ICU and a problem with sedation

[MamaFern]

Hey there, I'm new here. My 35 year old son, healthy other than obesity, was in for a gastric sleeve surgery, which went mostly okay. (yeah "mostly" is not what we want to hear.) A second surgery on Sunday to correct a complication ended with son in the ICU on a ventilator because he just wasn't oxygenating well. he'd not been oxygenating well the day before the second surgery either.

I'm homebound due to disability. I finally got to visit him today, a friend was able to take me. I was... am... deeply distressed. I kept it locked down as the friend couldn't stay long, certainly not long enough to do anything about this, especially since I'm clueless as to where to start other than to make a lot of noise.

The nurses explained my son was on a couple of heavy sedatives (I'll say!) and that when they tried to dial them back, he became irritable, so "clearly he was in pain" so they had to "go back up" on the sedation. Apparently, he's in so much pain and so irritable, they had to put him in restraints. He made it very clear to me, shaking his head no, that he was not in pain. He wants to be off the sedation and taking part in the decisions about his medical care.

How do I help him get that? Please, any suggestions are helpful and welcome. Thank you.

Mama Fern

[Thepainterswife]

Sorry to hear you’re in such a distressing situation and sadly I can’t offer any real advice . The only thing I can say is that your son may well be very confused following anaesthesia and then sedation and so it may well be best to be guided by the physicians .If he’s struggling to breathe sedation should help with that . It must be so difficult for you but it is very early days so hopefully he’ll improve over the coming days and weeks 🙏