16.
“I was in a medically induced coma (with full body paralysis) for six weeks. There were several times when I clearly remember where I ‘woke up’ in my head. What was the experience like? It was very bad.”
“When I was waking up in my head, I had no idea what happened. So, I’m fully conscious, and I know it’s me, but I can’t open my eyes, I can’t move a muscle, and I can’t speak. The first time it happened was terrifying. I started to panic, and for a moment I thought I might die. Then I realized I was thinking, so it doesn’t seem right. I tried to move but I couldn’t. I tried to speak but I couldn’t. I tried to scream but I couldn’t.
The next time this happened was when my best friend came to see me. Again, I can’t move, I can’t see, and I can’t talk. But when she “woke up” in my head, I felt her holding my hand and asking me to squeeze it if I could hear her talking. I tried as hard as I could to squeeze my hand, and it felt like it was doing absolutely nothing. When I let her walk away, I was completely devastated. I tried to scream for her to stay, but obviously nothing happened. However, I was so happy that people I knew were there wherever I was and that I was getting help (even though I felt completely helpless). This kind of help. I had to calm myself down again so I could drift off again.
When I was finally brought out of the coma, my parents were there which made no sense since my parents lived two states away at the time. I eventually learned they had been there the whole time. They dropped everything in their lives and came to be with me and stayed there through the entire ordeal. After a few days (I think), some doctors came and asked me a bunch of questions. The first question was what year it was – that’s what I knew because I remembered being sick on New Year’s Eve, so I knew it was 2000. The next question was who was the president. You answered Clinton, so I got that right. Then they asked me if I knew where I was. So I definitely said “Honolulu” because I was in Honolulu in my dreams. When they all had a confused Scooby-Doo look on their faces when I realized that wasn’t quite right, so I figured I had to get back to Salt Lake City (somehow). They seemed very relieved when I came up with that.”
“Friendly food geek. Communicator. Hipster-friendly creator. Bacon evangelist. Zombie nerd. Pop culture advocate. Beer aficionado.”