Following your critical illness, you may find that day to day tasks which you previously completed without thinking, are now quite challenging and come with symptoms of extreme tiredness (fatigue).
In this section the aim is to reassure you this is very normal and, with help from your physiotherapist, family and other members of the multidisciplinary team (MDT) we will support you with your rehabilitation journey and help you to achieve your goals.Â
Muscle weakness following a critical illness, is a result of prolonged bed rest or immobility due to being medically unwell, along with the damage which occurs to your muscles from the illness itself. This may all be recovered from but, please be assured that this can take time. It is difficult to put a specific time scale on recovery as everyone responds at different rates, but age, previous fitness levels and length of illness will all play a part. Your physiotherapist will have started rehabilitation as soon as safely possible on ICU, and this will be continued on the ward. If you would like some additional exercises to complete outside of your physio sessions and haven’t been given any, please highlight this to your physio and they will be able to provide some to meet your needs.Â
Another key role of a physiotherapist is to support you in feeling confident with your mobility, and to help you return to your previous activity or exercise level. If you are managing to walk around the ward independently you may not have been signposted to the physiotherapy team. Perhaps you are not feeling as confident with your walking or would like to return to a higher level of activity or exercise.Â
If this is the case please let the ward staff or RaCI service know and we will be more than happy to make the appropriate referral.Â
Fatigue is also very common following a critical illness, and strategies need to be put in place to aid your recovery. It is common to have ‘good days’ and ‘bad days’ with fatigue, and our aim is to help you self-identify these days to prevent inactivity or over activity. We recommend writing an activity diary as this will allow you to identify activities which may be contributing to you to feeling fatigued. We also recommend following the 3 P’s; Pacing, Prioritisation and Planning, this will help you to prepare your exercise and activities in advance, allowing you to get the most out them without overdoing it. If you would like further information on this please see our ICU Fatigue management leaflet.Â