Support Groups In The Midlands: Hi all. My partner... - ICUsteps

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Support Groups In The Midlands

tm1995 profile image
19 Replies

Hi all.

My partner was in a coma for around five days around six months ago and although he is recovering fantastically and is back at work and doing so so well he has expressed interest in wanting to talk to someone who knows what it's like as ultimately I can't understand. Unfortunately all the support groups in our area seem to run during the week in working hours and he isn't able to take time off for them? He also has an issue with the activities as he really would just like a chat I think with people who have been through similar things. We actually live near Birmingham so if any one knows of any kind of groups it would be much appreciated.

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tm1995 profile image
tm1995
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Offcut

icusteps.org/support

Coventry is the closest it seems as even though the size of brum is so much bigger.

I am more than happy to have a chat I live in Coventry. I was in ICU in 2008 but still have vivid memories. I was 32 days in ICU and 12 days of that in a coma!

Be Well

tm1995 profile image
tm1995 in reply to Offcut

Thank you! I will talk to him and see if he would like to look into it. And thank you for the offer again I will show him your message and see how he wants me to go on.

Thank you

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Offcut in reply to tm1995

No Problem. ICU can make you go to very strange places in body and mind. But PMA is the way forward.

comadreams profile image
comadreams in reply to Offcut

PMA?

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Offcut in reply to comadreams

Positive Mental Attitude :)

comadreams profile image
comadreams in reply to Offcut

Absolutely :)

comadreams profile image
comadreams in reply to Offcut

You were in a coma 12 days in 2008 and still remember the coma dreams?

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Offcut in reply to comadreams

Yes still remember them. the strange thing was I could describe some of the nurses in there while in a coma including the entrance I was taken into when they moved from my original hospital and then back. I was in a coma that whole time in that hospital. I had the ward sister call me in for a chat over what went on and she was surprised with the detail I gave of the Chinese nurses they had in there at that time and the entrance. ( The hospital had just been opened a few days and I had never been to it before)

The stangest thing that kept repeating was little people go karting on the car park? The list goes on. I have now figured out some of them but not all.

The first thing I asked was what country was I in? I was all over the world but mainly in Asia which I think was influenced by the nurses I picked up in my head in the ICU ward?

comadreams profile image
comadreams in reply to Offcut

Hello, from my limited research the sense of having been taken to a different country is a recurring theme with coma delusions, that and the belief that they've been abducted and held against their will by some mysterious agency, CIA, MI6, ET's or something of the sort. One chap I met was old enough to remember WW2 and was sure he was being held captive by the Japanese. I thought I was being treated by the world's top spinal injury doctor… in Nth Korea! I've traveled the world but never went to Korea, Thailand once, Singapore and Hong Kong a couple of times but never Korea. The doctor's clinic was shaped like a metal beer barrel lying on it's side at the top of a huge, black, volcanic cliff. The clinic had been paid for by Barack Obama as some sort of peace gesture. The parkland around the clinic was an elephant sanctuary where the elephants were painted all over with white writing in a text I didn't recognize and they all wore those little white hats that Muslim men wear. An element from the real life ICU that transferred to the dreams was those blue curtains around the beds that seemed to be constantly opening and closing.

I'm still very curious about and yet to entirely define the types of drugs used to achieve that deep coma state. Fentanyl and morphine are for sure on the list but there are others.

After being discharged and looking back, remembering the dreams, I had, and still do, the impression that they weren't entirely fantasms and that on occasion I somehow slipped sideways into another dimension as solid as this one.

Like you I could go on and on and that might be a bit boring for this group, if you'd like to exchange and compare notes my e-mail is akenaten2016dj@gmail.com.

That invitation goes to anyone here that wants to discuss coma dreams.

Best Wishes,

David.

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Offcut in reply to comadreams

healthunlocked.com/icusteps...

This is my post of my experience

comadreams profile image
comadreams in reply to Offcut

What an extraordinary experience! Your physical issues seem to have been way worse than mine, and amazing that you've survived, but I was in coma a lot longer. My jaw dropped when I read the word Korea! Korea? Me too. What is it with Korea? Did you get that sense of having moved between two dimensions? Or being stuck between two? Clearly this dimension still has plans for you.

Best Wishes,

David.

Aliso profile image
Aliso in reply to comadreams

Amazing how foreign places appear in the coma dreams they did in mine too as well as some very weird things like my husband & son visiting by a car in the sky ! I could go on & on . I was in ICU & a coma for about 3 weeks after a botched operation that left me with Septicaemia,Peritonitis,EColi & an ileostomy bag which has since been reversed . My spell in a coma was in Jan 2010 but it still haunts me & glad to hear I am not the only one who years later are still suffering .

comadreams profile image
comadreams in reply to Aliso

There's little or no research being done into the after effects caused by deep anesthesia. Some I've had contact with describe symptoms similar to PTSD and yet the medics concern themselves only with achieving physical wellness and when they think that has been achieved the patient is left to deal with psychological impact caused not by the illness but by the treatment.

I've discovered that the principal drug used to induce coma is fentanyl plus morphine plus others I so far can't track down. In one article even ketamine was mentioned. When I mentioned this to my GP she was appalled, "Oh, I'm sure they wouldn't use ketamine.", I'm not so sure. They're all psychedelic or psychoactive substances that can take the patient into some very strange hallucinations that are mostly unexplained or just dismissed as fantasy. Don't worry, it was all just a dream.

There is no standard psychological follow up, no counciling for post coma people and there should be.

Mrs_Cooper profile image
Mrs_Cooper in reply to Offcut

Hi, after my husband told me of the bizarre and sometimes frightening dreams he had during his 2 week coma last year, I decided to collect as many as I could for a book.

Do you have any that you would like to share? Or know anyone that might?

Contact me here.

facebook.com/killingmarmalade

Thank you

Charlotte

comadreams profile image
comadreams

Hello, I'm in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, close to Ironbridge. I haven't found any active groups close to me either. I understand about he just wants to chat, me too. I was in an induced coma for five weeks last year, almost a year ago now. I'm happy to chat with anyone who has had a similar experience especially with regard to coma dreams, hallucinations, (whatever we're going to call them) they had while sedated. Also I've been trying to find anesthetists to ask about the drugs used, (fentanyl and morphine are the two main ones but I've also seen ketamin mentioned), and ask if there's any research anywhere into the psychedelic, delusional and psychological effects generated by induced coma. I'm 70 and retired so can take a phone call any reasonable time of day. 01952 728513. Best Wishes, David.

Luckyone profile image
Luckyone in reply to comadreams

Hi David,

If you contact the PAL office at the hospital you can get a copy of all your notes for a maximum of £50 or I believe you can arrange to look at them and have someone explain the parts you don't understand, I spent 3 months in ICU with most of the first two in an induced coma just over 6 years ago and can remember the nightmares & bizarre hallucinations like it was yesterday, even believing I done a deal with the Grim Reaper that sadly came true. I think the reality of that time was far worse for my wife & family being told to say goodbye on several occasions, still leaves me full of guilt even though everything was out of my control, it always used to amuse me to see my notes at follow up clinics as the folder is about 8 inches thick, one of the reasons I've never read them, the other is my niece was an ICU nurse in the same unit and had read some of it and told me some time after discharge that I should have never made it to hospital as my sats were so bad, but miracles happen and I'm still here to tell the tale.

Bill

comadreams profile image
comadreams in reply to Luckyone

I did a deal with the Reaper too, in the dream, or tried to, he didn't want me but then I was being cremated and I said, "But I can't feel anything!", and his voice said, "Of course not, you're dead.", and then I woke up in a different hospital that was designed by MC Escher where nurses walked sideways out of the walls and I was having major vertigo while only two feet from the floor. The blue hospital curtains defied gravity and went up and down as well as side to side. I could go on… and on. Congratulations on being still here. :)

Best Wishes

David.

carolinehill profile image
carolinehill

Hi, I help to run the ICUsteps support group in Coventry - you'd be very welcome to come along to our drop-in sessions, the next one is on Thurs 27th April from 6.30pm. There are always people there who are recovering from experiences very similar to your partners, who will understand exactly what you are both going through. If you need any more info, do get in touch with us via the ICUsteps website.

Caroline

Mrs_Cooper profile image
Mrs_Cooper

Hi, after my husband told me of the bizarre and sometimes frightening dreams he had during his 2 week coma last year, I decided to collect as many as I could for a book.

Do you have any that you would like to share? Or know anyone that might?

Contact me here.

facebook.com/killingmarmalade

Thank you

Charlotte

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Thank you. Ps. Woundering if there is any support groups in Knowsley Liverpool.