ICU mind baffling, post-induced coma ??

[TK11LEO]

Afternoon all. I stumbled across this website yesterday evening and found a brilliant thread that gave me some answers to the way I’m feeling at the moment and also the things I’m experiencing too !!

I’ll try to keep as brief as possible but my story goes … my dad became seriously ill in february/March 2023. I was visiting him in hospital and he was critical. After a couple of weeks I contracted covid and was in a bad way with it and felt really down because I was unwell and upset I couldn’t visit my dad. It took about 3/4 weeks for me to get over ( or so I thought ) the covid and thankfully my dad survived and returned home the last week of my recovery. I had been drinking wine in the evenings for the 3-4 weeks before he came home to try and perk myself up. I went from previously having 1-2 bottles on a Friday night and Saturday night with the mrs to having the same amount pretty much every other night for 2-3 weeks before my story started !!!

I remember feeling absolutely terrible one morning , in pain everywhere, completely unable to breathe and pouring with sweat. I called an ambulance and when they arrived , within about 15 mins, my temp was 40 and my heart rate 236bpm. The next thing I knew was waking up after 5 weeks being in an induced coma.

I was told by family and ICU that my heart had stopped a few times during the 5 weeks induced and I’d had to have CPR and defibrillator to bring me back each time. I was intubated from the start , tracheostomy and ventilator, and also had to have 4 complete blood transfusions and dialysis due to contracting sepsis early on in the coma . I survived somehow and spent a further 9/10 weeks in hospital being treated for severe pancreatitis and having very minimal physio. I was advised initially that the pancreatitis was due to the alcohol consumption but was later told that it’s possible it was caused by the covid, stress due to my dad being ill and my immune system being so depleted ?? I personally don’t feel a few weeks of drinking slightly more than usual ( which I don’t think was much to begin with ) would have been the main cause for the pancreatitis ? During the coma I also suffered 2 dvt’s and gained lots of clots in my right leg and the abdomen. I had a further dvt a couple of weeks after they brought me round.

It’s been roughly 4 weeks since I was discharged ( I was admitted 29th May 2023 ) and I’ve just had a further 3 days in hospital due to now having bi-lateral pneumonia, which started last week. I’m still having weekly blood tests and every 2 weeks a CT scan on my pancreas as it has a 10cm by 6.5cm cyst on it , which may require surgery at some point if it doesn’t shrink with the medication. When I was initially admitted the hospital scanned my lungs, there was lots of fluid on them and both were completely scarred from the covid. They went through my records and found a chest scan from 2021 and found the lungs were exactly the same back then and they I’d had covid before, which I knew nothing about.

I came across this page last night and it was brilliant reading different peoples accounts of their ICU experiences. It’s reassuring that it’s not only myself suffering with pain in all joints ( hands, feet, elbows, shoulders etc etc ) hair falling out , ridges in all nails , headaches , feeling useless , struggling to walk, fear of ever getting back to normal and fear of not returning to work ever and how I’m going to pay my monthly outgoings once my work sick pay ends in December…….the list goes on !!

This morning I’ve also found out that there’s a local ICU support group that meets up monthly so I’ve given them a call to book onto a meeting.

If you’ve gotten this far down thank you for reading my story , I did try to keep it brief , honest hahaha.

Anyway, I’ve just registered on here and I’m about to delve in and looking forward to reading all the posts who I can relate to ,

thanks everyone ,

Rob

[Rhyl1 Partner Moderator ICUsteps]

Welcome to the forum, you’ve had a rough time so it’s going to take some time for you to get stronger. Pancreatitis has a number of causes and there’s a good NHS website about this nhs.uk/conditions/acute-pan....

[TK11LEO in reply to Rhyl1]

Thank you, having just read it, it’s now more reassuring that the cause wasn’t necessarily alcohol. Although I won’t ever drink again anyway and it doesn’t really change how down I’m feeling at the moment, it was an interesting read thanks 👍

[FamilyHistorian]

When you get the chance have a look at the Critical Care Support Network site. They offer advice and support - all on zoom. cc-sn.org/

[TK11LEO in reply to FamilyHistorian]

Thank you for the reply. I’ll look into this today. Feeling really down in the dumps at the mo so it may help, thanks 👍

[Frazzled88]

Hi there TK11LEO

Just a brief fly by note to hope your mood lifts soon.

My husband is home from hospital for five weeks now having spent 120 days in ITU and a further 28 in High Dependancy thanks to Necrotising Pancreatitis. He finds the exhaustion is a killer for him and he also gets down in the dumps.

Keep well and keep as positive as you can

Frazzled 🙃

[TK11LEO in reply to Frazzled88]

Thank you for you reply Frazzled88 it’s good to hear I’m not on my own feeling this way. Wow that’s some time he’s spent in hospital. I’m finding the slightest thing tires me out. Even if I do a short up’n’down walk in my garden , literally 20-30 metres after I get up in the morning, I feel I need to go back to bed ??? I can’t remember feeling this tired, painful or down, 5 weeks ago when I left the hospital. Send him my regards and wish him a speedy recovery from me , thanks 👍