Before surgery, I found out that a lot of people either didn't remember the vent tube, or just remember the extubation (taking-out) part. That made me feel better, because, like you, I found the whole tube thing creepy.
I have a waking-up memory that is probably not entirely accurate. I say this because I have a few other post-surgery memories that are a little skewed. For example, I remember telling my husband to take my father home in person, but in reality I talked to him over the phone.
Anyway, what I remember is waking up intubated and having a nurse ask how I was feeling. I made a "writing" motion with my hand and she got me a pen and paper. A male voice said, "She won't be able to write clearly," but I wrote in big letters, "Harder to breathe with tube." A few minutes later a man extubated me.
Did that actually happen? Maybe I was thinking I'd like to write them a note just a moment before I was extubated. Or maybe I did write one, but it was illegible. Or maybe that's what really happened. After being extubated I fell back asleep and when I woke up again there were different nurses.
Apparently no one thought I would be so awake and alert the first night after surgery. They didn't realize that some of the meds they were giving me were hyping me up. They had told my family that I would be "out of it" through the night, so my husband was leaving the hospital with my Dad when my husband gave one final call to the ICU and discovered that I was awake. The nurse put me on the phone with him, and that's when I told him to take my Dad home -- the conversation I remember in person!
I simply could not sleep, so the nurses and I did all kinds of things -- changed sheets, had a sponge bath, brushed hair -- (okay, I didn't say they were interesting things!) I made up for it a day or so later, when I went to a regular room and did LOTS of sleeping!
