Question:
can anyone please explain to me what it feels like to wake up and be on a ventilator.
what exactly do you feel? does it feel like it is breahting for you or do you breath and it stops? do you breath thru your nose or mouth? — LAURA G. (posted on June 26, 2001)
June 26, 2001
Right before surgery the anethesiologist told me he would probably wake me
with the ventilator still down my throat and put me on my C-pap machine
from there.
This is what I remember: I vaguely remember looking at my husband and
pointing at my throat and mouthing "I can't breathe." He says
they had the ventilator on me for 4 or more hours after surgery. There was
a glitch with my c-pap. But the point is I was so in and out, that's about
my whole memory of that. And if my husband hadn't filled me in, I'm not
sure I would have any memory other than that one. Evidently i relaxed,
(probably passed out from pain meds) and let it do the work. When I really
woke up, it was gone.
— Sue H.
June 26, 2001
The tube will most likely be in your throat, you will not be able to talk
(it literally goes between your vocal cords)and it feels odd because the
air goes into the tube directly to your lungs so you dont feel the air in
your nose or your mouth. (have you ever scuba dived ???) the best part is
they will keep you as sedated as possible to keep you calm. GOOD LUCK !!!
— Ronda L.
June 26, 2001
That was the most unpleasant feeling I've ever experienced. Not as in
painful, but - I just felt like I was suffocating. It was supplying all the
oxygen I needed in my lungs and they kept reassuring me of that, but I just
had the most intense "need" to "take a DEEP breath" -
and you cannot do that - it just keeps you going with really shallow little
breaths - hour after hour....I did NOT like that feeling at all and if it
wasn't for all the pain medication, I probably would have really panicked.
I was SO glad when they took it out!!
— Cathy J.
June 28, 2001
I was the vent for almost three weeks. Most of the time I was in a coma,
but I do remember when I woke that I also had the suffocating feeling. The
machine was breathing for me, but I was also struggling to breathe on my
own, at my own pace and i fought the machine - this was difficult. I
remember pointing to it and motioning for them to take it out. At one point
I pulled it out on my own. They re-intubated me then tied my hands down. I
do remember after the vent was removed I had A TON of mucus for WEEKS. They
had to give me a hand held suction wand so I could drain the mucus from my
mouth on my own. It was thick and white and I do remember that after a
certain amoutn of time, It calcified. I had so much mucus that I never
slept because I was afraid I would drown in it.
— Trisha V.
January 24, 2004
HORRIBLE!! I am a ventilator nurse, and when I had my tonsils out, I said
over and over that I did not want to wake up on the vent....and I did.
Suffocating is what it felt like. And I gagged and gagged. It also felt
weird that I could not take a deep breath. Please! DO NOT PANIC!! I did,
and I was almost re-intubated from it. I went into bronchospasm (where your
airway closes...for real). The nurses kept saying...be calm, be calm...but
it was very hard. It sort of felt like releasing a bull into a china
shop...thrashing around, gasping, and crying. I found out later that if the
team had taken me seriously when I told them ahead of time that waking up
on a vent would set me off into a panic, there could have been some
medicine that might have helped.
— Andrea L.
January 24, 2004
Laura,
I really didn't feel that the breathing was unusualy, but my saliva would
build up quickly. After the second day, the nurse gave me the
vacuum(rather like the one the dentist uses) to suction myself. You can't
cough on your own. The nurse has to help. I don't know why you are
asking; I hope it isn't too serious. I wouldn't have been on the vent if I
had been diagnosed earlier with sleep apnea.
— Janis D.
August 31, 2004
I am an asthmatic so I have found myself on a ventolator many times in the
past. It is not one of my favorite experiences but if you stay calm you
will get through it. You will be able to breathe fine but there will be
alot of mucus and saliva and you won't be able to swallow it so that will
be weird. Just be as calm as possible and discuss your concerns with your
surgeon ahead of time and you will do fine. Kathi
— kpratt2
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