After losing consciousness during transport, my memories became increasingly fragmented and “impressionistic”, most likely a side effect of strong medication. This roughly coincided with my stay in the Harborview Trauma ICU which was about a week after being admitted to ER, though subjectively it felt more like a month.

Since talking to my wife about my hospitalization, I realize there were times when I was conscious enough to answer questions, yet had no recollection despite remembering things earlier in the chronology. Odder still, some of what I did recall was in a liminal state between dream and waking life.

As if my mind was attempting to reset to the morning of the crash, it placed me in an “alternate reality” version in which I arrived at work like usual and promptly started the daily routine at my workspace. Suddenly I was back on the gurney and being wheeled out of the work area and through a sub-basement corridor I had never seen before. Through dream logic architecture I ended up at the UW Medical Center ER. I recognized one of the nurses as a former co-worker and realized even within the dream that it made no sense since she was a senior lab tech at the UWMC clinical lab. I speculated that one of the “actual” nurses had a voice similar to my co-worker’s, causing my mind to actually see her as that person.

I was next transported to the Harborview Trauma ICU (partly via light rail!), which I must have realized was where I “actually” was either consciously or subconsciously. At that point my experience took a paranoid turn as I began to suspect nurses and assistants were skimming my medications for personal use. Within the dream state I passed out and reawakened in a fantastical ICU bathed in a hazy white glow. I somehow got the notion this was at a sprawling new hospital connecting the Northgate light rail station to the nearby library.

It was at this imaginary location where I realized I was being visited by my wife as well as parents and brother from Hawaii. Somehow I knew this aspect of the pseudo-dream was “real” and not in the spirit realm and was glad they were alive and well, though I could tell they were shaken to see the state I was in. It seemed I wasn’t conscious for long, and had several other interactions with family before waking in a more lucid state at Harborview’s Neuro ICU.