On Jan 8th he was taken to the hospital because of COVID-19. After a few days he was placed into a medical coma and on life support. 8 days later they had told us if all goes well he will be woken up but 2 days later they informed us he caught a bacteria from the tube going down his throat. We fought that battle which now has caused pneumonia in him. So 18 days after he was first placed on life support they did a Tracheostomy. I was told it was needed or my husband who is 70 would never talk or eat again. We agreed. At this point he was now Covid negative. 2 day's after the procedure they started to wake up my husband. In the beginning everything seemed great till they plugged him so he can talk. Now we find he has ICU delirium. We thought the hard part was when he was in the Coma but are now finding this just as hard. My husband has good and bad days. His delusions are very difficult to take. some days I have y husband other days I have a man who accuses me of everything under the sun. Yesterday I thought it was quite funny because he was telling me the nurses were all drunk. He thought there was a dog in the hallway and my daughter was there and she was not. But these are the nice ones unfortunately he has some very bad thoughts too. The doctors say they don't know enough about it so they say we just have to wait. They do say if he was of normal prior and did not have dementia prior he should return to normal but no idea when.
The only way I can explain it is that you have a large bag of memories and you reach in and pull one out or two and then tie it to who you see in front of you. Who knows what you get as a result.
Last time I was told I should be ashamed of my self because at 57 I am pregnant and how will I explain this to our 7 grandchildren also the child was not with him. Oh and I was told I started smoking and should be ashamed of myself. I don't smoke .
His mom had my husband at 50 something. He has 7 siblings and we have 4 grandkids. But he has mixed all this together to what seems like reality to him. To the point of him becoming extremely emotional and crying. This is so hard to watch and you can tell them over and over the truth he just tells me are you trying to tell me I'm crazy.
Has anyone else gone through this and if so did they return to normal?
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I’m 72 delirium is just part of being in ICU not everyone has it but it certainly it’s not uncommon. Everyone I have spoken to has gone through it in one form or another so don’t despair. It will be with him for some time, the drugs need to wear off and then it’s a case of what strategies he uses to master it. I had a course of CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) which helped a lot. It doesn’t bother me now but I can relate them all in some detail.
I had a trachy shortly after my op best thing I had, never tried to pull it out and the breathing tube just irritated me. When I came round, nearly 2 months later I was given a mechanical voice box and gradually I was retaught to swallow and then speak and the trachy was removed. Infections are the course in ICU you are just so vulnerable. Before I had my op I already had pneumonia and sepsis??? They constantly draining my lungs and giving me blood transfusions. I was quite ill.
Sure there is normality to look forward to I just don’t know what normality is😷
Short answer yes - I returned to normal - there was a transition period of around 11 days when I have no idea if I was dreaming, lucid dreaming, delirious or awake
Hi, My husband suffered dreadfully with ICU delirium, he had some random stories to regale. Oddly enough a few of them were around alcohol, he was very put out that we were all drinking and it was his birthday (it wasn't and we weren't) he was really angry with us all.He became aggressive to one of the nurses who was checking his ob's when we were with him.
I was mortified , the nurse took it in her stride, I couldn't apologise enough , she said we know it's not him and you will get him back. They were right I have, it took nearly 3 weeks for most of it to clear, he occasionally has a few lucid moments now but not enough to worry about .
Hi. I had delirium just like your husband. It is very common in icu and the majority of people I know had it. I was in hospital 5 days after Icu and had delirium on all but the last day. It is thought to be caused by a combo of the heavy drugs you are on, a response to infection, the traumatic experience and other stuff. It feels like reality to the person suffering from it.
Try not to take it personally. It is not what your husband really thinks and is not some kind of inner truth or any reflection on you. My delirium ended the day before I left hospital and has not returned.
Thank God. Do you remember any of the stuff you had said.
From our end it's very scary at times.
When he says the nurses are drunk and aren't the worried about losing their jobs. I just want to laugh if they were all like that it would be easy to take
Hi- I do remember it. I just think it is really common and is something that needs processing after the event. The main things are : it's not a reflection on the person suffering the delirium or on how they really see their relationships, it's not their fault and they didn't choose it. Whilst it was scary, I try and remember none of it was true and all the points I make above. best wishes, Pete
Did you have problems remembering people in pictures. When I talk to my husband he recognizes me as soon as I enter the room but yesterday for some reason he didn't know anyone in pictures I showed him, He didn't even recognize our daughter who to him has always been his most closest child. He would answer weirdly like when i showed him a pic of our granddaughter he was able to say it was a girl and our sons daughter but that was it. He also had a lot of problems with colors. He would tell me the wall was blue but it was the color cream. It seemed like steps backwards. Could the fact that he is in a room by himself and a tv that doesn't work and all he has to do is stare at the walls be causing the delirium to be worse instead of improving.
HiJust thought I would share my story with you to see if it helps.
My husband was in an induced coma and on a ventilator for 3 weeks, not Covid related.
He had very bad ITU delirium, I knew nothing about the above it really worried me and upset me.
My husband would say very bizarre things, when he was in ITU he would keep asking the staff to phone for a taxi so he could catch a train. He was also very emotional which is just not like him.
I did a lot of reading around the subject and found it is very common.
My husband had some very vivid thoughts, he was convinced he had been in a movie and that our youngest daughter who is 20 and at Uni had a baby.
I just went with it most of the time and hoped it would pass.
He was on some pretty strong anti psychotic drugs to help.
He started to really turn a corner when he was moved from ITU onto a normal ward and gradually just got better, was weaned off the drugs and has made a full recovery.
We now can laugh at all his hallucinations and dreams, he says to him they were very real and he was convinced everyone was trying to kill him which I believe is very common.
Stay strong just support your husband and know this time will pass xx
I had a ruptured appendix in the fall of 2019 caused by an abscess which was not found before. I was taken to the hospital by ambulance which I had called. The rest was a total loss of memory. My vital organs shut down and went septic. I was on life support for a week when I finally opened my eyes I was a totally different person stuck in a different year, different name and was convinced I had been kidnapped. A couple of weeks later I was convinced someone had done stem cell experiments on me and was pregnant with eight babies. All kinds of stories and the end of that month pieces started coming back. Soon I was back but even a year later I still have the odd nightmare and wake up in a frantic because it was so real. So delirium is quite common and it takes a while for all the drugs to get out of your system. My husband just went along with the stories so I would not become upset and with gentle suggestions to try to give me something to think about gradually helped me back to reality. I hope your husband is doing better and my little story helps out abit . Lots of prayers Elsie
thank you. He is fine now. We joke that this has aged him 10 years. But it is so true. Physically it changes you alot and some of it we just have to accept and i thank God I have him with me.
my experience with civid in june 2020 was similar. The delerium was scary but no last effects for me, although I remember most of the world I was living in at the time. Some do take alot of time to recover, but I count myself lucky as with all the aftercare I had I recovered from the trauma quite quickly.
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