ICU stay

[Kilsby75]

I was admitted to hospital at the end of April after months of nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and fatigue. I remember the ambulance but not entering the hospital. I was placed in an induced coma and ventilated for five days due to extensive brain swelling, respiratory distress, suspected abdominal sepsis, severe metabolic acidosis and rhabdomylosis. I was severely dehydrated and my organs were shutting down. I spent two weeks in icu which I don’t remember apart from the hallucinations which were incredibly real. I then spent tee weeks on the renal ward having dialysis. I was discharged on 31st May 2022 however I still feel exhausted and my legs ache so much it’s hard to walk for long or far. I am so forgetful and get short of breath. I still have flashbacks which are really upsetting. My doctor is amazed at my progress as I was very close to death, apparition would have been dead in the morning if I hadn’t called for an ambulance.

[Sepsur]

there are a few pdfs on this link which will hopefully set your mind at rest about what is normal, ‘usual’ is a better description - there is nothing normal about ICU & the afters

cc-sn.org/information

[FamilyHistorian]

hi. Without contradicting myself we are all different, we finish up in icu for all sorts of reasons and the consequences of being in there are similar and different.

I was told by the ambulance crew who took me in the second time, I met them some 12 months later, that apart from pneumonia, sepsis and heart issues I was hallucinating. I have no memory of that other than I have a faint memory of them calling ahead. I was transferrred to another hospital and know that I have no memory of any events prior to admission to ICU for about 3months. I dont remember my time in a coma either I then lived in another world through my hallucinations, I can remember them in detail but they don’t cause me any problems now. My family were called in twice because I wasn’t going to make it. Initial recovery was difficult. Things have changed, my sense of humour is evil not wicked, my filtering system doesn’t work - my brain doesn’t control my mouth. Emotions are unexpected.

It’s really good to talk to other people who have been through this. You don’t wake up from a coma and jump out of bed and go back to normal!

[Hidden in reply to FamilyHistorian]

like you I had very bad ICU delerium, but the nightmares dont haunt me now either. It is clear from this site that there is a broad range of recovery time for patients that have been in ICU. I count my self lucky with the aftercare I received; so I was after a total of 14 weeks in ICU transfered to a community hospital for rehab, mainly physio, for 4 weeks and from there to a care home for 4 weeks before going home. Once home I had a follow up with ICU on the phone, and a number of calls with my gp. I was also followed up by various consultants at the hospital as an out patient. My main lasting issues are fatigue, ckd, and diabetes type 2.

[FamilyHistorian in reply to Hidden]

I was suppposed to go back to my local hospital for rehab however I was sent there late evening on 11/3/20, 12th was my birthday and 13th discharged with my ng being removed and into lock down no rehab

[Hidden in reply to FamilyHistorian]

it was difficult during covid. I had had sepsis initially but caught covid in hospital around june 20. There were restrictions so no visitors. I was moved from the rehab hospital after 4 weeks to the care home because they needed my bed as covid cases were increasing. Anyhow it shows the difference in the way some have received aftercare compared to others. I am in Bucks.

[FamilyHistorian in reply to Hidden]

This is one of the things that other members of the group I belong to have found. I was in 2 health authorities. Initially Worcester the Birmingham QE and back to Worcester. No concerns about my care at the QE

[Raven21]

I was 6 weeks in an induced coma and on dialysis for 3 weeks of that time. I remeber nothing of my admission for 48hrs before ICU and of course only remember the hallucinations during. I'm now 11 weeks out of hospital and I struggle still... my arms are weak, I can walk around the downstairs of the house ok but tire easily - i have a wheelchair for longer trips than about 15metres of walking. I'm starting now to get flashbacks, but of the hospital post coma - the hallucinations I can remember but they dont affect me.

We are all different, but we experience similar things in varying ways. I was told I'd feel weak for a long time and its not like normal surgical recovery after a coma due to the muscle mass loss. Just don't push yourself and dont let it upset you. Ive learned to just take each day as it comes and not to be scared to admit i cant do things. I was massivelt independent before my illness and now I'm stuck npt being allowed out on my own. But i can drive again now and that means everything to me.

[Back_to_reality]

I was in my coma for three weeks last summer. I also came close to death, had no memory of getting to the hospital, but I knew most of the time that I was in a hospital. At other times the hallucinations were more intense and I was in all sorts of places. It was the most frightening experience of my life.

It took a few days for my mind to regain some sort of normality. I was out of the hospital in 10 as I was able to walk fine by that point, at least over short distances (I realised this when I decided to go for a walk round the block after a week or so of sitting on the sofa and getting half way before realising I couldn't make it, although I managed somehow to get back.)

The flashbacks were immediate and intense for me. Most nights I was afraid to sleep and only managed to do so through sheer exhaustion. But as I worked them through in my mind one by one they stopped being so frightening, once I made sense of what they were.

It took about six months before I felt OK again, but there was still the occasional flashback and my strength wasn't fully back. I also had times when I wondered if I was still in the coma, which was a bit difficult.

Now, 15 months on, I'm pretty much back to normal. A lot of the thoughts I had I've now forgotten, just as you tend to forget any other experience, and others have faded a lot. This surprised me as I thought they would be etched in my mind forever.

One thing which I have said on here before is that you do have to confront the flashbacks. They (in my case at least) were thoughts that you cannot make sense of or don't know where the thought came from. It takes a while to work them out and can be difficult and disturbing mentally to do so. In my case a lot of the most awful experiences I had turned out to be relatively benign things. Others involved catheters, needles, doctors shining light in my eyes, that kind of thing. There was always a reason behind them.