What is the most difficult "thing" in life that you have personally gone through?
I spent nearly a month in the hospital a few years ago and flirted with the white light a little bit, but managed to pull through. Being in the hospital that long really sucked, but the recovery was nearly as brutal. I couldn't believe how weak a body can get in such a short amount of time or how long it took to build back strength.
The absolute worst part of the entire experience was being intubated. If you've never experienced this particular type of torture, I'll share a few of the highlights from my experience. Obviously, you're going to be in rough shape if the decision is made to intubate while you're laying in the hospital bed (I'm not talking about surgery prep here), so my recollection of some details is hazy at best. I remember being told what was going to happen, getting a sedative and seeing the doc's headlamp shining down into my eyes before the world went black. As I came back around, I had no clue where I was or what was going on. I felt something lodged in my throat and instinctively reached up to see what it was. That's when I discovered that my arms had been placed in restraints, though I didn't fully comprehend the particulars in that moment. I have to imagine that I looked something like a fish flopping around in the bottom of a jon boat on a hot summer day, trying to free myself from captivity. My family and a nurse flew across the room to try and explain to me what was going on, but I was completely flipping out and had absolutely no way of communicating with them at that point. As the fog, shock and fear slowly began to fade, we worked out a rudimentary system of blinks to answer simple yes and no questions. I graduated to pen and paper once the medical team was confident that I had my mental bearings and wasn't going to remove the breathing tube. I had that tube for a couple of days and it was pure hell.
