What's new
By:
Filters

What is it like to be in a coma? My covid story.

Fullsize80cherokee said:
Curious how do you test your blood 02? I have a fancy watch that does but I don’t really trust it. I’m often around 2 miles above sea level and almost never below 8,000’ so I see readings in 82-98% daily and don’t really feel any difference.
Click to expand...

They use the same thing as this:

Just a better quality and with actual calibration. Unless you are working out and breathing super hard, you should be in the mid 90s. At 10,000 ft, its not healthy to be in the 80s normally. There have been some studies on how chronic low o2 hurts you.
 
DRTDEVL said:
I was able to breathe, but barely. My O2 saturation would not rise above 75%, though, and that was with a CPAP on the maximum safe setting. Any higher would have damaged or ruptured my lungs.
Click to expand...

Dang. I grandma had a 76% when she came to visit me. She couldn't walk, wasn't making sense, and ended up in the ER. I'm surprised you were lucid at that level.
 
DRTDEVL said:
I believe it is my overly active workaholic lifestyle that saved me more than anything. I don't quit, and I will do anything that I put my mind to. I am one stubborn SOB. I walked into the ER at 65, 248. I now only weigh 191 lb.
Click to expand...
65% O2?
 
AK_F250 said:
Gf and I both got it twice, exactly 3 months apart. She has a fucked immune system from a still unknown condition (thanks military docs) and I take humira injections for psoriatic arthritis which also compromises my immune system.
Click to expand...


OP, interesting story. Glad you're getting better

We've had it twice as well. The second time has been brutal but no hospital thankfully, I did get my first hemorrhoid in 59 yrs, from coughing so much. Fook that
 
scooter2374 said:
Was actually going to start a "Welfare check on DRTDEVL" thread when I got back from my trip. Glad my beer partner made it.
Click to expand...
Thanks for looking out, you aren't the only one.

My neighbor across the street was out of town when I went in the er. The day I was put under we had 8 to 9 in of snow. In September I had bought a John Deere 125 skid and was looking forward to moving snow with it this year. When he came back in town, he noticed not a single bit of snow had been moved on my property. That immediately let him know something was wrong, because it had been 3 days since the snow had fallen. He went across the street knocked on the door and spoke to my wife, only to find out what had happened to me.

Ever since then, he has been plowing my driveway free of charge whenever it snowed all winter.

On December 15th, a line of powerful storms came through southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa spawning tornadoes and serious straight line winds. It took out several trees on our property, one of which fell across the very end of our driveway, blocking my wife from getting in and out. She was out there with a flashlight investigating and talking to another neighbor about some trees that fell on the shed from our property. That neighbor told her not to worry about it, and we'll figure something out in the spring when I am home. A couple hours later, she heard Donnie's truck from across the street fire up, and he just crashes into the tree and pushes it off the driveway so she can get in and out. The following day, she heard a couple chainsaws running and he and his brother were out there cutting the tree up. When the saws stopped and she heard silence, she went out and looked only to find the tree completely gone. She had no clue where it was. When I heard that story, I called him up and asked what he did with the tree.. he said he took the branches and put it on my brush burning pile, and the trunk and limbs were cut, split, and stacked on my firewood pile at the back of the property. Who does something like that for their neighbor? He is a godsend.
Fullsize80cherokee said:
so you never even stayed in the Iowa hospital? 100% dream, very cool you have those details..
Click to expand...
No, I reported to the emergency room at the Mayo clinic Austin campus in our town, where I was taking by ambulance up to Rochester's main campus.
Pt_Ranger_v8 said:
Awesome to hear you're still in the land of the living.

Also, the COVD diet with hospital stay path is not the fun way to lose weight :flipoff2:

We'll be praying for you - and sending happy thoughts :smokin:
Click to expand...
Apparently, on the day I woke up, I recommended to my wife that she not catch covid. She said "thanks, I hadn't thought of that!"
jpmassey said:
Dang. I grandma had a 76% when she came to visit me. She couldn't walk, wasn't making sense, and ended up in the ER. I'm surprised you were lucid at that level.
Click to expand...
I have been hallucinating since the evening prior, I attributed to that to low oxygen and the 105° fever. I was standing in front of our guest bedroom window, drenching myself periodically with water from the laundry room sink, half naked, with the window wide open in december.
jpmassey said:
65% O2?
Click to expand...
72%
 
Welcome back to the land of the living my friend, you've been asleep for quite a while.
Glad you have that fight in you that kept yourself around to share such an intriguing story. Your neighbor is one hell of a good person, 🍻

:usa:
 
DRTDEVL said:
Pardon the spelling and odd words that may enter this post, my hands have too many tremors to actually type so I am using voice to text.

As stated in the beer exchange thread, I was placed in a medically induced coma on December 11th, where I remained for 38 days. Many people wonder what the experience is like.. can you hear? Do you know what's going on? Do you see anything? In my experience, it was a 38 day long lucid dream. You know, where everything could be real yet is just slightly off from reality? If you ever watch that show 911 Lonestar, as stupid as the scenarios are, the second episode of this season portrays this in an eerily accurate manner. I had the 'joy' of seeing this episode mere days after waking up and being transferred to the respiratory Care unit. It left me stunned and shaking with its accuracy.

In my lucid dream during that time, I was a covid patient. All of the hospitals in the upper Midwest had been overrun and there was no room for anybody to get in. I needed to get in the hospital or I would die from covid pneumonia, and the government had sent out Army reserve units to set up mobile hospitals in all of the smaller communities in the area. The entire time, I was searching for one that had a bed for me, going from place to place to place. Finally, in some random community in west-central Iowa I found bed space. Upon admission, I realized every one of the nurses working there were medics that I had served with in Germany and Iraq 15 years ago.

See what I mean about not quite reality but could be?

Within the dream, there were choices to be made, and there was was always the easy way out or a difficult path forward. The easy way out would have been to just go home and hope for the best. The difficult Way Forward was to drive on, barely able to breathe, and keep digging to find bed space. Once I found a bed, the choices suddenly became different. My memory of this part is a little bit fuzzy, but it involved some game being played by the medics that had a butterfly effect on everything around us. Some choices involved an easy way out, some choices involved a lot of death and destruction worldwide. I continued to choose the difficult path forward, because I somehow knew that anytime I took the easy way out, that would be my last breath in the real world.

Prior to admission, I made a promise to my wife that our son would not grow up without his father and that I would make it through this alive. I always try to maintain being a man of my word, and I was not going to fail in this mission. Upon my admission to the ICU, I told the doctor to do everything possible to save my life up to the point of intubation, and that we would have that conversation if the time came that it would be necessary. 18 hours later, I was told they would need to intubate. I told them no, I have to get back to my son. They said no, you don't understand. In order to get back to your son the only way is to be intubated now. I asked is this the last, best hope of seeing him again? The doctor responded by saying "sir, this is your only chance at survival."

I know the numbers, and I know the odds. 80% of those who go on the vent do not come through it alive. I was determined to be a part of the 20% that did, hence always taking the difficult path forward. I don't know how I pulled it off, there are at least five separate instances that occurred that should have killed me, from strokes, to infections, even a yeast infection of the lungs while on the vent. Each one of those could have killed me instantly, yet somehow I fought through it all.

Since I'm still going to be holed up in the hospitals physical rehabilitation unit for the next 5 days, I should have plenty of time to answer any questions y'all might have about my experience. Fire away!
Click to expand...
you made it to iowa from texas searching for a bed?
 
Did it seem like you were asleep for 38 days? Or was it over with a blinl of an eye?

Thank you for posting. Great reading.

At my work people have gotten the Rona hundreds of times, or so they claim. Figured they are just using it to get time off. Too bad we never know the truth. At least if you are faking it, well done sir!
 
Tiha said:
Did it seem like you were asleep for 38 days? Or was it over with a blinl of an eye?

Thank you for posting. Great reading.

At my work people have gotten the Rona hundreds of times, or so they claim. Figured they are just using it to get time off. Too bad we never know the truth. At least if you are faking it, well done sir!
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if I it felt like 38 days, but it was not over in a blink of an eye. It went on and on and on. I didn't know it was 38, and was shocked that it was mid January when I woke up. I felt like it was closer to a week to two weeks.

I remember specifically when I first woke up and was alert, they were asking me the regular questions you know what's your name, do you know where you are.. and a voice behind me spoke up and said "give him an easy one, ask him what year it is." All I can say was "it's already January?":laughing:
 
DRTDEVL said:
Thanks for looking out, you aren't the only one.

My neighbor across the street was out of town when I went in the er. The day I was put under we had 8 to 9 in of snow. In September I had bought a John Deere 125 skid and was looking forward to moving snow with it this year. When he came back in town, he noticed not a single bit of snow had been moved on my property. That immediately let him know something was wrong, because it had been 3 days since the snow had fallen. He went across the street knocked on the door and spoke to my wife, only to find out what had happened to me.

Ever since then, he has been plowing my driveway free of charge whenever it snowed all winter.

On December 15th, a line of powerful storms came through southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa spawning tornadoes and serious straight line winds. It took out several trees on our property, one of which fell across the very end of our driveway, blocking my wife from getting in and out. She was out there with a flashlight investigating and talking to another neighbor about some trees that fell on the shed from our property. That neighbor told her not to worry about it, and we'll figure something out in the spring when I am home. A couple hours later, she heard Donnie's truck from across the street fire up, and he just crashes into the tree and pushes it off the driveway so she can get in and out. The following day, she heard a couple chainsaws running and he and his brother were out there cutting the tree up. When the saws stopped and she heard silence, she went out and looked only to find the tree completely gone. She had no clue where it was. When I heard that story, I called him up and asked what he did with the tree.. he said he took the branches and put it on my brush burning pile, and the trunk and limbs were cut, split, and stacked on my firewood pile at the back of the property.
Click to expand...


DRTDEVL said:
Who does something like that for their neighbor?
Click to expand...

Good people do, that’s who. And we need more of them.
 
Dude ! What a story !

Big welcome back, you're a tough SOB ! :smokin:
 
Thank you for sharing your story! Please keep fighting to get better!
 
I am glad that you made it and thanks for telling your story. I know a few different people that were vented for weeks and lived that are in their 50s and early 60s. I have got to let my wife read this because my 82yo father in law was put on a vent last night.
 
Fullsize80cherokee said:
Curious how do you test your blood 02? I have a fancy watch that does but I don’t really trust it. I’m often around 2 miles above sea level and almost never below 8,000’ so I see readings in 82-98% daily and don’t really feel any difference.
Click to expand...
Finger pulse oximeter. I have the same one that the Dr. office uses. I think it was $75.
 
Weasel said:
dude shut up and learn something. Obviously it did work and DD is still here.

Thats a crazy experience, glad you where able to keep your word to your family.
Click to expand...
There is nothing to learn. If you don't know that putting people on the vent is killing them then you have not been paying any attention at all. And you can kindly fuck off. :flipoff2:
 
Man what an ordeal, so good to hear you are doing better.

Sounds very similar to the account of my coworker's dad, I have posted about him here somewhere. I would be very grateful that you still have kidney function, Whatever they gave him to fight the MRSA in his lungs jacked his up permanently.

It is wild to me that you got hit that hard after contracting it twice before, almost like you got hit by the OG corona rather than Delta or Omicron. I have taken a hardline stance on a lot of the Covid BS happening but it is in the back of my mind that we don't know everything about this thing and why it kicks some peoples asses the way it does. It seems to find any weakness and exploit it to the fullest.
 
Damn that's a hell of a story. Glad you are on the mend.

First thing I thought of reading your story was this.
www.npr.org

Trapped In His Body For 12 Years, A Man Breaks Free

Martin Pistorius spent more than a decade unable to move or communicate, fearing he would be alone, trapped, forever. NPR's new show Invisibilia tells how his mind helped him create a new life.
www.npr.org www.npr.org

They sat this kid in front of a TV for 12 years watching Barney. He was mentally aware but physically unable to do anything. Hating every minute of it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Back Refresh