Delirious

On of the symptoms of meningitis is mental confusion, which I didn't experience until a couple days into my hospital stay.  I actually don't remember much of my first two weeks in the hospital. I remember being admitted.  I remember calling my friend, Roberto, and asking him to let my job know.  I kind of remember talking to my parents.  And that's it until I woke up from a coma.

Apparently, before I fell into a coma, I was talking nonsense - and then not at all.  I don't remember any of it, and the only reason I know is that people tell me what had happened.  My parents were told that if I do wake up, I might not recognize them, and be severely brain damaged to boot.  But when I did wake up, my cognition was pretty much in tact.  I do have some problems with memory now, but that's pretty minor.

I guess subconsciously, I knew what state I was in, because I don't remember being surprised at my condition when I woke up.  My hands and fingers were swollen; I couldn't flex my fingers, I couldn't hold a pencil stable enough to write, I couldn't talk, I couldn't move my feet, I was on a respirator, and I had all sorts of tubes coming out of my neck and arms.  And I wasn't surprised.  I didn't know how bad a shape I was in, except for the fact that I was in excruitiating pain from the skin sensitivity.

I spent a week in the ICU unit, but I remember, probably, about 15 minutes of specifics.  And ten minutes of that is watching portions of two of the NBA Finals games.