If there was one thing you could change about the... - ICUsteps
If there was one thing you could change about the support you received during treatment and recovery, what would it be?
Nothing at all - ICU saved my life!!
The staff in ICU were amazing! I have no complaints about the care I received. However.... I did suffer from ICU psychosis/delirium and was told I would receive help for that within 3 months. It actually took 8 months before I was able to see a psychotherapist. He was a great help, but I would have appreciated being seen sooner.
my family said icu staff were amazing. i had a very traumatic time in the first day or so after being taken off life support. i now understand i was suffering like Zara from icu psychosis. i thought i was goin crazy- i had horrendous hallucinations, that still now almost 2years on still feel very real, its hard to believe something isn't really true when u feel u actually physically saw and heard things. i was convinced the staff were going to let me die. it was the worst time of my life. and from this short period of time, i suffered terribly emotionally for many many months. i was told by gp i had post traumatic stress. i was offered counselling almost a year later, but nothing specific to my icu trauma- they just wanted to talk to me about family (ie my parents break up 16years ago which really was not the issue causing my anxiety and fear). i work at a hospital and sought out my own help in the form of a visit to the icu and talking to the professionals there. this really really helped me.
i thought i had now come out the other side and didn't let any of my experience affect me now, however i had to recently transfer a patient of mine to icu. i took a colleague with me too as i knew i might find it difficult, and it was. being there took my breath away and i felt all the anxiety and panic return. it really does take a long time to recover, much longer than ur body takes to physically recover. i wish i had known almost 2years ago that this would be normal, maybe it would of made me feel less like a 'nutter' as i so fondly called myself lol
Like Barbsky, even though treatment was traumatic, the staff did what they had to do and I will be eternally grateful. For me I really needed access to psychological support as a result of my experience and it took me almost 3 years to access it as I was repeatedly told that what I was going through was a normal response to what had happened (but it wasn't pleasant).
I would change absolutely Nothing!
Because of the skill of the ICU Staff, I am alive today and I am able to type this message.
Of my 31 day stay in ICU, I was conscious for only the last 5 days, and during those 5 days I witnessed the Absolute Professionalism that ALL the ICU staff had when carrying out their duties.
Also the care and compassion that was shown to my wife was beyond unbelievable.
Despite my wife being told on 3 occasions that I was unlikely to survive through the night, by some miracle I did.
9Wells ICU STAFF, THANK YOU FOR MY LIFE!
I'm still waiting to hear from my GP. It will be a year this Christmas & not a word. I was in a coma last Christmas (complications from severe pneumonia) and I still don't know what that did to my lungs as far as permanent damage or what? I've never felt so alone as I have this past year. Grateful to be alive but its hard at times
Unfortunately many GP's are totally unaware of what we go through, I suffered permanent damage to my lungs just before Christmas 3 years ago with double pneumonia, severe sepsis and multiple organ failure later complicated with ARDS causing scarring to my lungs leaving me with PF, it was only the amazing job the ICU doctors and nurses done that saved my life, something I will always be grateful for.
My GP was surprised and unaware that I had spent 3 months in ICU, when I visited him 2 months after discharge with another chest infection, I don't think he would be aware even now if I hadn't visited him, something I believe needs to change, the only support I received was from the ICU followup clinic, without it I would have been totally lost. Inspiring me to become involved with ICUsteps giving support to patients and relatives.
Easy: psychological support.
I did have a clinical psychologist for 50 minutes roughly every 2 months. Thank heavens I did but there should have been a lot more.
I also think a mentor of some sort to help one on the journey back to normality. I guess the psychologist fulfilled this role for me since there was no one else.
