Post ICU

[S-A-E]

As posted before - in July 2021 I had a major cycling accident where is was side swiped by an electric car on lane that was far too narrow for it to pass me safely.

As a result I was let with 6-7 brain bleeds and struggling to breathe. Had the driver not stopped and performed CPR until the ambulances arrived, I wouldn’t have survived.

I recently had a neurology examination to determine whether my injury has had an effect on my Ménière’s making it more sensitive - because when I do too much it I’m or in an environment that stimulates my brain, I am physically sick the following day and wiped out for at least a day, it transpires that it is not the Ménière’s but vestibular migraine .

The neurology doctor sent a letter of report out summarising this, but also summarising in some detail my accident . In the report and summary of my accident, she states that as well as brain injury, I suffered two partial collapsed lungs…which I didn’t know about as I haven’t seen the hospital reports.

My question is - having suffered two collapsed lungs, would tos be the reason I have had a loose cough since July 21 and bubbly breathing - ike my lungs have also had to recover from the trauma.

I am pleased to say that it has recently gone and I no longer have bubbly breathing or a cough that makes it look I have smoked 20-30 a day

[FamilyHistorian]

obviously I’m not a medical person. But I had double pneumonia with four drains in. As a consequence of my stay in icu I have had a cough since March ‘20. I now have P F and sleep apnoea. I never smoked.. my thoracic doctor has said it won’t get better and they will try to ensure it doesn’t get worse. Because of my cough others are worried all the time that I have covid which fortunately so far I have managed to avoid.

I wish you well in your recovery

[S-A-E in reply to FamilyHistorian]

wishing you well too. Thankfully my rattly cough and bubbly breathing has cleared up and gone in the last couple of months. Aside from fatigue I’m pretty much fully recovered, but fatigue could take a good while longer yet.

Thanks for sharing your story.

[Sepsur]

it sounds very likely - a few bouts of pneumonia have left me with a permanent but more occasional cough that seems to be super charged every time the weather changes

[Tedsdad]

I was in a couple of years ago after a heart operation led to a clot in my heart. It does seem as if there are a number if things that happen that many people who have been in ICU have in common and although there was concern that the clot may have led me to recover in a seriously state of mental impairment other than a bit of memory loss and having less tolerance for what I consider stupidity I seem to have got away with that.

However you speak of collapsed lungs.

I was told that this happened to me ; although after coming out of ICU I would not have known. I suspect because the pain of recovering from the sternotomy was so much it covered many other things up.

But in the same category, of potentially fatal experiences of which one would have been thankfully unaware unless informed, which ,to the inexperience seem quite unrelated to the original problem, among other things, belong kidney failure, and dialysis, tracheostomy procedure, and even, in my case, death.

As there were certainly many other procedures as necessary as they were unpleasant that I can remember I am simply thankful for the oblivion which spared me so much that it did, and for the skill patience and hard work which was shown to me which I remember or not.

I certainly had some of the breathing problems you mentioned. For me there was a complication perhaps shared with serious cyclists that my breathing apparatus was very seriously developed as a player of wind instruments. That meant that any coughing or even yawning led to serious pain in these muscles.This took a lot of practice to overcome and is still not totally recovered two years on. I do get a tickly cough and there is something still under investigation to do with where a intranssal feeding pipe was inserted or with internal damage from the tracheostomy. This is all bearable if a little unpleasant and irritating. I think for me the most debilitating thug is that my ability to take a really fast deep breath has been impaired,not totally but enough to mean that I have to goabout playing in a different way in some circumstances. I can live with it. I am sure up to six hours a day practice has helped both my lungs and my sense of well being as the improvements accrue!