Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM where we instantly improve the lives for Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care, so that you can make informed decisions, have PEACE OF MIND, real power, real control and so that you can influence decision making fast, even if you’re not a doctor or a nurse in Intensive Care!
This is another episode of “YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED“ and in last week’s episode I answered another question from our readers and the question was
My Dad is Having Multi-Organ Failure in Intensive Care! What’s the Prognosis? Live Stream!
You can check out last week’s question by clicking on the link here.
In this week’s episode of “YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED” I want to answer questions from one of my clients Romeo, as part of my 1:1 consulting and advocacy. Romeo’s daughter is on a ventilator with a tracheostomy. Romeo is asking how to have control and peace of mind whilst their daughter is critically ill in the ICU.
How to Have Control and Peace of Mind Whilst Our Daughter is Critically Ill in the ICU?
“You can also check out previous 1:1 consulting and advocacy sessions with me and Tess/Romeo here.”
Romeo: Helping not for wages, because wages is third world, third stream, you know what I mean. We did our best. And the doctor admitted, there was a surgeon, and a midwife and a pediatrician and the pharmacist as well, and everything, you know?
Patrik: Absolutely.
Romeo: Anyway. Look, I like looking at evidence and things like that, I like seeking out who this person could have been dumped here on the motorway. You have to face your companion in public law. There’s an old friend who, she tried to assassinate me, and she felt comfortable with me being there, so I was assisting through 24-hour shifts in any way I can, even in a companion her secretary is there.
Romeo: Truly though, be the bodyguard sort of thing, in my years for sitting, when there weren’t enough statements for people, because it’s not as bad as they say in that location. They’re trained in civil and criminal law, so if you come to the government and you bring a lawyer with you to explain the situation, you’re going to have to pay the lawyer, but the lawyer’s not going to pay the government. You just come and explain yourself and they’re trained in civil and criminal law, and can guide people through the situation, 24 hours, 24/7, like 365 days a year.
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Romeo: And they’re amenable. So, I used to sit next to the lawyers when they’re writing up statements, because the people are not trained or anything like that, and they feel comfortable. You know how you used to put the carbon copies in the side and make up the official side all that, helping them work out things. Nothing else there. Anyway, Patrik, it’s good to have friends, as they say, but not in a bad way, to have connections. You know they call it connection. But it’s good to have people that know you, that trust you, that know that what you’re saying is the truth, not what other people are like, because I like watching that, the lies.
Romeo: The lies come. They take time in that situation and it’s because I listen… it’s none of my business. I listen and I see, and then I listen to someone else and then I see, and then after weeks and things, or months, I correlate all that, and I do it like that. And sometimes, people ask my advice and I give… you can say something in a group of liars that are friend in a team, and you can explain a situation and then they will tell you their whole situation and outcomes and scenarios of people’s future behavior. It gives you something to think about, Patrik, keeps your mind active.
Romeo: As long as you feed yourself, stay hydrated, you can do your 24-hour shift, do your 48 hours, do your 72 hours. As long as you sit, rest, eat and that, and there’s something to do. So, I would say for yourself, you’ve got to make sure, you’ve got to find that time for yourself, just for yourself. Whether it’s meditation, listening to lovely music that you like, something just for yourself, keep your energies up, and make that sort of religious. I don’t do that myself but I think so you’ve got to take care of yourself, Patrik.
Patrik: Yeah, no, that’s very important. You can’t help other people if you’re not taking care of yourself.
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Romeo: That’s right. Sometimes people are stubborn. Sometimes when they say, “I don’t need nobody. I can do it all by myself.” But I learned that. When you’re on your own, you’ve got nobody but yourself. You have to do it by yourself. But not with the attitude, “I don’t need no one,” because we all need everybody. And just the organisms, life, just our internal organs and the make- up and how thin the membranes between each organ, and how they’re placed. So, I think to myself, if you eat meat, that’s life. But in my mind, because of the abilities of creatures, panthers, pigs, you know, everything, even horses, the dogs, sniff out different diseases, different things and different stuff, like nature, horses, the pigeons will take the message…
Romeo: You know, someone will laugh at you, “Don’t eat them. Respect them.” Just because they fly about or they swim about, I mean, I eat a bit of fish when I do now and again. But I’m just saying, a conscious awareness, especially when they take all money for animal welfare and then you’ve got places where they eat dogs and they’ve got into that bad habit of fighting and things to get the adrenaline. So, I say human rights, animal rights, they wouldn’t be eating. That’s my opinion, because there’s naughty people out there. This is Sarah, I care about her, I love her. It’s just about being honest. Just being honest. You have nothing better to ask you and realize you’ve got to have the perfect mind just to remember, but the truth you can never forget. Unless you have brain trauma or something like that or someone else. But we try to medicate.
Romeo: I just go on, Patrik. I’ll have to pass you to Tess because I’m the sort of person when people have appeared to me in my life, I don’t let them go. They come and ask me a direction, I say, “Well, there’s more than that.” You know what I mean? Whatever, not even staying there, I’ll just tell them about the trees and the carbon dioxide and all the oxygen and all that sort of stuff that make a mistake. I thank goodness, goodness has given me the strength and the ability and the memory to recollect and record it and repeat it if necessary. Sometimes people need encouragement.
Patrik: Of course, of course.
Romeo: I’m sure. Okay, Patrik. I appreciate your assistance very much and I pass you to Tess because I will just go on.
Patrik: Okay, all right. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Romeo: Thank you.
Patrik: Bye.
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Tess: Thanks, Patrik. Okay, so I was just thinking with regards to my being present in the assessment, shall I get the doctor to have that noted down, because I don’t want for me to be ignored in all of this. Because obviously, I have a personal relationship with Sarah. I do have good eye contact with her whereas others wouldn’t. I know Sarah obviously, very well. I taught her, I home educated her. She never went to school. She didn’t enter orthodoxy, you know, the orthodox way of things. And she would probably, in her own inclination, not be there necessarily for other people who are complete strangers, so that’s what I think about that.
Patrik: Look, any question comes back also, whilst no one can ignore what’s happened clinically, but a question, and I mentioned that to Romeo a minute ago, any question in this situation always comes back to what is your intuition, and what’s your gut feeling? No one can dispute what happened clinically, okay, but it still comes down to what do you believe in spite of all the clinical evidence?
Tess: Well, I’ll tell you this much. I do believe that they’re claiming Sarah to be a diabetic one, I think is not true.
Patrik: Right.
Tess: Yeah. I really genuinely do. I think that they’ve basically made an easy assumption on that front and I think because, as you said, the insulin would be used after an induced coma or during induced coma, just to actually normalize her stress hormones and things like that. The loss of weight… no, I don’t think so. I mean, Sarah made a concerted effort to lose weight, try and assist herself in her own health, and as I said, I suspect she went into some kind of strange metabolic overdrive where the nutrition was taking in, which was copious I hasten to add, just didn’t seem to want to be put into her cells that’s why the doctor said that it’s a matter of insulin going into the cells or whatever.
Tess: I don’t know. I don’t think so. My suspicion is that isn’t the case. And my concern also, is that for somebody who’s so relatively clean physically as she was prior to this whole incident, whether just suddenly shocking… wouldn’t it not be a considerable shock to the body to just suddenly be starting insulin and all those things to assist on that level? I don’t know, I’m not sure.
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Patrik: Look, what I might not have mentioned to you, and maybe the doctors didn’t say it either, I would argue that 50% of patients in ICU that are on a ventilator or are also on insulin, irrespective of whether they are diabetic or not. Are you aware of that?
Tess: 50% are on insulin.
Patrik: Yeah.
Tess: … whether they need it or not?
Patrik: No, whether they are diabetic or not.
Tess: Right.
Patrik: So, what I’m saying here is when someone goes into ICU and is critically ill, it’s obviously a massive stress event, so the body responds with stress. Stress means a lot of adrenalin is flowing through the body, and that produces sugar, and sugars are through the roof for a lot of patients in ICU.
Tess: Is it cortisol?
Patrik: Pardon?
Tess: Is it the cortisol that causes it as well? The cortisol.
Patrik: Yeah, cortisol, yeah, that’s what I mean. The cortisol.
Tess: Yes.
Patrik: And it’s often temporarily. In order for someone to make an assessment whether Sarah is diabetic or not, it needs to come from an endocrinologist.
Tess: Right. Thank you, that’s helpful. Endocrinologist. I mean, it’s the adrenal glands on top of each kidney which govern that. I understand on a glandular level how this is operating. The doctor didn’t have any appreciation of my appreciation of what diabetes is about, because to a greater degree, I have a good idea. And so did Sarah, for that matter. We’d already assessed amongst ourselves, potentially the possibility, but she was still adamant that she didn’t want to go into hospital or seek medical, because she knew that if she were placed on insulin and she couldn’t actually resolve the matter naturally and take autonomous control of her own health, which is possible, it can be done. There are those that do achieve it. They can flip the situation from pre-diabetic stages, diabetic stages round in say, month to two months, by going a simply raw diet.
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Tess: It is possible to unburden the body to such an extent that these entomologies can actually turn around. Now, Sarah was of that opinion, and the fact that… well, indeed, I’ve seen it, I’ve heard it with my own eyes, that it is possible to actually ameliorate things like those diabetic symptoms and things like that. Sarah had effectively done it, so at one stage over the past year and a half, okay, she got to the stage where she was actually happy with how she felt generally, how her reactions to foods were, things like that. So, she had already achieved that. But coming back to what you were saying, I understand that the adrenal glands obviously distressing over the whole body in the ICU process, that will then obviously make a cascade of different hormones on many different… and it’s going to have an adverse effect.
Tess: So, they try to lessen that with the insulin, rapid or whatever they use, but at the same time, it’s a very… As I said, you said an endocrinologist opinion and understanding of Sarah’s issues. That lady is a medicine expert, yeah. This doctor, I’m very grateful for all she’s done to help save Sarah’s life, but at the same time, she’s the complete antithesis of what Sarah and I and our mindset in the first place has been for numerous years, in our own self-empowerment and looking after our own health in our own way, until it got… obviously, the lockdown and things cascaded into not being able for Sarah… you can’t trust in hospitals, necessarily, and we certainly couldn’t at that time.
Tess: And only because of the easing of the lockdown and the opening into a certain extent, as it comes past that people are actually probably approaching them as they were once, yes, but they obviously… I don’t want to go into the finer detail of what I know, but all I can say is, things obviously dramatically changed. Lack of exercise had a bearing. Being effectively, psychologically isolated by the situation that the whole lockdown represented, it had a great stress bearing. Losing one’s job, yeah, it all had a bearing on Sarah’s health and we now find ourselves here where the doctors are saying, “Well, it’s probably diabetes.”
Tess: Well, no, I disagree because if that were the case, Sarah, prior to this whole incident, wouldn’t have been able to have had a whole say, roast or vegetarian roasted and then her body does not react because her body wasn’t reacting. She could quite happily eat considerable amount of food, and she didn’t have adverse reactions like pains in the kidneys, urinary issues at the time. She didn’t have such reactions. So, for me, it’s a bit of a stretch to think that Sarah could be a diabetic one. I don’t know about now…
Patrik: Yeah, no, I doubt it. Look, I’m not the expert on it, but what I do know is this, whether people are young or old in ICU, that a lot of patients are on insulin temporarily.
Tess: Yes. Once one is made dependent upon such things, it’s very difficult. Now coming back to another matter, their prognosis on the scans. Still haven’t seen anything. They are directing me to go to the patient liaison center in the hospital itself, which, by the time that I’d finished seeing Sarah yesterday, I didn’t even occur to go there, let alone did I know whether it was open or not. I’ll find out about that today. They obviously don’t want to make it easy for me, do they? Otherwise, they would have paperwork in front of them which could literally demonstrate what they are putting to me, and what they’re claiming.
Patrik: I agree with you that they don’t want to make it easy for you. And they will put up barriers, but that’s why it’s probably even more important that you start the process now because they will put up barriers.
Tess: Why would they do that then, Patrik? Is it just a power plays or is it because they actually may have doubt and they don’t want me to see their doubt and their findings, as it were? Maybe?
Patrik: Probably a combination of both. Probably a combination of both. Because they already know that you are asking the right questions.
Tess: Exactly. If it weren’t for you, Patrik, this whole situation, I believe, could have gone very pear-shaped. You’ve been instrumental in saving Sarah’s life so far, without a doubt.
Patrik: No, I think you were on the right track. You would have saved Sarah’s life, I’m just fine-tuning, that’s all. I’m just fine-tuning.
Tess: No, those questions really spooked her. I know that.
Patrik: Right.
Tess: Because it kept them on the toes.
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Patrik: Right. But you would have not given up, I can see that. But because you are already asking the right questions, they know if you have access to the medical records, you will probe even more.
Tess: Very good. Well, that’s what I have to do. I will do what I can to get them.
Patrik: Yeah, no, for sure.
Tess: So overall, you say that the conversation, in your opinion, didn’t go too badly?
Patrik: I don’t think so. However, what I am very mindful of is they know what you want, so they didn’t want to put any oil on the fire. So, they kept it harmonious. That, at least, was my impression. I mean, I couldn’t read any body language in there, but would that be fair to say? That they tried to keep it.
Tess: Yeah, certainly. It was very reserved; they were very still in their body language.
Patrik: Right. So, they tried to keep it harmonious as far as I could see. But now, what you got to watch for is what they do, not what they say.
Tess: Yes, it’s another turning point, obviously.
Patrik: That’s right.
Tess: … in the whole process, with Sarah being able to be ultimately free.
Patrik: That’s right. They said most of the things that would appease you, but now it’s a case of can they walk the talk?
Tess: Exactly. Well, I’ll have a better idea if I’m actually really genuinely involved in the processes, seeing what’s being done to..
Patrik: Correct.
Tess: … with Sarah. The fact that she was being mobilized, or rather will be mobilized out of the ICU, is interesting. Surely it could have been done sooner? Did it occur to you… you know the sciatic nerves that run down both legs? Because of Sarah not having any real gluteus maximus, or being very, very minimal, the amount of compression in the sciatic nerve could have been adversely affecting her muscle movement in her legs. She begins to move her legs anyway. It occurred to me also, similarly so with down the branches of the arms, because that’s all in the upper part, and the upper spine. I’m not sure what tiers, but I haven’t actually seen it.
Tess: The point that there’ll be pressure around that area. You can have issues within your arms and muscle strength is really weak on the upper arms. I mean, I hope, I genuinely hope that the physiotherapists and all of those that have encountered Sarah have taken that into account. Her actual physical weakness will be prohibitive to doing as they would want her to do. Simple as, just on that front. Let alone the shock that she’s had on many other levels, to her brain.
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Patrik: Look, I mean, the mobilization needs to happen sooner than later. There’s no excuse for that. No excuse.
Tess: I tend to agree. I think they’ve been lazy.
Patrik: Lazy.
Tess: Because it is, no doubt, somewhat scary to have to try to lift somebody carefully in such a way without destabilizing her and with all the things and this and that stuck to her. Their interest was probably not to even do that at this stage, and then ensure that it may be done at a later point, which is now being mentioned.
Patrik: I disagree there, Tess.
Tess: Okay.
Patrik: This is an ICU skill, to do that.
Tess: Yeah, but Romeo said that if they do move her about and her heart would stop for any reason or her breathing to deteriorate, they wouldn’t resuscitate her.
Patrik: Yes.
Tess: So maybe as it is.
Patrik: Yes. No, I get that, I get that. When you mobilize someone in ICU, when you do this for the first time, it’s not that you sit them in a chair and you leave them there for hours. Mobilization in ICU might be they’re sitting even on a chair for 10 minutes and back to bed. And then maybe the next day, if she tolerates that, 15 minutes. So, it’s a stage process because of the risks that are there.
Tess: Yes.
The 1:1 consulting session will continue in next week’s episode.
How can you become the best advocate for your critically ill loved one, make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence quickly, whilst your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care?
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Sign up and download your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” REPORT now by entering your email below! In your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” REPORT you’ll learn how to speak the “secret” Intensive Care language so that the doctors and the nurses know straight away that you are an insider and that you know and understand what’s really happening in Intensive Care! In your FREE report you’ll also discover
- How to ask the doctors and the nurses the right questions
- Discover the many competing interests in Intensive Care and how your critically ill loved one’s treatment may depend on those competing interests
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- 5 mind blowing tips & strategies helping you to get on the right path to making informed decisions, get PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence in your situation
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- How to stop being intimidated by the Intensive Care team and how you will be seen as equals
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- How you need to manage doctors and nurses in Intensive Care (it’s not what you think)
Thank you for tuning into this week’s YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED episode and I’ll see you again in another update next week!
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This is Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM and I’ll see you again next week with another update!
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