The ICU
Suddenly I found myself out of Carnak and back in a hospital bed. “You’re awake!” said my mother; I had been in a coma for nearly four days. As I tried to lift my arms and hug my mom, I found myself paralyzed from the neck down and scared out of my mind. With each breath, I began to notice that it was not my lungs doing the breathing. As I looked around I noticed a long, plastic tube inserted down my nose; I was terrified. It was connected to a machine that was designed to help me breath; my right lung had collapsed and I was unable to breathe on my own. All I could think about was the continuous beep of the Ventilator as I struggled for a breath. If it was not for my family and friends, plus the support of the doctors and nurses, I would not have survived.
My doctor, David Tellez, was a great person besides being a great doctor. He is a huge racing fan and would always come in and talk to me about cars to get my mind off the hospital. Doctor Tellez always found time to come in a talk with me and my family because he knew we were stressed and just wanted to help. Whenever we had questions about anything, he always would make time to answer them personally.
The best part about Doctor Tellez were his “D.Q. runs.”
For about two weeks, I was being fed Pedia Lite through a tube in my nose and was unable to eat normal foods. As soon as the tube was taken out, Dr. Tellez came racing in offering me an M&M blizzard. Let me tell you, I have never tasted a better blizzard in my life. As my appetite returned, so did Dr. Tellez with his “D.Q. runs” and pretty soon, the nurses were getting in on our little excursions. If I were here any long, the ICU would be one hot tub away from a resort.
Everyday, a respiratory therapist would arrive in my room every four hours to do chest percussions. The feeling of the hard rubber mask being pounded on the side of my chest was excruciating; now I know what my welcome mat feels like. The continuous pummeling felt like it was doing more harm than good, but I just dealt with it. Another great experience was my rotating bed; my lungs were so bad that I needed to be constantly moving to keep my lungs from filling up with mucus.
As my month in the ICU came to an end, they decided to take the tube out of my nose and put in a Trach (A Trach is a small tube that is inserted into your throat through an incision in your neck). Although it did hurt to have the Trach, it was much better than the tube in my nose. I was now able to go outside to the hospital’s “Healing Garden”. For nearly a month, I was confined to a bed with whole world the size of a 3-foot window. For the first time in weeks I was able to stare up at the endless, blue sky and feel the wind against my face. It is amazing how many little things we take for granted and do not realize it until their gone. With my health slowly progressing, the doctors decided to transfer me to the “Sub-Acute Unit.”
The Sub-Acute Unit was designed for patients who were healthy enough to leave the hospital, but just not well enough to be discharged. The last day I was in the ICU all the doctors and nurses had a surprise for me; they all got together and sang their own version of the great Beatles song, “Yellow Submarine” as I was being transferred to the Sub-Acute Unit. My month in the ICU was an experience I will never forget; but nothing will prepare me for the events to come in next eight months.
