Intro
I thought a lot on what to name this report. Is it back to life or back on my feet? I do not know, and I will leave it open for now. However I need to start with a trigger warning. This post (and following) will contain profanity, nsfw, and descriptions of my hallucinations and ptsd, which may be disturbing for readers. But I feel for sharing my story, as it might be an inspiration for one or the other.
tl;dr
For those who don’t want to read all the postings: on Jan 31st 2022 I had a colon disruption, I spent 17 days in a coma, and when I was woken up, I was suffering from CIS (Critical Illness Polyneuropathy) caused by the sepsis which harms the nerves to the muscles, so I couldn’t move at all. The nerves will regenrate by themselves, but I needed to relearn everything, from swallowing, over talking, moving my fingers etc. This is a very long process, and the prognosis is one year until you can walk again. I am currently at day 135 when starting this post.
Before
For the last few years I was suffering from belly cramps, and often consulted my doc, I was x-rayed, ultrasonic examinations, CET, and several colonoscopy. There was never found a cause for my cramps. The days before day 0 I kept having cramps on and off.
Day 0 - Pain
I left work early, because I had cramps again, but on a bearable level. I went home and layed on my couch to take a nap. I woke up in the evening with enormous pain. My belly muscles and colon were moving like the part in the Alien Movie just before the alien broke through the abdominal wall. I was screaming of pain, and it was way beyond anything I ever experienced. I managed to call my mother (who lives in the house next to mine) and she called an ambulance. Lucky for me, there was an ambulance just next block which was on its way back from a patient transport, and had been ordered to my address. Two minutes later my doorbell rang, I was hoping for my mother to be there, to open the door, but she wasn’t there yet. I got up with the little bit rest of strength and opened the door, the ambulance staff was additionally banging on my door. I got back to my couch, and then everything faded and I have no memory of what happened next. I was told afterwards by my mother what happened:
The staff gave me first an examination, I obviously was still able to tell them what was wrong, and they decided to call for an emergency doc, who arrived shortly after. I was given heavy pain killers and after that I was covered in a kind of blow up jacket, to protect me from any harm while being transported. That whole procedure lasted one hour according to my mom, but I don’t have any memory of it.
I was transported to the next hospital, where an emergency surgery was performed. I used to have a very large belly, like a pregnant woman. The assistant surgeon told me later that after they performed the first cut, a lot of gas escaped and my belly collapsed to a “normal” size. The surgery lasted 5 and half hours, and they repaired my colon (they took out about 15cm) and cleaned everything, after stool was everywhere and was already causing a heavy sepsis. Additionally they gave me an ostomy, after they decided to keep me in a longer coma, after the sepsis shock might have been deadly.
I will keep posting what happend, my next post will be about the halucinations I had during my coma
