Newcastle ITU

Chris was in ITU for 4 days, at first he was kept heavily sedated on on a breathing apparatus, he was being fed a liquid feed direct to his stomach. Gradually the sedation was reduced and then the fun started.  Although extremely unwell he did not like the ventilator down his throat or the tube down his nose so spent all the second night pulling them out! Louise told me she had been kept busy all night and eventually they decided to let Chris breath on his own. To stop him doing any more mischief he had to wear a large mitten on his good hand!

Communication was difficult, it mostly consisting of asking him if he was ok or wanted anything and he would "speak" with his eyes.  Obviously it was a very difficult time for Chris and we didn't know how much he could comprehend so all we could do was reassure him that we were there.  One morning he was desperately trying to tell me that something had happened to his head, he kept raising his "mittened" hand to his forehead and "speaking" with his eyes he indicated that it hurt - all I could do was tell him I knew and that he was not alone.

Only John and I went into see Chris whilst he was in ITU, Ceri as John's wife could have gone in to see him but she was by then suffering from a heavy cold so we left her in the waiting room where we had spent the first evening, unfortunately this was then also occupied by another large, noisy family who took over the room!

One afternoon I was asking him if he was ok and he quietly said "yes" I asked him if needed anything! he said "no".   I told Louise, she said that was good.

However, I hadn't realised that this meant nothing as the hospital staff needed to hear him speak (they needed to know he wasn't brain damaged and a spouse could say they heard him speak to make them believe he was ok). So that evening the Matron Angela spent hours with Chris making him speak, when I went in the next morning the staff were so excited as he could say Yes and No.

I was sad but pleased when they said Chris could be moved onto the acute ward, it meant we were moving to next stage of his recovery but they had been so wonderful in ITU.