my husband had a heart attack at 35. He smoked,drank, and occasionally did drugs. he was put in a drug induced coma.

[tjtestes1]

He came out of the coma but has now not been able to sleep for over 50 hours. Is this withdraws or something different. He still has sort term and some long term memory loss. Thanks

[muncii]

I think you need to get some serious medical advice, about the short, and long, term. Suggest you write a list of questions you want to ask, and see the doctor in charge. Your husband may be advised to change his lifestyle in future.

[Offcut]

I was in ICU for 32 days 12 days in an induced coma. I had terrible short term memory problems to the degree I thought I was getting dementia.

I ironically cannot remember who told me but it seems to have been right for me. If you have been starved of oxygen then that can affect your memory and after 6 months what ever improvements you have that is the cut off point.

As for the sleeping It can be some time to get a pattern back to sleep. I have heart and lung problems with arthritis pain keeping me awake now but after getting back to my home it took some time to get a decent nights sleep.

Time is your biggest healer and a few lifestyle changes will help too!

Be Well

[AndJan]

Try not to be too concerned re sleeping,my husband didnt sleep very much at all during 3+ wks in CCU,and it took months for him return to a "normal " sleep pattern.Good advice to speak to a Consultant ,re memory,medication does odd things.Are you keeping a diary ? so important to trigger memories after he gets out of hospital,when he wants to fill in blank spaces.Also hope your husband has been given nicotine patches to help with withdrawall.Re smoking drinking and drugs,dont be too hard on him,he will feel bad enough !Keep strong x

[Kulta]

Hi, I too stayed awake for a long time because I was too scared to close my eyes again. His recollection of hospitalisation may miss pieces as the mind is kind to see us through trauma although we may like to complete the jigsaw.

Memory loss is commonplace. Nearly three years on my concentration and memory is not the same but I'm not sure it was ever brilliant. My hospitalisation was due to childbirth so perhaps it's just 'baby brain' too? All the best to you and your family x

[harvey8]

when you first come out of ICU there are so many thing that you cannot do that you begin to think that some of it may be permanent, when i was first out of hospital i could not put my glasses on with out help, i was not strong enough to take a paper hanky out of a box and i absolutely could not use my computer of my mobile phone also my eyes were not the same and so i could not read a magazine or book, i was so weak the I could not stand or walk without help but i persevered with the physio that i was given and bit by little bit i gained enough strength to go back to the gym just to do 5 mins at a time but it has taken over a year to be able to do all these things and even now after 14 months i am still a little tired, i also did not sleep properly for ages and i used to get in a panic at bedtime but that also got better so you see that these things take a long time to get back to some sort of normal, i dont know if the hospital that he was in offer an aftercare service mine certainly did and that helped a lot they also help the family, it would be worth getting in touch with the ICU department to see if this can be arranged also we found the book from icusteps invaluable there are a lot of answers in there and if they dont have it at your hospital you can order one from icusteps.org

hope all go's well and all is soon back to normal x