The Story-Part One

Here we go with the story of my Christmas vacation, courtesy of Valley and Deaconess hospitals.

I had been building up fluid, and it crept up on me so slowly that I didn't realize how sick I was actually getting. On November 31st, it reached the point where I was so sick Dawn said, that's it, you have to go to the emergency room. I begged her to just let me sleep, I was so tired and sick that all I wanted to do was sleep. Dawn almost gave in, but said no, you HAVE to go. In doing this, she saved my life.

It took me four hours to get ready, since I insisted on cleaning up before I went. You know how important it is to look okay when you're dying. After this bout of pig-headedness, I was done for. Couldn't even make it to the car. Dawn calls the ambulance.

So now I'm loaded up in the squad, and the medic and I talk shop for a minute, then things get hazy. I recall very little of the following, Dawn has given me all the lovely details.

I arrive at Valley hospital, and my breathing gets worse and worse. Each breath is slower to come then the last one, and I keep drifting off. Dawn keeps saying my name, telling me to wake up, so of course I start getting pissy! "Okay, Dawn!" Next thing she's waking me up again saying, "Joey, you're sleeping with your eyes open!" My response? I get all excited and tell her my brother and I tried for years to do that! For all you non-nerds, Gandalf slept with his eyes open in Lord of the Rings. Nice, eh?

Then I stop breathing, period...

ICU Delirium, or How to Entertain Friends and Family with Psychotic Behavior in Time of Crisis

Shortly I'm going to put together an account of my glorious month at Club Med, otherwise known as Deaconess ICU, the main reason being to spread the word about a phenomenon that can be scary and shocking for family members as well as patients. It's called ICU delirium.

ICU delirium has had several causes put forward, all or any of them as likely to be the cause as any other. Drugs, sensory deprivation, stress, pain, sleep disturbance, all these things play a part. The result is hallucinations, personality changes, fantastic imagery.

ICU staff sees it all the time, so it's no big deal to them, but to a family member who is suddenly being told about murder plots, wild fantasies, or having their sweet grandmother curse them in perfect four letter fluency it can be...unsettling. More soon. I will give you a preview by saying that I spent part of my time reciting the Lord of the Rings verbatim, although I'm not sure what started that one going, and at one point I was a pirate, doing my best Jack Sparrow and trying to stab Dawn with my suction tube...