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Intensive Care: A Guide for You and Your Family
In the ICU – Information for family and friends
The ICU
What to expect
Treatments
Behaviour
What you can do
Looking after yourself
Dealing with relationships
When it’s your partner in the ICU
Helping your child
When your loved one leaves the ICU
If your loved one doesn’t survive
In the ICU – Information for patients
Your time in the ICU
Your healthcare team
Leaving the ICU
Going home
When you get home
Follow-up care
Your relationships
How you may feel
Your body
Making sense of your stay in the ICU
References and resources
It’s often hard to remember everything that’s happened to you and around you while you’re in the ICU. You’ve likely been asleep, sedated, or unconscious a lot of the time especially at first when you were critically ill.
You may have had vivid dreams, nightmares, or hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that aren’t really there), which can upset you. Some people think that the ICU staff were trying to hurt them because of the treatments they had. These feelings can be caused by your illness or the medicines used to help you get well again. If you have any of these feelings it can help to talk to someone you trust about this. This can be hard but you don’t need to be embarrassed about these feelings.
You’ll meet many people while in the ICU. Each has a specific role but they all work together to make up your healthcare team. If you have any questions about what they’re doing or why they came to see you please don’t hesitate to ask any one of the team.
Experience With Long-term Impact of ICU Delirium – Nadine Foster
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