind one week and told my lcu nurses l was an extra on " Casualty" playing a intensive care patient who had just had open heart surgery and the pay was very good. Also the nurses took me home to their houses every night so l didn't get bored and they all lived beside water, how l thought this was manageable when l couldn't walk l don't know but morphine is a narcotic so it makes sense. Take care, Sue.

[thetidders]

I had many of them whilst I was in Critical Care due to an electrolyte imbalance following a triple bypass. They were all to do with the ward & staff & were so vivid I honestly thought they were all true.

What was interesting was the minute I was transferred from CCU to another ward they stopped.

6 months after discharge, I was invited back for a chat with one of the senior nurses to talk about my time on CCU together with my husband & daughter. Everyone who has been on CCU is invited to an an appointment if they want to attend. I was offered the chance to go back onto the Unit & see the bed I was in. It was nothing like I remembered, the surroundings appeared totally different.

Jean

[Philippa_BHF]

I just wanted to thank you all for your posts on this topic. Having nursed many people in ITU and high dependency areas after heart surgery appreciate it must be a very alarming and personal situation for you. I have also met people who have really struggled to come to terms with the things they have seen which no one else has! A combination of many things including anaesthetic, powerful pain killers, beeping machinery and sleeplessness can have a real knock on effect. In the cardiac rehab capacity it was a topic I regularly heard being talked about too, so if it left you feeling isolated in the days after your surgery, you know you're not alone!

Take Care,

Philippa

[Handel]

Afraid my husband didn't see anything other than ants and cockroaches crawling up the walls and across the ceiling. The nurses were marvellous though and brought him down from the anxiety he was feeling.

I think morphine together with codeine may have been the culprit.

Philippa must be one of those angels.

Good luck. xxxx