Mom awake now but questions

[Logst]

My mom was admitted on Dec 26 for a kidney stone that caused septic shock. She was paralyzed, sedated, intubated, had CRRT for 2 days. She has been off paralyzer and sedation since Jan 5 I believe (propofol and versed) and off fentayl since the 6th I think?

She had a trach done on the 12th and a peg on the 13th (due to gastric it was hard to get her proper nutrition). As of the 17th she has been off the ventilator and came off supplemental oxygen on the 19th. They also switched to a non cuffed trach and she has been tolerating the speaking valve well and has kept it in the 4-5 hours each day we have visited.

My question is she talks and acts like she has previously after her strokes (has had 8 of them since age 28, now 57) but since admission has had many CT and MRI that show no new brain damage from this admission. She has trouble with names sometimes, seems slow to react to questions like lift your arm - might take several seconds for her to do it - and sometimes talks about random things like saying her home address when asked what my dad's name is. Her short term seems to be improving a bit and she has remembered some things we have told her but not others.

Is this normal? Is this part of recovery? Is this delirium? I read the delirium occurs when coming off the vent but in most of those coming off the vent seems to happen at the same time as coming off sedation/paralyzer where she was off both for over a week before getting off the vent.

[Sepsur]

delirium can last a log time with some people - weeks & weeks. I found that I was slow, some of that was fatigue - I could hear what people were saying but it would take so much energy to respond in any way. I also felt cognitively slightly impaired - probably the remnants of sedatives leaving my system. I think I was also withdrawing off all the meds. Poor liver & kidney function meant my system was clogged up with all sorts which affected me.

Here is a useful link to some great pdfs

cc-sn.org/information

[FamilyHistorian]

it’s hard to explain when you have delirium , whilst in the coma it’s another reality once out of the coma it’s like being in parallel words dipping in and out of both. Once recovery is well under way it can interfere with “normal” life.

I did have issues with memory. First of all I have lost all memory for 3 months before going into icu (with one or two exceptions but these are more to do with what I have repeatability been told) other memory if difficult because I am uncertain as to which is based on real memory and which is based on the memory of of my alternative reality.

[CarbonDioxideExhaler in reply to FamilyHistorian]

yea I lost memory in various years. I see photos and some of it comes back while others I have no idea. Crazy right….