4 ms·
While it's not really comparable to this case I spent months in a coma. My wife tells me she was there 24/7 for the first week then hours after work every day.
by hansthehorse 6y ago
While it's not really comparable to this case I spent months in a coma. My wife tells me she was there 24/7 for the first week then hours after work every day. I'm told my family visited everyday as they had worked out a schedule. Every one them interacted with me or read to me or whatever. I remember nothing of it. I feel it did nothing for my recovery but who can say.
I remember only a very long nightmare I couldn't wake from. One bad dream after another. Normally I can wake myself from those types of dreams but this was permanent. Later I had to go to therapy to try to rid myself from those memories or at least learn to live with them. The therapist told me there was no way to tell if I had that experience during coma or during the time the - just short of od doses - drugs were withdrawn.
My waking experience was like swimming up to the surface of a clear blue ocean from very deep below. I remember hearing a tiny voice asking me to squeeze a finger and made a very small movement and remember a lot of shouting and stuff. Wife tells me everyone who visited me did the same thing every day but this one day I moved when she went through the ritual. When I became fully awake after all the drugs had worn off I realized I could barely speak and couldn't move my arms or legs. Months of rehab to follow. I still rage at movies and TV where a coma victim wakes and it's like nothing ever happened.
This was 10 years ago and as you can see it still effects me deeply.
- sizzle 6y agoThanks for the incredibly detailed account from the other side, I'm so happy to hear you pulled through. My dad had a massive hemorrhagic stroke and I was in your wife's position when he was in medically induced coma on high doses of propofol and fentanyl. I always wondered if he was dreaming when I saw his eye saccades in REM. It's tough to go through this experience and made me a patient person once he came out of coma and had narrowly been given a new lease on life albeit needing intensive rehab with severe cognitive and motor deficits. I wish no one has to go through this experience with a loved one...
- Flowsion 6y agoWow, thank you for sharing. That was really insightful.
- scns 6y agoStories like yours make me extremely grateful for the advancements of science. Please do yourself a favour and enjoy your "second life". Maybe get a copy of this book: https://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Great-Revolutionary-Treatment-Depression-ebook/dp/B08FRSQHFP/ https://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Great-Revolutionary-Treatment...
- sebow 6y agoI'm extremely curious: after you woke up from the coma, did the frequency/"intensity" of the dreams change at all?
- hansthehorse 6y agoFor the first week or 10 days I really couldn't tell the difference between awake or asleep. My wife tells me I frequently asked her why she had abandoned me in Alaska. I figure that was because it was pretty cold in the room. During that time all the dreams I remember concerned not being able to move. After that period I guess my body had flushed out all the drugs and a normal sleep / dream cycle returned and the nightmares pretty much went away. Two things seem to be permanent though. I used to be very heat sensitive, preferring the winter to summer etc. Now it's the opposite. The other thing is I developed blood flow problems to both of my hips which the doctors tell me is probably due to the massive amounts of testosterone I was administered while in the coma. I think it's a fair trade off for a second chance.
- sterlind 6y agoOut of curiosity, why were you given testosterone?