The shown photograph is a stock image of a RotoBed, in which I was strapped for my twenty-one days of intubation. The”bed” turns constantly to help with lung function and help prevent some bedsores.
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words. Ecclesiastes 5:3 (KJV)
A caution from the Lord
As I prepare to write this blog post, the caution from Ecclesiastes 5:3, just bit me on my typing hand. Solomon reminds me, “a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.” God is always on time and on point if we would only listen. I am reminded not to wax long in my post or possibly expose myself as a “fool’s voice.”
Am I living the dream?
“My living the dream” will not have the usual and customary meaning you may at first understand. Our Bible explains our dreams” cometh through the multitude of business” during intubation. I was in a doctor-induced com for twenty-one days, and the experiences my mind took me through may have started from a multitude of business of my active life before COVID. Linda and I have discussed these mental experiences and can find no logical reason for their formation. I only mention them to help the reader understand why I later questioned my waking reality and explain the existence of a coma patient’s world while not awake. There were at least four realities to my intubation experiences. To me, at the time they were real, lonely, aware, and spiritual.
- Real – Each of the experiences was as real as anything I have experienced before or since. I had no awareness of these being dreams but were my reality. I felt emotions, pain, and anything you experienced in your waking life today. When I say I was “living the dream,” it is my way of expressing that every dream was my reality and my life as I knew it.
- Lonely – My first experience had my sister and brother-in-law talking with me on a cell phone. In every experience after this “dream,” I was always surrounded or working with strangers. I remember often wondering why I was alone and curious why my loved ones were not there.
- Aware – I believe some of my experiences in my dreams occurred from external stimuli to my body during the coma.
- Spiritual – the dreams often had a dark or evil battle that had to be faced or overcome.
This post does not tell all the dreams I lived during my intubation but gives the reader a sense of experiences a coma patient may be living. I caution the reader to realize this was my experience and may not be the experiences of everyone in a coma.
Off to Jolly Old London
The first experience I remember had me living under the city of London, and they had a huge rat problem. Not many rats but HUGE rats, and no one could stop them from damaging the cellars under the Brit’s houses. I would walk dark caverns under the city and distribute potent poison to kill the beasts. My work ended when a Charlatan arrived in the caverns and had an “incantation” to drive the rats away. I remember happily leaving the subterranean battlefield but awakening to another “experience” with no correlation to this dream.
Jimmy Two-Shoes
“Jimmy” was a taunting, irritating oriental restaurant owner that I spent many days with during my experience. I was physically incapacitated and held in the hospital’s basement against my will in my bizarre dream world. Jimmy owned the oriental fish restaurant in the hospital basement. I lived behind a glass wall and would occasionally see “Jimmy” on the other side. When I would hear a particular tune, he would appear on the other side of the glass, commencing to dance to the song I was hearing. For whatever reason, this was very perplexing to me. My experience with “Jimmy” possibly lasted for weeks. Later, out of the coma, I would hear the tune and tell Linda, “there is “Jimmy Two-Shoes” I hear his song. She said it was a tune the hospital played each time a baby was born. I hated that guy and was delighted to find out he was not real! “Die Jimmy Die”
Look Out For Thugs
In several experiences, Sometimes I was beaten by gangsters and thugs. Often shoved into a wall, corner, or to the ground, to be punched, kicked, or otherwise assaulted. Because I was physically incapacitated, there was nothing I could do to defend myself or fight back. During the intubation, I was in a “rotobed,” which continually rolled me from side to side to help my breathing and prevent bedsores. The beating dreams might be attributed to my body begin rolled side to side.
Welcome to the Second World War
My dream experiences routinely placed me in the late nineteen-thirties or nineteen- forties. Most people know I am an amateur history buff, but World War Two is not one of my concentrations. Yet, in my experiences, I was taken captive in pre-World War Two Germany and held in a basement with a dirt floor. I was able to watch what I believed were Nazi scientists experimenting on people. The scientists were in a laboratory with us, being separated by a glass wall. They all wore hospital scrubs and would sometimes wave to me through the glass. I now believe I was then partially awake and could see some people around me.
Fond Experiences In Kentucky
Not all the coma experiences were terrible. The Napier family has strong roots in Eastern Kentucky. Perhaps I didn’t understand how deep these roots were to me. Many of my coma experiences took place in Kentucky. In some of the experiences, my family was racially Black. Our family had built a brick church building in Pineville, dedicated it to praising God in one fond dream. In the dream, people would come from many places, with the church filling up and the entire service having terrific music and praise to the God of Heaven.
In another experience, our family owned a famous pork barbecue restaurant that had nationally known “banana pudding.” In the dream, people would drive from great distances and routinely wait hours to get a table. The entire family loved running the restaurant.
One experience had me living in a Nursing Home in Middlesboro. Everyone in the home was so sad, and I told everyone we would plan to walk across the street to get ice cream cones. Everyone was excited, but we never attempted to make the trip.
My experiences in Kentucky were so real to me, the hospital staff awoke me from the coma and asked if I knew where I was? I authoritatively told them I was in Middlesboro, Kentucky. The experiences were so real. I called my relatives in Kentucky after my release from the hospital. I questioned them extensively about my “Black” relatives and possible churches we built or operated restaurants (unfortunately none of it has proven to be true).
There were so many other experiences during my twenty-one-day coma. Some others were very dark, with spiritual battles fought. I only mention these few to relate the diversity of the dreams and possibly explain my future questioning of reality.
He Is Going to Have a Lawsuit
In my last coma dream, the hospital staff was doing something to me that was causing considerable pain in my throat and mouth. Alone, I wondered who I could get to help me? In the dream, the technician proceeded with the procedure as I tried to communicate they were hurting me. In my encounter, one of the people helping with the process said, “If he keeps doing this, someone is going to sue him someday” In my dream, I said to myself, “If I get out of here, I’ll sue him!” I now believe the hospital staff was attempting to remove the tubes from my throat and nose. The lawsuit comments may never have taken place.
The Princess Dream
After awakened from the coma, My nurse told me my wife was on her way to see me. For the first time in over three weeks saw her seated outside my glass prison. She had a small whiteboard to write me. My joy was overflowing at her sight, and my eyes filled with tears. I begged her to come to me, but she communicated that she couldn’t come into my cell. The princess came to see her frog, but only from a distance. Then as quickly as she arrived, she left with a promise to return soon. In my solitude, I silently wept at the loss of her presence. I immediately began to question if her presence had been an actual visit.
True love is a divine gift, and it is wrong to take love for granted. Show your love for those that are dear to you now. There is no better time than today to hold your beloved or tell them of your love. Tomorrow may be too late.
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Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.
Song of Solomon 8:7 (KJV)
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Many waters – Neither common nor uncommon adversities, even of the most powerful, can destroy love when it is pure. If it is not excited naturally, no money can purchase it. No property can procure it. No cunning can persuade it. How silly is the thought of old rich men hoping to procure the affections of young women by loading them with presents and wealth! No woman can command her affections; they are not in her power. If they do not occur naturally, they can never exist. Love is truly a gift from God. “If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned.”
Wow that’s interesting brother