TBI - Hospital Patient Treatment

There definitely were bumps and battles along the way during my hospital stay. That  is exactly what I remember  from earliest to last while admitted. 

My earliest memories of lying in the hospital bed include the following:
Note :
see post tbi care

I remember dreaming of wars, my eyes were bandaged and I was lost in battle someone leading but being I was still lost.  We finally got to the bright place and everyone was loved and at peace here. 
Note: see -

After Life Experience

When I came out of the coma I was told that I had used sign language to say “stop Mom”.  While I was in my coma my 80 y.o. mother had been poking me and irritating me and apparently got a response while I was in my coma and my family knew that I was being bothered by her.  Everyone got a big chuckle out of my signal.  I guess I owed them one.  I was told that I had put them through alot of  emotional distress up to this point. 

When my bandages first came off of my eyes the lights were very bright and my doctor  asked me “what do you see”.  Me being me  i.e. little miss sarcasm said: “ I see dead people” quoting the Bruce Willis movie.   Again, a big chuckle at my expense from my family.....but then again I asked for it.

Next I was asked a few my math skill questions. Such as what do you get when you add 13 to 2? I answered: “ a very cheap pair of ear rings”  again laughter at my expense.

One of the final questions was "where do you live"?   Not kidding this time with my answer, scouts honor here. I answered: “Regis Philbin”!  More of the same, chuckle, chuckle, hardy, har, har…..

 I just remembered some things I’d like to pass one.  Before the bandages came off of my eyes there was a stupid, awful, irritating tube  down my throat.  This I will never ever forget!  How I hated that thing and yes I remember now they had things going up in my nose too! Double UGH!  The reason that I remember this so vividly is because I kept pulling both of them out!  No sooner would the  nose  and the throat tubes  get pulled out by me then a nurse would be back in to jam them down the nasal passages and throat.  The only way to describe it while they’re going in is  that you feel as if you are suffocating yourself and you can’t stop it.  I would sit there and start to cry which certainly doesn’t help because everything in your mouth and nose start to constrict when one doest that.  Every muscle in your nasal passage and throat have to be completely relaxed when those tubes are slid into you.

Eventually something more awful then the tubes being inserted happened to me while I was at the first hospital.  They strapped me into the bed!!! Yes, they did! They did this  so I wouldn’t be able to pull the hoses out any more.  I said that I wouldn’t.  They didn’t believe me. ( I wouldn’t have either but it was certainly worth a shot)     The worst thing about the restraints was that I had been  diagnosed with panic disorder pre-accident and took Paxil every day  for it.   One of the worst things that you can do to a person with panic disorder is restrain them .  Even medicated it made me feel like I was going crazy.  I remember screaming out into the night darkness  HELP ME!!! ANYONE HELP ME!!!  No one came, no one answered.    This was my lowest of low during my entire stay at both hospitals and I have to state that it was not accident induced, a side effect of any medication but a result of ineffective care by the staff at the hospital.  I don’t know how but they should or could have done something differently for me in this case.  It was shear terror that I felt except for one similar incident that I felt at the next hospital in which that had to restrain me in a similar yet different way.

I’m jumping way ahead here but I said I would as this incident is so similar.  At this point I was at the tbi rehabilitation facility and it was at in patient facility in which I was not permitted to get out of bed alone.  I did not see this as reasonable as I thought that I was “capable”.   Their answer to this was to put an enclosure around my bed in which I could not escape. It was like a netted cage that completely encompassed my bed. They zipped it from the outside so I didn’t have access to any opening at all unless I rang for help.  Again, as I mention beforehand I have agoraphobia and can’t be in enclosed places or restrained and this didn’t work out to well for them however.  I was to blame in their minds.  Not them for mishandling the patient.  I only wanted to walk from my bed to the bathroom at night if I had to go.  Really, restraining was not necessary.

Wheelchairs were another issue. They wanted me to push my own but I didn’t want to do it some days.  I think some nurses were just lazy.  Sorry,  but it is what it is.  To make them I tried to prove my point by wheeling myself down the hall backwards and say how  is this for a liability issue;-) Not being permitted to  walk to the bathroom at night! HA!  Who got the last laugh there?

I'm inserting an edit here as I said that I would because I remembered something else horrible in my eyes as a pt. 
When I was in  the hospital and I think that it happened as soon as I was admitted.  It  was while I was in a coma to try and get my temperature down.  This is what they did. THEY PUT ME ON ICE SHEETS/BLANKETS!! Unbelievably cold, teeth chattering for what seemed to be hours on end but I'm sure that it wasn't.  They had to to get my temperature down to a level that it wouldn't effect my brain.

 Side note: Side Affects from TBI - Cognitive, sight, memory, neurological. a list of these that are affected by tbi can be found at.

As an aside I will admit to throwing cans of soda at the nurses as they walked in my room because they had never came to take me to the restroom when I had called for assistance to the restroom.  They had  left me to do my business in bed.  This also led me to calling 911 on the telephone several times because I thought that it justified an “emergency” situation.  When my sister (caregiver) was notified of this she did not find it humorous and was angry as a hornet when she found out why I had called 911 repeatedly.  She came to the hospital at once and had a word with the head nurse.  I never had to call 911 or throw another pop .  However  my attempt for “help” was not documented as  the staffs lack of attendance.   it was once again turned around on me as being a “difficult” patient.  Where's the justice there for tbi patients?