Have been in a coma AMA

[JamieJ93]

Have been in a coma - twice 6 & 8 weeks
Ask me anything if you're interested in my experience:-)

Did you hear anything happening around you or is it just like being asleep and you have no awareness of anything?

Did you dream?

Yes, you can hear things - but very distorted and doesn't fit with what is going on at the time and very confusing.
Even though you're "asleep" you're still "awake" in a sense that youre aware of some things going on and feelings - especially painful procedures and there is plenty of them!

Me too, for 2 weeks. When I woke up, I didn't know where I was, and I had delirium for some time (seeing things that didn't make sense - the handwash station on the ward looked to me like a cardboard cutout of a nurse, put there to make us patients feel watched over). Did you have anything like that?

Does it just feel like you've woken up after a nights sleep or are you sort of aware during your coma that your actually in a coma (sorry I'm struggling to word that correctly )

Yes - often
Very random things
Dreams that followed on and on that kind of made a story inside my brain.
Also you can't differentiate from dreams or real experiences or hallucinations.
Also can't wake up from nightmares which is very very scary

Is it scary? I get sleep paralysis occasionally and I've always imagined it to be a bit like this. Have you dully recovered now.

Did you have a tracheostomy?
I convinced a nurse I had flavoured water in a black bag and that I needed a drink badly ( lost my swallow and wasn't allowed a drink but she was looking for it 😂

Did you know you were in a coma at the time - did you have enough awareness at the time to realise something had happened? Or was it more of a blur?
Did you feel scared at the time that you might die or didn't have enough awareness to feel that?

I think these experiences are very subjective.

My dad was in a coma for 8 weeks and has no memory of anything at all. He didn’t feel any of the procedures he had despite being very lightly sedated some days and some procedures being invasive or painful.

Most annoyingly he didn’t recall the hours of reading I did to him each day.

For anyone worried about a relative in a coma hearing or feeling things - everyone is different and there is no right or wrong way to behave in a room with someone who is comatose.

The first coma in 2020 I remember the consultant saying "I'm going to have put you in a coma" and then I woke up 6 weeks later - not enough awareness to know during that I was in a coma
2nd time for 8 weeks last year I don't even remember getting taken to hospital or anything - took me much longer to come around from the sedation and was much more aggressive / confused ect this time.

This is very true
Everyone will have a different experience
The person in the coma and the families/ loved ones
Each time I was in ICU / coma the separate experiences / recovery from sedation was completely different
I just thought it may have been of interest to people to speak about something like this,
That's all.
X

Well l was in a coma after being thrown under a bus..
Then put in an induced coma and both my experiences were nothing like yours.
Everyone is different.. completely different.

I never said it was
That's why I said MY experience.
Hope you have recovered well, this thread wasn't created to cause offence
You have no idea what I have been through and i never said everyone has the same the same experience.

How long did your delirium last OP?
How severe was your deconditioning afterwards? Did you need to go to a rehabilitation to learn how to walk again ? How long were you in hospital both times including the ITU stays?
How long after hospital stays both times did it take you to fully recover?
Did you have any other organ failure other than lungs? Were you on dialysis?
Have you been left with any long term issues? cPTSD, peripheral neuropathy or pulmonary fibrosis?
Were you on a DNA CPR throughout both induced comas?
Sorry lots of questions but unfortunately have a lot of personal experience re ITU.

Sorry meant rehabilitation hospital there.
Also, forgot my manners- thank you for starting this thread as the general population have no idea (until it hits them) of the brutal reality of critical care.

Hi sorry for the late reply - phone died.
Both times had to learn to walk again.
My 2nd time in ICU ( last year) for 8 weeks was the most brutal time of my life.
I unfortunately got a central line blood steam infection which led to necrotising fascitis and nearly lost my leg - I also got sepsis from this and went into multi organ failure and needed 24/7 dialysis for 7 weeks. Nearly needed transplant.
Then also got ventilator associated pneumonia and got sepsis again.
Had a couple of heart attacks also which got my troponin levels upto nearly 8000.
I was very very ill.
My left leg now has severe nerve damage due to the NF and surgical debridement. I have no reflexes in that leg.
Hands are also very very damaged and restricted movement.
Was bed bound for 5 months.
Had to learn to walk, talk, swallow, wash, feed myself, move myself.
I thought I was gonna die, in fact I wish I would have died because that was the most traumatic time of my life.
Yes not everyones experience is the same and I wish people would stop making out I'm saying that because I'm not.
I know there is a lot of misconceptions of what happens medically but I do understand that no 2 experiences are the same!

Sounds brutal

I may have missed it but what put you in the comas?

You seem like you have been through so much. Thankyou for sharing your own personal experience with us.

I'm really interested in your experiences, OP.

I've often wondered what being in a coma would be like.

Was it Covid that caused your first one?

How old are you now, and are you a woman or a man?

No not COVID,
Both intentional medicine mixed overdoses,
Did get COVID and pneumonia in the first coma though.
My lungs have really taken a battering.
All the problems I have had during my ICU stays have been complications or staff errors ( I wouldn't have got NF if the staff used aseptic techniques on my femerol central line but hey ho)
I will never ever know how I have survived twice after how ill I have been and what I've been through but what I do know is I'm so grateful to be alive - as stupid as that sounds,
My body has thought so hard to get me through this so it's about time I started to look after myself.

I'm also 30 and female,
No children
Married to a wonderful man who has stuck by me through everything and couldn't ask for more, he's a special person who's never given up on me.

Did you know loved ones were talking to you if they were at your bedside? Would you have understood if someone was playing your favorite music? Btw glad youre back with us ♥️

No, I didn't - not that I can remember
It was just more the nurses/doctors
Ward noises
Pain from the procedures.
It's sad really that I put my body through this but if my experiences put anyone else off what could happen from failed suicides then at least that's one thing

Bless you...love sent and i understand...hitting rock bottom mentally...i really do. ♥️♥️. Glad youre here to tell the tale xxx