Difficulty waking up

[okiejayhawk]

My husband had a brain stem stroke May 10. He remains in ICU. He never lost consciousness, has no paralysis and can follow commands such as squeezing fingers, moving toes/feet and with PT has even stood. but he has never really awakened and seems to fade in and out of sleep all the time. He is agitated and his arms and legs are in constant motion despite 4-point restraints. He's pulled out his ventricular drain, catheter and leads.  At one point he was sipping liquids and eating custard and could have limited conversations although his speech was slurred unless he got really perturbed. Then he contracted a staph infection from his PIC line and seems to have regressed. They are no longer allowing him anything by mouth and his mouth and throat are so dry I can no longer understand anything he trys to say.

The various doctors have independently told me everything from this could be as good as it gets to just be patient and all in between. Has anyone had any experience with this inability to really wake up?

[tntnkna]

Ask your Dr to prescribe ritalin. It wakes up elderly people and it worked immediately for my mother. Too bad they didn't give it to her until the day she was discharged from acute care because of lack of participation (because she slept all the time) Ritalin did the trick and allowed her to do therapy at her rehabilitation center.