Don't remember first 12 days in hospital, anyone else?

[KML]

This last surgery in December was the toughest of all my surgeries but what amazes me is that except for a couple significant things, I don't recall the first 12-13 days in the hospital. I remember hugging my mom and telling her I'd see her in about 6 hours and then I remember things from the last 6-7 days I was there.

Has anyone else ever had this happen? It is pretty crazy, but my family and doctors say it is probably best because I was in extreme pain. I was in ICU for 4-5 days after the second surgery they tell me and had trouble controlling my pain w/ meds. I had fluid in my lungs and some respiratory problems. I only remember two things vaguely, when a ortho doctor passed out in my room (yes, for real) and when another patient visited me who I had been talking to prior to surgery ( I just remember saying hi and that she had a black shirt) I don't even remember my husband or mom being there for their first "shift".

I'm still bewildered by how my mind either blanked it out or I was so drugged that I just passed out for a week and half!

Thanks,
KML (Kim)

[LindaRacine]

Hi Kim...

I think it can be relatively common, depending on what drugs are given. You may have been given versed, or another drug that acts as an amnesiac. When you get a copy of your bill, check out the medications.

Regards,
Linda

[Diana Black]

Hi! I think you are lucky not to remember anything. My op was in two stages and straight after the first one I started hallucinating. i was convinced there were rats running up and down the ward, 'saw' a psychodelic snake, told some friends visiting to help themselves from the tea-urn (actually my respirator) and mistook my brother for a Jehovah's Witness! We all laugh about it now, but it wasn't fun at the time. I was also seriously convinced one night that the nurses were planning to murder me and kept begging to be sent back to Intensive Care, where I felt safe. There were plenty of other 'waking nightmares', where I twisted what was really happening into some weird version, normally very unpleasant. I do have 'blanks', too - remember nothing about my back-brace being fitted, for example. Has anyone else had anything like this? It was presumably the morphine, but I'd had that before and was fine, so I'm not sure.

[Sydney]

I just thought I would share my hallucination story. I had my revision surgeries April and May of 2005. Anyway, a dear friend brought me a Tigger balloon from Winnie the Pooh. Well one night that Tigger balloon turned into Michael Bolton singing that How am I supposed to live without you song and his hair was swaying in the wind. You want to talk about scary!!! My family thought I was nuts. It was so real though.

Anyway, I too don't remember much of anything. I think for me I have repressed a lot of it due to the pain and of course all of those medicines.

[sweetness514]

Funny stuff in this thread

I remember just about everything, just not the first moments when I woke up from my surgeries. The first time, my dad was there and I started talking to him in Italian really well(he's Italian) but my Italian is really rusty and I can barely get through a sentence anymore. Don't get it. I don't know all that I told him but he laughed after and said that I was like "hey, how's it going? Why are you in the hospital too?".

[lelc2002@yahoo]

I've heard a few that have my surgeon say they did'nt remember the first week & were aware the second week. sounds ok to me. Diane's account of rats is one I hope I avoid.......Ly aug surgery..

[Jer]

Such funny stuff and I thought I was the only person that has "black periods" after surgery. Mine however was not after my back surgery, strangely enough it was after my emergency intestinal surgeries. It lasted about two days, but my parents told me that I did talk to my friends whom visited me in the hospital. I couldn't recall a thing. Undoubtedly it had to be connected to the meds and the fact that it was a "traumatic" experience.

[HGD24]

I remember smal moments from my first 5 days in the hospital as I also had fluid in my lung and low blood oxygen levels, so was kept pretty out of it. I remember waking up in the recovery room and seeing my family, receiving flowers the following day from an uncle who was in Iraq at the time, and getting a blood transfusion on day 4. I also remember looking at the ceiling at different times seeing blue veins spreading out from the lights and blue bugs flying around my husband's head. I was in the special care intensive care unit for a few days and one day looked across the wall and asked my hubby when they installed the cabinets. He said they'd been there the entire time and I was adament that they weren't and they they must have installed them while I was sleeping and then asked how I could sleep through something like that. I was also adament about the veins and bugs which he kept telling me weren't there...I would just say "ok" and go back to sleep. It was a very strange experience at the time...but funny to look back at now.

[Abbyjo_21]

Hi-
With my first set of surgeries i had the same thing happen. When i had my very frist surgery and it went wrong after 9-10 hours under the knife, they closed me up and chose to re-do the surgery two days later. I remember coming out of the first surgery, and on my way back to my room, and then once i was in the room i remember hearing the phone ring and my mom telling the person on the phone that i would have to have another surgery, which was how i found out that something wasn't right. From then on I don't really remember anything for the next 5-6 days while in the ICU. I can't remember a thing about going in for the second surgery, even when apparently i was wide away, and talking like everything was fine. I was also awake pretty much 24 hours a day. I do remember a few things like when i thought my nurse was out of the room and told my mom that he had "gerble breath"...haha apparently all the meds you are on make peoples breath smell really bad...because i would always complain about that.
It still bothers me to this day just like not knowing what was going on..and like you said it's weird how it can just be a memory that's not there.
Sincerely,
Abby

[Jer]

[/QUOTE]
It still bothers me to this day just like not knowing what was going on..and like you said it's weird how it can just be a memory that's not there.
Sincerely,
Abby[/QUOTE]


Abby,

Yes, it bugs me too not know what went on. . . it is definitely a weird feeling to have. When the first surgery happened I was admitted Friday morning and they say they did the surgery on Sunday. I only recall waking up in the recovery room before they sent me to my hospital room. All I saw was the bed and the door illuminated, everything else was black. Black walls, black ceiling, & black floor.

[bbest]

I also hallucinated a few times. Weird feeling. I remember my mom was in my room in the ICU on day 2. I kept telling her to shush because the nurse in the hallway was trying to talk to me and I couldn't hear him. Turns out there was no nurse. I also was rambling on about how my mom should close the window in my room, because the Asian nurse was so thin and it was cold... "poor thing has no meat on her bones", I said. Yeah, she didn't exist and the window couldn't be opened. I also remember being convinced one of my nurses was trying to harm me. I fell asleep in my chair one night and it seemed like she left me there forever without checking on me or anything. I called for another nurse I saw in the hallway. I whispered for her to help me to the bathroom - carefully so as not to summon my nurse. Well, I finished in the bathroom and thought the kind nurse was behind the door waiting from me. Turns out it was the nurse I thought was out to get me . I had a serious Nurse Ratchet moment and couldn't wait for her shift to end. I tried to stay awake as long as I could that night. In hindsight, I am convinced I completely misjudged her and chalk it up to a case of medication induced psychosis!