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Common physical issues

Because everyone is different, the way you are affected by an ICU stay might be very different to somebody else. People are admitted to intensive care for lots of different reasons and conditions, stay for different lengths of time, and come in with different levels of health and fitness.

In this section, we've provided some general information and advice on some of the common physical issues you may face after getting home. These include:

muscle weakness
difficulty walking and problems with balance
breathlessness
joint pain
voice changes
fatigue
hair loss
changes in taste and smell,
difficulties with appetite or swallowing
weight gain
sleep apnoea
bulky thick (keloid) scars
A lump in your groin from a stitch for an ECMO cannula that wasn't removed
sexual dysfunction - loss of libido or erectile dysfunction
periods - abnormal or absent periods for a few months
hearing loss
poor eye sight

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External Video: Almost everything you need to know about your kidneys: video by 'THINK KIDNEYS' campaign NHS UK

Almost everything you need to know about your kidneys

Article: Balance and dizziness after critical illness - Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital

Patients sometimes tell us that they continue to have issues with balance after they go home. This can be due to a number of things: muscle wasting and weakness changes in sensation (numbness or tingling) in the feet or legs inner ear problems from medication used in the ICU to treat infections loss of confidence when they first get home At Guy's and St Thomas's there is a balance clinic and they will see patients with any of the following...

Article: Balance issues

Document: Breathing problems after critical illness - information from ICUsteps

Article: Breathlessness

Is it common to feel breathless after Intensive Care? Breathlessness after Intensive Care is very common. Why do I feel breathless? The time you spent in Intensive Care may have caused weakness in your muscles, including those that help you breathe, so they are a bit weaker and have to work a bit harder to help with your breathing. Also while in Intensive Care you can quickly lose your ability to exercise, so while running for a bus may have made you breathless before, after...

Form: Breathlessness after critical illness

This article from ICU Steps provides information and advice about why your lungs and breathing are affected by critical illness. It also provides helpful exercises that can help your breathing to recover after being critically ill.

External Video: Breathlessness: Julie's story

In this video, Julie describes her breathlessness after she got home. She found stairs particularly hard, and found it difficult to walk and talk. She also describes some investigations and a procedure that helped her.

External Video: Changes to your voice: Julie's story

In this video, Julie talks about changes to her voice after ICU. Her voice was weak, and huskier, and this led to some frustrations trying to communicate. It improved over time, but impacted her return to work as a teacher.

External Video: Common physical symptoms video by the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM)

Video outlining physical symptoms that can be experienced after critical illness.

Document: Coping with loss of sense of taste and smell - British Dietetic association and ICU Steps

This document has helpful information if you are finding it hard to eat, because your sense of taste and/or smell has been affected by critical illness.

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Common physical issues

You have 21 results.