As it approaches my 8th anniversary of my ICU admission (18th December), I was as a trustee of ICUsteps contacted by BBC Radio 4 regarding my ICU experience for their "History of Delusions" program, I was interviewed by psychologist Professor Daniel Freeman talking about my personal experience of the nightmares & hallucinations while in ICU, hopefully the program may help others realise they are not alone with their often traumatic memories, the program is part 8 of a ten part series and can be heard on Wednesday 12th December at 1.45pm on BBC Radio 4 the program also includes an interview with leading ICU psychologist Dorothy Wade.
With the end of 2018 fast approaching it's time to reflect on my 5 years as an ICUsteps trustee and to thank all my fellow trustees for the amazing work they've done throughout the year from research to attending and speaking at conferences, sending out our two booklet guides "The Intensive Care Guide for Patients and Relatives and the children's activity booklet "Visiting the Intensive Care" to hospitals around the country along with PDF versions for adaption around the world, I also must thank everyone that helps run our 23 national support groups supporting those in their ICU recovery journey, everyone involved with ICUsteps work on a voluntary basis giving our time to help others on that long often difficult road to recovery.
A very Happy Christmas everyone and best wishes for the New Year
Bill (Secretary ICUsteps)
Written by
Luckyone
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Thanks for your comment ever since my time in ICU I vowed I would give something back to help others understand the trauma so many of us went through physically but especially psychologically, I'm very fortunate to fulfill my promise by being a trustee of ICUsteps for the last 5 years which has given me the opportunity to meet some great people and speak at several conference's and now the radio which helpfully will help people to talk about their personal journeys, we will never forget our experiences and some people will never understand but thanks to everyone involved with ICUsteps we will keep pushing research and supporting those in their road to recovery.
Just acknowledgement of the things you talked about was so helpful to me. I thought I was alone and going mad. And denying it. It's so much easier to know I was going mad but I'm not alone I've written to the Tees ICU steps with a slightly longer message to you...
Bill, I howled, and shared with my icu steps group, listened again, shared with my family, shared with my mental health first aiders at work. Thank you for all you’ve done x
Thank you for taking part in this programme. It really helped me to hear your experience and I could relate to my experience visiting and seeing my younger brother who was critically ill with sepsis in December in ICU last year. Thankfully due to the excellent care he received from NHS and his own remarkable strength and resilience he’s recovered very well. We feel very lucky and have relied on support and information from this community. Both he and our family also listened and found the programme really good and informative. I shared the link to the radio programme with the person who runs the ECMO family support group at Wythenshawe Hospital who also found it helpful.
I found it helpful as a scientist to hear from the clinical psychologist who explained the latest position on what happens to the brain during sepsis and also the impact of lack of sleep in ICU and CCU due to lighting. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and I am grateful for your work as a Trustee as we printed the ICU steps guide and it helped us as a family understand the effects of being in ICU and what to expect.
Hi Luckyone. It has been 7 years, in November 2018, that I was released from the hospital. I was 10 days in ICU with sepsis and all the dugs and psychosis that comes with it.
All these years later I still fight PTSD and sever anxiety. Thank you for giving interviews and maintaining this forum. It helps to know that others are involved in this fight.
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I've written to the Tees ICU steps with a slightly longer message to you... 
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