Husband trying to wake from a 2 week medically induced coma following heart surgery and fighting a fungal infection

[Angelia1234]

My husband had a mechanical heart valve On April 20 which replaced a tissue valve he had 14 years ago. After surgery he began having seizures. Pathology showed histoplasmosis (fungal infection) on the removed tissue valve. He was in an induced coma for 2 weeks to stop the seizures. Last weekend he was weaned off the phenobarbitol that they used to "rest his brain". 1 day off this med he opened his eyes (staring at the ceiling) and smiled once at a joke. Day 2 he would turn his head to my voice and lift his arms. Day 3 i got him to squeeze my hand when i asked him to 3 times and smile at 2 more jokes. Day 4-7 (today) he is only moving his limbs occasionally and opens his eyes (staring at the ceiling). HR, BP keep spiking so more drugs, Its getting hard to keep the faith.

[Sepsur]

It took me eleven days to wake up properly from coma, even then I was still flirting in and out of coma dream world & reality. I was responding to some people all the way through my coma, my daughter, one brother, my step Mum - I ignored my wife at first but smiled & hugged my step Mum when I awoke , so try not to take umbrage- my dreams made trusting people more difficult. I think my brain must have associated the constancy of my wife’s voice being there and looped it into the awful scenarios that I was enduring whilst asleep.

icusteps.org do some great downloadable pdfs on what to expect