ICUsteps

[Del]

I was happy to find this board but see that it doesn't get alot of posts. Are there any other boards similar to this one? I think it is an excellent idea. My dad is currently in ICU...this is his fourth visit to ICU since June. He was given an overdose of coumadin and has been suffering health issues ever since. I think my biggest complaint about ICU is the very few hours that we are allowed to visit my father. He is in a room and hardly ever visited by nurses unless he needs something, so what difference does it make if I'm there or not? I travel a long distance to get to the hospital and spend more time in the lobby than seeing him. I understand that they need to keep the floor free of tons of family, but it should be decided on a case by case basis who can see who depending on the patient and what his/her situation is.

I hate to think that these are my dad's last days and I'm spending them in a lobby.

The other thing that irks me is how LOUD the nurses are. talking and joking around and carrying on. My father's room is near the nurse's station and there are nights he can't sleep, he keeps telling me that they are having a party there. The floor doesn't get quiet until around 3 am. I am expected to keep decorum while visiting, shouldn't staff do the same? I can understand they need to talk and blow off steam...but I'm talking LOUD laughing and joking around.

Okay I think i'm done with my rants. I hope noone else has to go through our family has gone through because of the drug coumadin/warfarin.

[Phill]

Hi Del

I was lucky that when I was comatose, I don't think I heard a thing but some of my dreams say different.
I feel that I must say noise did not bother me as there was beeps and bangs and sirens going off all the time. But the main reason for my reply. I have over the years made friends with people from the emergency services. From what they see and have to do, a sense of humour and a release of pressure may not always come when it's appropriate. But they have to release just like we do, I am surprised that they did not keep quite when requested to. From my experience I was happier when the nurses were smiling and joking.
I think the old saying "It only takes one" can turn things around. I would suggest that you request a meeting with the nurse in charge and ask why you cannot have a more flexible visiting period as the distance you travel etc. I hope all goes well and things are resolved to everybody's satisfaction.
_________________
We all have something to share.

[Emmajulia4]

HI all
Reading the reply from the person who father is in icu and was in a room on his own, with visiting restricted and the nurses being loud.
I can highlight this. My husband has been in icu for 11 weeks sedated for 5weeks before they could find out what the problem was. He kept getting pneumonia and sepsis and it was discovered that he had a hole in his stomach leading through the diaphragm into the lung. This was possibly from a previous operation 5 weeks earlier. Hence when they were feeding him the food was entering his lungs. Following a 2nd operation he has slowly recovered but has only been weaned from the ventilatorafter another 5 weeks.
He also states the noise that is in the icu unit banging of bins the load laughter of the nursing staff. The visiting hours are 2 blocks of 2 hours which I find useful as it gives you a time to go for a break myself.
Although this icu psycosis is well known nothing seems to be done about it. The staff seem to treat it as a joke when to the patient it is real, my husband is a very frightened man who feels the nurses are trying to plot against him to end his life, he keeps saying he is woken all the time throughout the night with bins banging and lights going on so he thinks he is being tourtured with sleep deprivation, although this is the use of the unit it is very distressing for the awake patients. I feel things are not explained fully and he lies there trying to make sence of what he has heared. For example he has had problems swollowing and the nurses have told him he will be nil by mouth until they can get the team in to assess his swallowing this is in 2 days due to no tests completed on the weekend, so he thinks he will be having nothing to eat or drinkl for 2 days so will dehydrate and die. I had to explain that he is being fed via his nasel tube so he is getting food and fluid all in one, he had worried about this for hours before I explained this.
Visiting I find very stressfull as he just wants to come home which is impossible until he is mobile and breathing completely on his own.