13 replies to this topic

[Krazey]

It's been 3 weeks since my husbands accident. He's C5/C6, on a ventilator through a tracheostomy, with pneumonia. He is still being sedated because of the pneumonia to keep him comfortable and also because he is alcoholic and was having discomfort from withdrawal. I understand 100% that he needs the medication to deal with his illnesses and that he is not going to be himself so shortly after such a devastating injury. I just get this feeling that something is wrong with him mentally because of the accident. I would just like to describe my fear to you and see what feedback I get.

I visit him twice a week and there are times when he is just deep in sleep from the meds, but other times he is awake for the whole visit. When he is awake, he doesn't seem to recognize me or to understand what I'm saying to him. He will just stare at the wall or floor and then all of a sudden he will smile for no reason at all and it's like he's in his own world. He will nod yes or no sometimes but a lot of the time he just looks at you like he doesn't understand.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'd like to know if anyone else experienced this in the first weeks of their recovery. Do the meds affect your mind so much that you appear to have brain damage? Or might he really have suffered some brain damage even though he didn't have a head injury? He lay on his floor for 12 hours after his accident before someone found him and called the ambulance...and he stopped breathing in the ambulance for a few minutes.

Am I just being too impatient or should I be asking his doctors to look into it? Sorry if I'm being a naive newbie but I'm got an awful feeling.

[mcwriter]

Definitely bring this to the doctors attention!

Even if they tell you what it could be, keep observing closely and keep after them. Update them every time you see them and don't let them blow you off! They do not know him or his normal behavior. You must tell them that his behavior is not normal for him. You must press them to check him out!

Do you know how long he was not breathing? It only takes 3 minutes not breathing for brain cell damage to occur and 5 minutes for brain cell death to occur!

Has anyone figured out what happened during those 12 hours?

I have seen this both ways...
My husband was in a roll over accident some years ago and among other things did have a head injury, but no one was aware that something was wrong but me.

On the other hand, at one point my mother-in-law was in the hospital and answering the nurses questions just fine, but some of this and other behavior was not normal for her. We found out in her case she was being over medicated and when they lowered the dosage she went back to normal.

Edited by mcwriter, 30 October 2010 - 04:03 AM.

[Krazey]

mcwriter, on 30 October 2010 - 03:30 AM, said:

Definitely bring this to the doctors attention!

Even if they tell you what it could be, keep observing closely and keep after them. Update them every time you see them and don't let them blow you off! They do not know him or his normal behavior. You must tell them that his behavior is not normal for him. You must press them to check him out!

Do you know how long he was not breathing? It only takes 3 minutes not breathing for brain cell damage to occur and 5 minutes for brain cell death to occur!

Has anyone figured out what happened during those 12 hours?

I have seen this both ways...
My husband was in a roll over accident some years ago and among other things did have a head injury, but no one was aware that something was wrong but me.

On the other hand, at one point my mother-in-law was in the hospital and answering the nurses questions just fine, but some of this and other behavior was not normal for her. We found out in her case she was being over medicated and when they lowered the dosage she went back to normal.

From what I understand he had his accident around 2am, got up and walked around and asked for a ride home. He was taken home and helped into an arm chair and left alone to sleep it off. No one wanted to bother him because he does drink and sleep late but around 2pm the next afternoon someone finally found him slumped in the chair already paralyzed. He was speaking and asked to be moved to the couch,which he was, and asked for the ambulance to be called. While being loaded into the ambulance he stopped breathing and then started again on his own..don't know how long he stopped for or if it happened again on the way to the hospital. I got word of the accident about 4pm and finally got to see him around 7pm he was already sedated and has been in ICU ever since. We've been told it was just because of the sedation that he is acting so dopey, but I have a heavy feeling in my gut. I'm going up tomorrow to meet with his doctor but wanted to get an idea if I'm just rushing his recovery too much.

[mcwriter]

Listen to me carefully...

when you go and talk to the doctor, he may very well try to tell you that it is the medication, that it is too early to tell anything or some other thing. Ask about tests that can be done. Ask for a neurologist to check him out. Ask them what kind and when.

Keep after them! If you do not get the action on this go to see the Patient Advocate of the hospital and they will help you.

You have to be the one to stand up for your husband, to stand up for his care and wave that red flag in their faces if you have to.

Be calm, assert yourself and be firm, but not hostile.

And please let us know how both of you are doing, okay?

Edited by mcwriter, 30 October 2010 - 04:40 AM.

[Krazey]

mcwriter, on 30 October 2010 - 04:39 AM, said:

Listen to me carefully...

when you go and talk to the doctor, he may very well try to tell you that it is the medication, that it is too early to tell anything or some other thing. Ask about tests that can be done. Ask for a neurologist to check him out. Ask them what kind and when.

Keep after them! If you do not get the action on this go to see the Patient Advocate of the hospital and they will help you.

You have to be the one to stand up for your husband, to stand up for his care and wave that red flag in their faces if you have to.

Be calm, assert yourself and be firm, but not hostile.

And please let us know how both of you are doing, okay?

Thank you very much mc...I was starting to feel like I was being an alarmist...I will report what I find out tomorrow...

[mcwriter]

Good luck to you.

I will keep you in my thoughts.

[sublux]

mcwriter is absolutely right on this. You know your husband better than anyone else, and you can provide the best insight into his behavior. You are the one person who can be his best advocate in this situation. Don't hesitate to ask questions of the doctors, and tell them everything you observe about him. They don't know him as well as you do, and they don't spend as much time with him as you do.

People do strange things both post-injury, and while they're heavily medicated. I know at one point I was in such excruciating pain that I felt the only way to convey my pain to the hospital staff after waking up was to immediately start ripping out all of the IVs and lines they had in me. I literally felt there was no other way to communicate to them how much I was hurting. It made complete sense to me at the time, but I was also under heavy narcotic sedation. I was later told that I looked like a maniac.

[Tetracyclone]

Krayzee,

Ditto McWriter's advice. The people who get good care are the one's with a family member deeply involved and willing to make a pest of themselves. Good doctors will appreciate the info from someone who know's the patient well.

Whatever has happened is done, and now the slow job of healing begins. Even with brain damage people get much better over time.

Prayers are with you.

[Trinity]

The drugs can seriously screw with your mind, until he is off the drugs it is very difficult to make an accurate assessment of his neurological function. As for the staring and random smiling it is quite probable that the drugs are making him hallucinate, they also give you a type of temporary amnesia. Please do discuss your concerns with the doctors, also discuss your concerns with the nurse at the bedside, they are the ones who have the most contact with him and should have a good idea about what is going on.

[mcwriter]

Gee whiz, is krazey going to tell us what happened?

[Krazey]

Sorry, I've taken so long to update I did meet with the social worker, his nurse and his doctor. The doctor assured me that he is not worried at all about brain damage. It turns out that after testing, my husband has emphysema...which is making it harder to clear his pneumonia...which in turn is making it take longer to wean him from the ventilator. The keep him sedated to keep him comfortable with the ventilator and also alcohol withdrawal and the meds are making him goofy. I've been to see him him a few times since my last post and he DOES seem to be a little better...still goofy, but better. I guess I freaked out because it was taking longer to get the ventilator off than we had originally been told...not dr's fault..smoker's fault.

I feel much better now..and thanks for encouraging me to ask about his mental state...I was afraid I was just being his surrogate hypochondriac.

[mcwriter]

Thanks for the update.

Somehow it always makes things a little easier to deal with and understand when you get answers.

And look!--you learned a new thing and now you know to go ahead and assert yourself and find out when you have questions.

Good Luck to you.

[Krazey]

I was reading through my posts and thought I'd update this one. My ex is doing a lot better 2 1/2 months after his injury. He was very confused, agitated, hallucinating, etc when he started coming back to reality. The doctor's thought it had to do with the combination of his injury, medications that he was on and also the effects of 30 years of drinking and using drugs. I feared he had brain damage but it turns out his brain is okay. He is very lucid now and understands everything.He has no memory of the accident and first couple of weeks in the ICU but is now on the long road to recovery. Just in case someone else finds themselves in the same situation

[GoldenYears]

Newbe, I too wondered the same things when PawPaw was injured. It was awful. I stayed with him, sleeping in his room and taking care of him until we transported him to the VA Spinal Unit. I stayed only one night with him in the Spinal Unit because it was clear as a bell those Nurses were instantly on top of everything 24/7. Thereafter, I went every morning and stayed all day. And our children and friends came every day as well. This was a terrible time, a really long 3 months, and it was exhausting. If his Doctors didn't make themselves available for an honest chat with us, I went to their office.

He was injured in May 2010, and came home in July 2010, and now it's December and things really are getting better.

The shock, the injury, the meds, the psychological dynamics of such an injury all contribute, I think, to what you are seeing, but I would definately ask about his O2 levels and the O2 mix he is receiving as well as getting a list of all his meds and the full extent of his injuries. The Medical Team should have already established a date to talk with you and the family, but since they haven't, you do it. Did he have some surgery? It sounds like he did.

My good wishes go to you, my Dear, and a big hug as well. This transformation you and he are facing is not an easy path, but it's not impossible.