Can anybody share any first hand experience with being coded, on a vent, sedated, etc

Nurses General Nursing

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Has any member of the forum ever been resuscitated, put on a vent and/or otherwise sedated or in a coma? If so can you give us a little description of what it was like, what you remember, and anything else that might be interesting?

I often wonder what my patients are going through but rarely get the opportunity to ask this question.

I was knocked out for a breast biopsy.

For the most part, I was out, but I did come around enough, at one point, to hear something like, "good, this doesn't look cancerous" and something about them being a tad bit worried about me having gotten too much anesthesia.

My best friend was a tech in the surgery center and she confirmed to me that I had, indeed, heard this.

They had overlooked my hypothyroidism (a new diagnosis and not well under control yet). She was the one to inform them about it.

One funny thing was that I also heard them laugh about my old google-framed glasses I had with me.

I never assume my patients can't hear me, especially after that.

Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

I just read Stephanie Nielson's book "Heaven is Here" She went down in a small plane and suffered burns over 80% and was in a coma for 4 months.I highly recommend it-if you have never been a patient yourself it will give you some insight into how it feels.It's an inspiring story for many reasons-her faith,her family support and just the fact that she survived.She also has a blog "the nieniedialogues"

Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

I ended up in ICU and tubed after I went into anaphylactic shock from some dental surgery when we found out the hard way I was allergic to a med given in post-op. I very, VERY clearly remember trying to breathe in and no air coming in. Part of my mind was running in circles in a panic, and another part was very calmly thinking, "oh, this isn't good." Ended up in ICU, nasally intubated, almost trached. I stopped breathing , came to briefly in ICU with it seemed like 50 people in the room, out again, woke up again 4 hours later, having somehow also managed to get a large bore vessel torn open -- 4 units PRBCS. I can still taste the blood in my mouth when I think about it. Permanent nerve damage to part of my face, sinus problems from the nasal intubation because my jaw was wired shut. I just remember people coming in and doing things without telling me they were going to turn, reposition, etc., and feeling very much at everyone's mercy. Nobody told me what had happened, so for a day, I kept trying to get someone to tell me what was going on.

What I took from it? 1) Tell the patient why they're tubed, in ICU, whatever. Frequently. 2) Tell them you're going to touch them, what you're going to do and why. How would you like someone to start moving you around like a marionette? 3) Tell them that if they have an NGT, they can still speak. Nobody told me I could talk, and I thought the tube was thru my vocal cords and I'd ruin my cords if I tried to talk. 4) At least try to see if they want to wash their hands/face, rather than scrubbing them down like a farm animal going to market. 5) If your family is coming apart, bawling and crying, that makes the patient think things are worse than they've been told.

Specializes in ER/SICU/Med-Surg/Ortho/Trauma/Flight.

I was tubed for 2 weeks in my sicu after my liver transplant, all I remember is the nurse kept putting the radio on the oldies station and they kept playing that dumb song "rock the boat, dont rock the boat baby" which is not what you want to hear when you are drugged and nauseous, not to mention the pain and I wasnt a drug seeker but hell she wasnt very giving with the dilaudid and I had a massive fresh incision and a buttload of drains.

Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.

My OB sedated me after the birth of my son. I came in in preterm labor at 36 weeks, with severe toxemia, HELLP syndrome, and wound up in DIC. Then I had a reaction to my platelet transfusion and wound up looking like the Elephant Man. As I lay there, heart racing and eyes swelling shut, requesting (and getting) Benadryl and racemic epi, the doc told my DH and DF that I 'knew too much about what was going on and what could happen' and proceeded to hit me with 2mg of Ativan along with the 50 of Benadryl. As susceptible as I am to meds, I woke up 16 hours later.

I have ghost images of various members of my family coming to the ICU to see me, of not being able to see my baby, and of my gown being yanked up by my cousin (an RN) in front of my mother, to see my incision. I remember my aunt crying and my father leading her out. And I remember the night shift report going like "Why is she here? What are we supposed to do with her? What the he!! is a fundus, anyway? How do I check for clonus?" Thay had no clue how to deal with a postpartum patient, they had never had one before. And my poor nurse was male. He almost went home. They came in when they heard my crying because I felt like such a burden. That made them feel bad.

And then the angel of a night sup gave my DH the code to the back door so he could bring my supper and sit with me until it was time to go feed our son again.

I was prescribed Stadol for pain, and when it was given, it was like the last image I looked at before closing my eyes was stamped on the inside of my eyelids, as a cartoon. Very weird.

Hope this helps with your research!

Interesting topic. I've got a couple of weird stories.

My mother in law had a severe case of ARDS and was put into the ICU unit, vented and sedated. She was that way for almost 6 weeks. She distinctly remembers us coming in and telling her things that were going on. Every morning I went in and brushed her hair for her, and I would tell her the date, the time, and the weather. She remembers nurses names as well, as the nurses were excellent in explaining things to her even though she wasn't "awake". When they pulled the vent and sedation, she asked specifically for one nurse, said that she had to see her face. When the nurse came in to see her, I thought my mother in law would pass out. Apparently, this woman was exactly as she had pictured her ... which led me to believe maybe somehow she saw her before she was vented/sedated and remembered her ... or somehow saw her during her sedation. It was a tough time, and watching her have to re-learn how to walk and write was awful. But she made a full recovery, and is healthy now.

Another story, is sort of similar to a previous poster. I also argued with my Dr when he was getting ready to give me by spinal during my emergency c-section. My pain was so overwhelming from my contractions that I needed anything to make the pain stop. When he told me that he had already done my spinal, I said no you didn't I'm feeling the awful pain still ... and then all of a sudden, the only way I can explain this is it felt orgasmic. The pain completely stopped, and I lost all feeling of my legs, and everything went warm ... really weird feeling.

Then another time I had surgery, and remember them coming in to see me, realizing how terrified I was, and then them giving me some type of anxiolytic ... I remember the weird feeling traveling through my IV site, through my entire body and all of a sudden becoming very light headed and ... fuzzy feeling. I didn't fall asleep from it, but I remember trying to fight it so that I could stay awake and remember as much as possible. I remember getting onto the OR table, them telling me that my surgery would be able to seen on a TV screen, how cold the OR felt, and that's it. I don't remember them giving me any anesthesia at all. I woke up, and felt amazing! I sat straight up in bed and said feed me crackers, and juice and soda because I need to pee so I can get out of here! My nurse thought it was rather amusing as alll of the other patients in the PACU were trying to go back to sleep.

Specializes in ER/SICU/Med-Surg/Ortho/Trauma/Flight.

Also on said topic from earlier I am this nurses boss and when I came back to work I cooked this nurses posterior with a good long lecture about pain management and how if someone is sedated they can still feel pain.

Specializes in OB (with a history of cardiac).

My stories aren't nearly as dramatic as some mentioned.

When I was 25 I had to have a lump removed from one of my breasts, and it was a conscious sedation procedure so it wasn't a huge deal. I was worried because the last time I had been put out was for a big surgery on my ear and when I came out of it I was totally nauseated. Well this wasn't so bad- I wasn't cold or shaking or nauseated at all when I came out of this one: I was loopy as heck. When I opened my eyes I was laying flat on my back and I could see these IV poles hanging down from the ceiling, and I swear they were moving in a specific pattern- first down, then to the left, then down, to the right, then up. This obviously pleased me, as I started giggling uncontrollably. Then the nurses were going to transfer me onto the cart to take me to a recovery room, and I kept trying to tell them (through giggles) "mmmmkay, I'ma gonna help ya- (tee heee heee) no, really I'm good, I'm good! I'm almost a nurse you know..." (I was in my first semester of my LPN program!).

They then dumped me off in a chair in the recovery room, and another nurse came back to ask who brought me- my boyfriend (who is now my husband !) had kindly offered to bring me there and bring me home. So the nurse asks me who brought me and what did he look like and I launch into: "Oh, yeah, my boyfriend brought me here, he's kinda TALLISH, and he's got a RED JACKET ON and a BEARD and GLASSES AND HE'S SOOOOOO CUTE...." At which point the nurse had already gone out to the waiting room and was bringing him back at about the time I was getting to the "cute" part, and upon seeing him I cut myself off- "OH THERE HE IS! HIIII HONEY, I'm ready to go get some pizza."

So that's one story we still laugh about. You'd have never known I had the dang surgery, and the sillies wore off about 10 minutes after that.

The second story happened after we had our son- I was in labor with him for about 32 hours and it ended in an emergency c-section. I was so tired that I couldn't keep my eyes open for pretty much any of it- I opened them to see my little guy as he was on his way to the NICU. I don't remember being wheeled up to post partum at all. When I finally woke up, it was 1:25pm- the boy was born at 8:01am. My husband (the tallish one, with the glasses and all) was passed out on a couch in the room. I woke him up, convinced that I had had the c-section a week ago. I just had NO concept of time at all.

Never been coded or sedated. Have been post-ictal and "coming to" after seizures. So scary. I never know where I am (I've never recalled that part, just been told). Tried to run away because I don't recognize anyone. I start to remember (after being told multiple times I'm sure) that I've had a seizure and where I am. I usually deny it happening. I've experienced this horrible feeling of dread or that I'm going to die (not because I'm in pain, just really scared). Then start crying because I'm so upset. Then I just want to go home and sleep.

After someone has a seizure, please please reassure them that they are fine. Explain where they are and what happened. It will probably take multiple times! Its terrifying.

Specializes in none.

I had a triple by-pass in Feb of this year. I was sedated for 24 hours. I closed my eyes and open them again 24 hours later.It was as though I just nodded off for a minute. I woke up asked what time it was and then closed my eyes again and 5 more hours passed by. Not even any dreaming.

Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.

Interesting to read all these stories and I'm glad to hear that my own experiences aren't terribly abnormal.

I've been intubated and vented....several times after ODing. (I really, really wanted to die when I was younger.)

I remember the time I self-extubated. I woke up, felt something stuck in my throat, and naturally felt the need to pull it out. I actually remember thinking that the panic of everyone around me was unneeded. I was absolutely convinced that I was at home...what are all these people doing in my house?

I think we get "it's like breathing through a straw" hammered into us like it's a religion. But it really is. It took a purposeful, active act to relax myself enough to make being intubated livable. Don't panic! again and again. I absolutely hated having visitors because they'd talk to me, stimulate me, want me to wake up. Obviously, I wasn't heavily sedated. Didn't have much in the way of pain 'tho, either. But I'd get into that zen moment where I was okay with breathing through a straw, kind of passing in and out of consciousness. (It's boring, btw. to be awake.)

Specializes in ICU, ER, EP,.

Asked daughter who was vented and had surgery after a car wreck. She simply has no memory of any of it. Mind you, she had a traumatic brain injury and short term memory is missing in several areas.

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