ARDS

My pneumonia was what led me to have ARDS. Which stands for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. It is described as a life threatening lung condition that prevents enough oxygen from getting into the blood.


The air sacs in the lungs become full of fluid. They took x-rays every single day of my lungs while I was in the coma. I've seen the first picture and the lungs were completely white, except for a little part on the bottom right. White is fluid. My lungs were shutting down.


About a third of people with ARDS die from the disease. The lucky survivors regain normal lung function, other may have some lung damage. In my last x-ray, taken a month after I was released from the hospital, my lungs were black (healthy), and only a little part on the bottom left, was white. That may be healed now, I do not know.


People who survive ARDS may have memory problems and problems with thinking after the ordeal. This is due to brain damage that may have happened when the lungs weren't working properly and the brain wasn't getting enough oxygen.


I was extremely groggy with all these drugs in my system when they woke me up. This is what I saw on my wall to my left and I was so confused, so very very confused, and it took me many days to crawl out of that confusion.

 To be continued...