post icu delerium

[Tammy58]

i was in the hospital after surgery code blue and lived ,then had icu delerium and a month hospital stay i cant forget what i went through having anxiety panic sever depression its been over 2 months last night i was holding my grandson who has been walking almost 9 months and i forgot he walked for a few seconds im freaking out has any one else had small reoccurences of delerium please rteply

[FamilyHistorian]

Oh yes!!!!

I hate the phrase this is normal but it is not uncommon for patients who have been sedated / ventilated to relive their hallucinations or what some call their reality whilst in icu.

If you look at the icustepschester website there are a number of information sheets.

I was in icu for about 2 months or so following a heart op pneumonia and sepsis and was never too sure what might trigger reliving this nightmare. There are various treatments and I opted for CBT which enabled me develop a range of strategies to manage them.

Some ICU’s have a follow up team and it may be worth contacting them.

Icustepschester run zoom drop ins for relatives and mother for both patients and relatives where you have the opportunity to chat through these issues or just listen. They have all be through the mill.

Things do get better it’s just another part of recovery.

If you want to ask specific questions then please message me.

By the way I came out mid March ‘20 and am now 73

[Tammy58 in reply to FamilyHistorian]

im so bad tonight with panic attacks its all taking a toll! please pray im on 3rd week on Lexapro it started helping and I had a very stressful event in my family and now im so much worse

[Sepsur]

I haven’t had specific flashbacks per se but I have had so many confusing moments where I dreamt in ICU something happened or didn’t happen and now I am uncertain of much of the past & in what order it occured

[Tammy58 in reply to Sepsur]

I am doing that also , I remember the looks of people that didnt exsist

[raydee39 in reply to Sepsur]

Sepsur. I'm the same. I was in icu after a heart attack last May and had some very strange dreams and now I find it hard to tell what was real .I'm now having dreams like drowning and being locked in different places almost every night and struggling with sleep.

It's helpful to know other people's experiences and to talk with people going through the same things..thanks

[FamilyHistorian in reply to raydee39]

Hi Raydee

Trying to work out what is real is very difficult. One of my hallucinations I thought was based on a reality but it wasn’t , it was almost as if subsequent hallucinations were reinforced by previous hallucinations. Some of mine are very complex others are quite similar to other peoples. I went into icu mid December’19 and was ventilated/ sedated for nearly 2 months and have lost my real memory for 3 months before then so that is before October.

The memory issues have a knock on issue about trying to work out whether a real memory is one or not. Some people just said get over it. That wasn’t for me. My course of CBT amongst other things helped understand why I was effected by the lost and to that extent whilst put out by the loss I understand more and gradually I am moving on.

It really helps to talk to others about it especially those who have gone through it. Sometimes relatives and friends just don’t understand.

If you look on ICUStepsChester website you will see the contact details and there is a weekly drop in on Thursday evenings via zoom