what helps John

Juli, I’m posting another reply because I thought of some more things. Besides the communication, I think that visits from friends and family and religion seem to help those who are down with this in ICU. My husband has a stong religious faith. I don’t. He says prayer is what is getting him through this. He says that he hasn’t been depressed because Jesus is with him. I don’t believe him because tears rolled out of his eyes for a few days after the cardiac arrest and pace maker. He didn’t want the radio, television, reading aloud, or even music or to be talked to the first few weeks in ICU. Gradually he has begun to ask for music and to be read to. He hasn’t wanted the television. He now seems to live for people who come in and tell him stories and jokes and talk to him. I asked him how he kept from going crazy without having something like a book on tape to engage his mind and he said two things. “I pray” and I don’t want to be distracted because I feel like I need to be alert to everything that is going on around me. I think he felt that he had to know how the machinery worked and that it was working properly and was afraid to be distracted by anything else.

Carolyn