Redditors who have come out of a coma that lasted a year or more, what was the experience like?

1. My sister was in a coma for 8 months. She had severe septic shock and many large wounds on her body from being bedfast for months. She had many weird dreams during that time. The weirdest she told me was that her friend came to her and my sister asked "am I going to die?" and the friend said, "no, but i'm dead". When my sister woke up, she learned that her friend indeed had died a couple of months earlier.
   — dogmatic19


2. Not a year, but I was in the hospital from July to December and was put into a medically induced coma twice during that time as well as periods of being more lightly sedated/intubated. I was 16. I had multi-organ failure due to cancer treatment. It’s too much to describe so I’ll just randomly list off some things. Some of this is mixed with what I was told after the fact since it didn’t make sense to me at the time. I am also not a medical professional so I can only describe it unmedically. AMA? **Psychological** -During the coma, I could hear what people were saying but couldn’t talk back which was frustrating. I didn’t understand why someone kept flashing a light into my eyes or kept annoying me to squeeze their hand, etc. Later, I found out it was to check my responsiveness. -Wildly hallucinated, all vivid nightmares... I thought that the daily food cart tray rumbling was an volcano eruption, that the IV poles were a dancing pole, and the nurses were annoying strippers ( I think because they were always giggling at their station). I found out later that my nightmares/hallucinations were based on real life things I was experiencing. My mom used to talk to me constantly even when I was unresponsible, so when I finally woke up, the first thing I tried to say was thank you, because she kept me from being bored. I was also aware that she was constantly by my bedside and in my vivid nightmares, she would be protecting me/running with me from the people trying to kill us. I also thought the entire hospital was helicoptered to Hawaii since my childhood dream was to visit Hawaii and my mom kept telling me “you’re in Hawaii” while I was in the coma. When I woke up, I kept asking for fresh pineapples. -During the first coma, my mom played a mixed cd from my then boyfriend every.single.day thinking it would cheer me up. I didn’t remember listening to it , but after I woke up I couldn’t stand hearing it because I was sick of those songs. To this day, I’m still kind of annoyed when I heard “Lucky” by Jason Mraz [*fixed, ty to RedTiger] -My dad is catholic, so I received my last rites while under. Also, once, I/my brainwaves became unresponsive, so the doctors, since I was considered brain dead, started unplugging the life support machines and gathered my family. Apparently my dad started yelling/screaming my name, my brainwaves returned, so the doctors plugged me back in. From my perspective, I just heard him yell my name really loudly, so it was like he was walking me up. I remember thinking, “what??” I read a theory once about personalities that I could be a “different person” now since my brain sort of turned off and on and I had to reform my personality/likes/dislikes afterwards. I feel like I’m the same consistent personality though. -When I woke up, I didn’t know who I was. This is hard to describe, but basically I was too confused to even question where I was. The best analogy is that it’s like when you’re three years old, you don’t question “what country am I in right now”? because it doesn’t occur to you to ask before you learn about countries. You just sort of exist. I remember an occupational therapist asking me, after I relearned how to talk, if the shoe or sock goes on first. I said, “shoe..??”. -Before I got sick, the childlife specialist had me make a “list of favorite things”. After I woke up, it was surreal to relearn that I wrote that my favorite color was yellow, I like pizza etc. -In terms of recovering, first when I woke up, I couldn’t see well and it was all blurry, like seeing through tears or underwater. That went away. This isnt sequential, but I had to relearn to move, talk, eat, walk. **Physical** -For moving, through physical therapy, first since I was just laying flat. I learned to move my head a little, from side to side. Then I learned to wiggle my arms a little. Then I learned to use my arms to try to pull myself up. Each of these steps took me a week or more. The medical bed can mechanically be put in a sitting position, but you sort of can’t adjust your position until you relearn to use your arms and kick. So you’re kinda like a potato that can’t even help roll around when the nurses change bedsheets. Then after a couple weeks overall, eventually you learn to sit on the bed. Then a PT helps you learn to “transfer” from the bed (while your feet are dangling out) to chair. This was super scary and exciting because it’s like the first time getting out of bed and also you can be wheelchaired around. I once tried to transfer from the bed to the bedside toilet at night, unsupervised, and fell. Worst feeling ever, lying on the floor unable to get up, not even crawl, and hoping someone will find you. Anyway after you learn to sit, you learn to stand up in place using a walker. Then from a walker to crutches. Crutches to actually walking. By “relearning”, the feeling of having to reuse the muscle is like if I asked you to push a gigantic boulder. It’s extremely tiring, painful, and heavy. So that was what it’s like to move my head from side to side at first. I think the sucky thing about this was that I went into a coma again a few months later so I had to relearn how to walk. The first time though I was never sure that I would be able to walk again, so the second time was less emotionally scary. -Eating. First you’re on IV nutrition called TPN. Then use get a nose feeding tube. Then you learn to suck on ice cubes. Afterwards, you learn to drink nutrition drinks/smoothies (Boost, etc). Then from drinks to baby food. Baby food to canned food (it’s all sterile so it’s safe). Canned food to real food. This explanation is way simplified though. The occupational therapists/nutritionists said you have to take it slowly because your body/gut forgets it can eat and you could choke at first. It sucks when you fail intake enough calories so they have to put the nose tube back in. Another worst feeling ever. I remember my mom being so proud when I could poop again, because it meant my gut was working and one day I could eat/digest properly. It wasn’t even a real poop, just a tiny bit of green liquid, but she took the bucket around to the nurses and they congratulated us. -Talking. First your voice is extremely hoarse from lack of use. It’s like having a sore throat. Then when you start talking, it’s frustratingly quiet. My “yelling” voice would come out lower than a whisper. I used to have a loud voice, but even now my current voice is much quieter. My first conversations were mostly filled with “What, I can’t hear you?” and me giving up. -When I finally stood up for the first time, I was surprised that I had actually grown taller during my coma. My first reaction was that my mom was much smaller than before. -At first, I had a hard time for years getting the muscle strength in my hands back. I had to ask help for twisting off bottle caps for water bottles, etc. I still have a hard time opening heavy doors. -In terms of muscle tone, I was like a skeleton. This is also hard to describe properly, but the only image I’ve seen that closely resembles my state are images of holocaust survivors. I was just pure bone with hanging skin. I always a cubby kid, so my mom would cry just looking at me after I woke up, which made me feel sad. I remember being surprised that it hurt to sit since I lost all my butt fat and it was just bone against chair. A team of doctors came by to take a picture of my nails for a medical textbook since something happens to them (they turn a certain color?) when someone almost dies and survives. For several months, my mom refused to let me see a mirror because she said my face would traumatize me since I looked like a dead person. -I ended up writing more than I expected. It’s been eight years since, I look completely normal meaning that you couldn’t tell I had been so sick before. **Other thoughts** -The thing that sucked was “missing out” on time/ a small chunk of my life span. I went under in the July/summer and by the time I was able to be somewhat aware/fully lucid awake, it was snowing outside. I guess the best way to describe it is if you went to bed today, had a series of really long vivid lucid nightmare, and suddenly it was October when you woke up. I just missed that period (movies, songs, news), so it’s always kinda surreal when I don’t get a pop-culture reference and it turns out to be while I was in a coma. I’m definitely more interested in pop music/popular movies now because I realized it sort of “defines” your generation/time. I don’t think I’m describing this feeling of “lost time” very well. -Best memories: first standing, eating uncanned food for the first time, being wheelchair-ed outside and breathing real air, first shower, leaving the hospital and the nurses clapping. -Worst memories: staring at the clock awake at night wondering if I would ever get out of the hospital. -There’s so many more crazy things that happened in the hospital/ICU but I think this post is probably long enough haha. -Shout out to all the occupational therapists, physical therapists, and nurses, you guys are my heroes! If you got to the end, congrats! I hope this was interesting to someone and I’d be happy to answer any questions. Sorry for any grammar mistakes, it’s almost 5am here. TLDR; you hallucinate, it’s confusing, I had to relearn how to eat, walk, talk, and poop. it takes years to recover and it’s weird to wake up and be told you missed a chunk of time. Edit: Thank you for all the kind and supportive replies! I’m surprised by the feedback and glad I decided to share. I’ll definitely answer the questions tonight after classes when I can answer more thoroughly.
   — Clockrunner2017


3. Spent 7 days in a coma (had brain aneurysm, fine now btw). Was in hospital for 34 days. Don’t remember any of it. I was in a stage 3 coma so I was probably drugged up to high heaven (which I appreciate, Thanks OSF). Had a 5% chance to live day 1 but am pretty much ok now.
   — Asleepystudent






4. Spent 5 days in a coma and the first thing I said was "Someone needs to move my car, I'm gonna get a ticket." My dad reassured me that he had moved my car 4 days ago and I was very confused. I thought it was still the same day.
   — edarrac


5. My bf's coworker was in coma for about 2months. He said, he dreamed about being a different person (a medieval lord). It was like a super realistic dream that lasted very long. It was unbelievably rich in details. He just lived the every day life of that lord, had to decide about stuff, talked to his wife and children and so on. For him, it was real. He had one or two moments when he woke up and saw or heard (I don't remember) the nurse doing something around him. So he thought he must be sleeping and dreaming about being in hospital because he's a healthy medieval lord.
   — meerschwin


6. 3 days here. Like others have said it was just like blinking. I kept telling the doc I had to GTFO or I'd miss my sociology final. He had to break the news a few times that I had already missed it. He was very kind about it. Soc prof was not.
   — LadyMjolnir