Prolonged Intermittent PTSD

[tookoa]

Hi all,

I just wanted to share my experience of being on ICU ventilated for 5 days and see if anyone else has had similar experiences.

Back in august 2018 I went to bed one evening feeling a bit rough, took some co-codamol and went to sleep. The next thing I remember is a voice from someone stood over my head asking me to ‘take a deep breath and we’ll take this tube out’.

Obviously I was petrified but I remember the feeling of the tube coming out and writhing around in confusion afterwards. I’d been on a ventilator in a medically-induced coma for nearly 6 days. My partner was 8 months pregnant and I later found out that she’d found me unresponsive in bed and had to do CPR as I had lost respiratory output.

I’m not blind to the fact that I’m incredibly lucky and I am so grateful to my partner, my family but most importantly the medical professionals who saved my life.

I’m writing this now because I had a nightmare last night (and get the same recurring nightmare quite often) of a voice above my head shouting. I can’t grasp exactly what he’s shouting but it gives me that same feeling of dread I had when I was extubated.

I have memory issues and struggle grasping for words sometimes but other than that I’m luckily okay.

Has anyone else had similar experiences so far down the line?

[Sepsur]

Some of our group members are struggling along way down the line. I was told that traditional talking therapies might not be the answer for treating trauma & PTSD - I was advised to access CBT or EDMR treatment

[FamilyHistorian]

Hi Tookoa

Back in November 2019 I went to my GP's and she sent me by ambulance to hospital. Ihave no idea why I went to see her. At hospital I had a heart attack and caught pneumonia so they sent me home. Within a few days I was sent back in again by ambulance with pneumonia and sepsis. Eventually I was transfered to another hospital wher I was admitted to ICU and had my heart valve replaced. I was ventilated / sedated for nearly 2 months and I had a trachy. I didn't have a revelation of waking up. but had long and detailded hallucinations. I came out mid March '20. So I have no memory from about 3 months before going into ICU. After ICU my memory hasn't been good - on a day to day basis - although its getting better. Finding the right words are really difficult.

I paid for a course of CBT which lasted for 10 sessions. I developed strategies for dealing with that time and that really works. I have also been trying to write down my "story" including the hallucination detail. I can talk about my hallucinations now I have had a couple of new ones since coming home but they don't bother me. Having said that I do have a recuring dream of not going to sleep in case I don't wake up!

So for me CBT worked. Bt I also think talking about it helps as well.