I promise you. Unless you have been through one, there is not much understanding of what it is like to be in a coma. But what I will do here is try to give you a glimpse. For me it started after some real life trauma. I remember being in the ER st San Jacinto Methodist Hospital. My left arm had gone limp, and my left leg was starting to do the same. They were trying to get my clothes off, I really could not help them. I got so frustrated I told the nurse to just cut off my new $40 shirt. After that, real life goes blank.
I had a series of dreams. All of which, I tell you, were as real as you could imagine. To this day, they do not seem like dreams. They seem like reality, though I realize they are not. One thing I believe about comas, is you DO pick up whats going on around of you. Nurses and family talking, people visiting you. Doctors examining you. I think most of my dreams are based on these things. Understand, I am not quite sure what dreams were first, last. So as I describe them, try not to give them an order. Also, I am not sure all of them are dreams. I believe a few might be out of body, supernatural experiences. But no matter how they are classified, they are VERY real to me.
This is the only really totally scary dream that I had while I was in a coma.
This dream starts out with me in a doctor's office. Apparently we are in an office tower, that has an underground parking garage underneath. I am on an examination table. A nurse is in the room with me, and she has on blue examination gloves. All of a sudden, an explosion takes place. The tower collapses. And the next thing you know, I am still on the examination table, but I have fallen into the parking garage. I am covered in blue color, much like the color of the examination gloves. I am surrounded by concrete, and there are live electrical wires all around me. All of a sudden, the nurse that was in the room with me, starts walking around me, trying to continue the examination. But in the dream, I am trying to tell her to not move, because she will get electrocuted. I realize that she is in shock.
During this. I hear my mom and dad yelling. They too are in the parking garage, they are ok. But they are telling me 'not to move'. I follow their request and stay on the table. Somewhere during this, the subject of what has happened comes up. It is realized that some terrorists have planted a bomb in the hospital here. For some reason, if I move, I am told that the police may shoot me. So again I stay still. But the next point is horrible. The police share that my Dad is a suspect, and that unknown to everyone, he has been committing terrorist acts for some time. This breaks my heart, and I start moaning and crying. This pretty much concludes the dream at this point.
The reality of the dream is this. I was on a breathing tube. I was trying to remove the tube. So the nurses of coarse had to restrain my hands. The voices, from my parents and the police to be still, was in reality my mom, dad, brother, and the hospital staff, trying to tell me not to fight the restraints. The gloves, they were the color of gloves I wore daily doing lab work at ExxonMobil. Something I wore every day. The weirdest part of this dream is me trying to help the nurse, who was in shock. I was the calming effect on her, and realized she was in shock. Maybe I was subconsciously understanding what had happened to me. The terrorist thing, I just know they kept a tv on CNN while I was in the coma. Probably part of a story I heard..............
In this dream, I find out that I need life saving surgery. An ExxonMobil corporate jet is loaned for me to fly to London, where the best doctor can operate on me.
The dream starts with me seeing a lear jet land near my house. Its not on an airport runway. So, I board the jet, but the inside does not look like a regular jet. It looks more like a small room for doing news conferences. There is a podium in the middle for someone to speak on. The jet has carpet. All of a sudden, cats begin to morph out of the carpet. Its similar to watching one of those Terminator movies. I find out that the head of ExxonMobil arranged for my use of the jet, because time was of the essence. Despite these morphing cats, we make it to London. I remember seeing the concourse area of the airport in London, seeing where the flights were headed to, ect. London is clearly seen by me.
I had visitors from ExxonMobil , my employer, on and off. I have friends in England also. I was really fortunate to have such good friends where I worked, and I think I somehow picked up on this subconsciously. As for the morphing cats, I was, lets say, 'highly medicated' with a drug that was used to make the severe brain swelling go down that was occurring. Its side effect, it a hallucinogenic. Magic mushrooms anyone?
In this dream, I was in a hospital room, in what seemed to be a large baby bed. A nurse and the staff were putting a diaper on me. The main nurse taking care of me was expecting a child. She was a pretty woman, in say her early to mid 20's. She had medium long hair. This nurse was always helping me. I was not talking much. I then realize, and it becomes real to me, that I was in a coma for over 10 years. I am in a nursing facility. I am really excited that I have woken up, and have slowly begun to respond a lot to this nurse.
As time goes on, the nurse decides she needs to tell me something. She has not been referred to by name much. She tells me that her name is Rachel. I suddenly realize that this is my daughter, and that she is carrying my grandchild. I am told that after I had brain surgery, I did not come out of the coma. So I was transfered to this facility. She wanted to be around me so much, when it came time to pick a career, she chose nursing, and eventually went to work for the facility I lived in. Though part of me is so happy to be around, in this dream I became sad, realizing I had missed my kids growing up......
I suppose somehow I had realized or heard people talking that I was in a coma. Fact also, I had to wear 'adult diapers' for a while. I am guessing I heard the nurses talk of this sometime while they were putting them on me. The very comforting part of this was my daughter staying by me, and that what happened to me made her want to help others.
In this dream, I am in a hospital room. I am having a very hard time breathing. So it is necessary for me to have breathing treatments. I can see out of my room, and I hear lots of conversation between the hospital staff and my family. Seems that this medicine I need for respiratory treatments is in short supply, and there is a good demand for it. So my dad, seeing a lucrative possibility to get me the medicine easier, goes into business with my doctor. They are partners in securing this respiratory medicine. When it comes time for me to get the medicine finally, I am outside of what at the time was called 'Compaq Center' in Houston. That is where the Houston Rockets played for many years(it is now Lakewood Church). They put an oxygen mask over me, and the therapist begins the treatments. But for some reason, the bring over a fork lift truck. I am put onto the forks, and raised very high in the air as I receive these treatments. At the end, I am up high, looking down on other people, and feeling very alone.......
In this dream, I am laying in bed in my hospital room. I am visited by my friend, Jimmy Stroud. I am in a coma, and he leans over by me, and says ' I know James you don't know what is going on. But you are going to get through it. I hope you have peace'.
I am then all of a sudden in a wooden floor chapel, where Jimmy and some others are located. Its very peaceful. I am sitting in the middle of the floor, backwards on a chair. I don;t remember too much of what occurred in the chapel, but I just remember the calm, the serenity, and the beautiful stained glass windows.
In this dream, I am in a hospital bed. I am surrounded by family. I am having a very hard time breathing. But there is a glass partition in the room. I and my family are on the inside of the glass. On the outside of the glass is two people. One, is an old friend of mine, Chris Copley. Chris is holding a ventilate bag. Next to Chris, is a little girl, probably 7-8 years old. She is totally dressed in white. I keep uttering the phrase 'ventilate me'. Over and over I repeat this phrase. But the appearance of the little girl calms me. I don't remember too much more, but just that the girl calmed me. And I was finally able to breathe.
I was having a very hard time breathing. I was not on a ventilator, but they were afraid they were going to have to put me back on it. I had a respiratory infection, not uncommon in situations such as this. I'm not aware of any one doing anything except being in the room with me. I believe my mom and dad were there. But they heard me talking about the little girl in the room. And how I saw Chris Copley. And me repeating that phrase 'ventilate me'... I clearly remember the girl, and believe that she was an angel that I was seeing. Chris had been an EMT responder, and I think that somehow this calmed me. I did not have to be ventilated.