Starting over

Hospitalization in the ICU results in a series of changes in patientsand their relatives:

• the body that has undergone a serious illness often leads to visible signs such as scars, and may lose the functionality of the motor due to time spent in bed. You have to relearn how to breathe, to walk, to talk, to use arms and legs;

• internal organs tired from the disease, often have to be cared for and supported with medication and daily routines;

• not always easy to remember how we got to this new way of being, so it can develop a sense of emptiness and lack that you do not know how to fill and accept;

• who was close to a person admitted has seen to change their habits, and must now restart his life, adapting it to today.

It is not easy to deal with all of this: on the one hand there is the need to create a new life, on the other hand the new beginning is marked by the realization that life can be short, and that there are dangers previously unimaginable.

This attempt to put on paper what happens after a stay in intensive care you may recall that you were not alone when all this was happening, and you're not even now. There are professionals who walk with you and watch the changes with expert eyes, to translate into behaviors, habits, and emotions.

STARTING OVER is a window that opens onto the world after a lengthy stay in the ICU.