It's all coming back to me

Just last week I had the pleasure of running into one of the doctors who took care of me while I was in the ICU. Dr Ram (not really his name because I can't remember his real name) took care of me during a time when I was being sedated but also was around when I was coming to. We briefly discussed, my sedation vacations. I made brief mention before of my nightmares and hallucinations while I was out. When I finally did come to, I new that I was in a hospital because I was in one in my nightmares. The real reason I knew this was because I had been given "sedation vacations" starting in the second half of August. These were brief periods where they would reduce the pain medication and sedation enough that I could wake up. Here they would do cognitive tests for responsiveness and brain damage (because of the strokes). To me, these interludes were just part of a nightmare or hallucination.  After I left the hospital, after talking with my Mother, who spent 9 weeks in California at my bedside, and my girlfriend Wendy, who has spent the last 6 months, at my bedside, taking care of me at home, helping to manage my care in the hospital, , I began to realize that these brief periods were not hallucinations, but had actually happened.  I remember Dr. Ram speaking with me about the VAD devices. I remember being extabated the first time and who did (a respiratory tech named Anisa).  I remember the ICU nurse helping to evaluate my breathing after I was extabated.  I remember the Africans-American radiology tech who would come into my room, loud and excited, every morning at 6 am, to take my DAILY chest X-ray.  I also remember still fighting infection during these times.  Sadly, I don't remember Wendy or my mother being there, only in the final days before I woke, do I remember my mother being there, as they were "bringing me up" as my foggy memory  recalls.   Finally, at the beginning of September I was strong enough and not-in-pain enough, to allow me to fully wake up.  I still can't believe what I awoke to.