Hospital Hallucinations

[butt-eze]

You would think that after 20 months of being out of the hospital some of my dreams/hallucinations would be less clear to me.
Today I was reminded of my misthoughts from when I first awoke from a three week coma in August 2006. Upon "coming to" I realized that the hospital I was in was a slow moving train. This presented complications for people who were trying to visit me in the hospital. If they were running late they would miss their stop to get on the train. This same morning I was surprised and irritated that the only food they had to feed me (literally had to spoon feed me) was all from McDonald's. I had to eat eggs and I don't like eggs!

I was also aggrivated because each morning supplies and plans were placed in my hospital room that detailed from Disney how they wanted each room painted and decorated. My frustration was that I could not be discharged until I completed the decorations in at least one room. I couldn't even get out of bed much less paint and decorate an entire room! So, each morning they moved me to another room with different supplies and different plans. Moving me didn't make a difference in my ability to paint and decorate. I had just spent 3 weeks in a coma! How did they expect me to do all of this. Disney was crazy!

Turns out I was a little crazy. I've been told since that the drugs they give you to put you in a coma and keep you there can cause crazy hallucinations when you're coming off of them. I'd say so!!!

Has anyone else had some "misthoughts"during hospital stays??? :ybatty:

 

[Guest]

well yeah, and no. not hallucinations to the extent you experienced (wow that must have been so weird!!), but i distinctly remember being doped up on morphine, lying in my hospital bed, and being mesmerized by the nurses floating along the ward about 4 inches off the floor. it was so lovely to watch....

the only other weird thing.. and i think there is possibly more to this than drugs... was while i was in intensive care for a week. i know after posting this i'll regret it, because you'll all think i'm a crackpot lol, but every word is exactly true, as i experienced it.

i had been through one op, then developed septicemia, peritonitis, and my lungs were filling up with fluid, had two more emergency ops, then put in ICU. i was really out of it, through illness and drugs, and time merged, days merged, it seemed one minute i opened my eyes and visitors were just arriving, next minute there was no-one by my bed, or so it seemed. i drifted in & out of consciousness for a week. i didnt move, just lay prone on the bed the whole time. now the weird thing is.. on my last day, when they had reduced the drugs & i was more aware of what was happening, the nurses were getting my attachments ready to move me to a different ward, and i asked how the boy in the corner was. one nurse asked who i meant - and i replied "the one who came in the other day, who is bandaged up from head to foot". they were speechless - then told me i had perfectly described another ICU patient who i couldnt have possibly seen, who had been in a bad car crash. i thought more about what i knew i had seen, and it eventually dawned on me - i had seen him from above. i had been looking down on him, from high up in the room, and saw him arrive, saw them fussing round him, and all i could see of him was white bandages from head to foot, apart from over his mouth & eyes. his eyes were closed. apparently i was really worried about him, and the nurse told me he was past the crisis, and had gone to a normal ward.

weird, huh?

 

[vickyoddsocks]

I rememeber being on a lot of morphine (well ,what i remember of it) and not being able to tell the difference between being asleep and awake - that wasnt very nice. And i think i called my nurse a f*****g b***h aswell. (Which is MASSIVELY out of character for me, im usually quiet and shy, and polite! lol!)

 

[Kev]

oh, morphine is a wonderful drug... and, as for thinking you're a crackpot, perish the thought. I think you're a dingbat. Bear in mind that this is coming from the guy who lived in a haunted house and saw a ghost frequently; and of course is of the opinion that his father contacted him from the other side (all without drugs as an excuse)... I do recall, tho not on drugs myself at the time, hearing folks who were on anesthetic (sodium pentathol or amytol) talking in the OR... One fellow said (and I swear) 'Hiya doc.. Nice place you got here. And this must be the little woman'.. And, another person, a prim, proper and highly esteemed/respected member of the fairer sex in our little town, talking like... wellll, welll... lets just say the most explicit, uncensored... amorous sort of expressions ... totally unexpected and out of character. You never know....

Hows that saying go.. "... than are dreamt of in our philosophy" (memory isn't what it used to be)... I have had hallucinations brought about from hi fevers; and they incorporated floating... now, were they hallucinations, or can a fever allow parts of our conscious to escape our 'mortal' sarcophogus (sp?). I ask this, as in hindsight, I don't believe my intellect or even imagination were up to the task of seeing the objects I saw in perfect perspective.. you know what I mean? I was really young at the time... and flights of fancy aside for the mo, I can't explain WHY the angles, images, perspectives were all correct AND real. If it was just a flight of fancy, why were all the scenes/images legitimate, and not ... purple elephants, or flying saucers, or unicorns flying off of merry go rounds?

That's what bothers me... why, if it was imagination, wasn't it more imaginitive AND less 'real'.. ? I think theres' more to it than just hallucination/imagination.

 

[Guest]

thanks kev, for not assuming i had lost the plot. i have actually told that tale very seldom, for fear of that look people give you when they think you're ready for the funny farm..

but yes - i know exactly where you're coming from. i do believe in 'extra senses' for want of a better expression, and have in recent years explored this area myself, but thats another topic for a different kind of thread..

the images i saw of the bandaged boy - i can only surmise it was what people call an oob (out of body experience). i cant find any other explanation for it, so thats what i 'think' i had. and - like other psychic experiences which i, and others, can relate to, i could to this day draw an exact picture of him, the scene, viewed from above, even though it was 20 years ago now.

i truly believe there is much more to the human mind and capability than we realise, and in particular when like you say, the details seen cannot be argued with.. we cant help but open our minds to other possibilities.

i think there is a difference between imagination, hallucinations caused by illness or drugs, and other experiences. absolutely.



btw, nice pic

 

[Wiles]

I was on morphine, but it was being pumped into my spine (having that thing put in was the weirdest sensation...). There's a term for it, epidural, I think?

Anyway, I didn't have any hallucinations, but it messed with my head. One day I woke up and tears started running from my eyes for no reason that I could comprehend. I remember wondering why I was crying, I wasn't unhappy or uncomfortable. I'm not usually the crying sort, so it was really weird. I was pretty embarrassed by it. Then later that day I had a full blown panic attack. I never really understood what people were talking about when they would say they had a panic attack. Now I do understand!

I was standing up while the nurses were changing my bed, and I suddenly had the intense desire to lay back down I NEEDED to lay back down. I told them that, but they were in the middle of making my bed. Then it just felt like the whole world was caving in on me. I had tunnel vision and I was starting to feel very bad. I don't really recall what happened next, but they let me lie down, and gave me happy pills that made it go away. Next day they removed the epidural (second weirdest sensation I've ever had!)

Even though I was off the morphine I think I was not myself for the rest of my stay.

 

[butt-eze]

I think a lot of people end up having a panic attack while in the hospital. I had my first panic attack in the hospital too. It was the worst, most helpless feeling ever! At the time I was immobile because I had just come out of my coma. So, I could hardly move to try to find a comfortable position while I felt like jumping out of my skin. Not a feeling I'd like to have again.
My doctor did allow me to take Ativan every sick hours after that but that did nothing to help.
Glad to be out of there!

Amy

 

[Guest]

i can completely understand the panic thing.. my very first panic attack was when i had recovered really well from that period in hospital mentioned above, then months later something happened and the team said i may have to go back in for further surgery. WHAM! massive panic attack and they lasted for years.

 

[Wiles]

I had another, but not nearly as bad one at a friends house, long after I was off pain medication. Makes me wonder if the meds, or the stress of being there has affected me in some long term way.

 

[Guest]

i think it does hang around, wiles, once you've had one. something can just trigger it off... the trick is knowing how to make it go away before it gets hold of you. horrid things, panic attacks

 

[num1habsfan]

When I was in the hospital last fall (the decided to keep me overnight), from one of my 'attacks', they put me on morphine and 2 other pain killers. I didnt really have any hallucinations, but I had strange health-wise feelings that I'm sure weren't real.
When she injected the morphine into my painful IV, I instantly couldnt breathe (that was no imagining) and had to be put on oxygen. I have horrible asthma and since I didnt know I'd be spending the night I didnt bring my inhaler with me.
When I was also sleeping from that heavy dosage, I SWEAR there were times that I wasn't getting any oxygen through the tubes. Even though it was hooked up and it obviously kept me breathing. Who doesnt feel air blown up their nose? . But at my highest drugged up times, thats what I thought was happening.

~ Lisa ~

 

[Rosemarie]

I've had hallucenations in the CAT scan (or was it MRI? I can never get them right) before.... I was admitted for a few days when the docs thought I had a stricture in my bowels. They gave me morphine, made me drink that weird salty stuff, injected me with some kind of white dye, and strapped me into the machine for almost 3 hours. I swear I kept seeing myself sit up or raise my arms or talk to a nurse... then I would open my eyes again and remember I was totally strapped down and all alone in the room. It was weird.
I've delt with panick attacks too... my first one happened about a week after I was diagnosed. While I was suffering from the wonderful symptoms of a complex fistula that the docs hadn't seen when they first examined me. I was laying in bed crying and miserable when my cat got startled by something loud and RAN at full speed. He tried to jump over my head, but totally MISSED and ended up running across my face... Left a HUGE scratch on my cheek and when I saw the blood I immediatly started panicking. It was the straw that broke the camels back I guess lol =) At the time it felt like the worst thing that could happen @ that particular moment... but now it's kinda funny.

OH YEAH... totally unrelated cause it happened when I was in 3rd grade... but its funny =)
I was in a car accident and stayed in the hospital for a few weeks recovering. The nurses must have given me something to help me sleep cause I remember being "out of it" and in and out of a deep sleep. I woke up one night and my food tray was still positioned over the bed, and my arm had somehow ended up resting ontop of the little table... it was the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes and all i could think was, "OMG. Who's arm is that??? OMG, someone's arm is on my table." LMAO =) I actually laid there scared for 10 min or so before I moved my hand without thinking and realized it was MY arm. I've never felt so dumb LOL.