Still, I thought she was quite out of it while in the ICU and very nearly died from the rampant severe infection and emergency surgery.

There's NO WAY someone awake and fully conscious wouldn't recognize that they weren't "pooping" the usual way or that an ostomy bag was being emptied and replaced.

So I think she wasn't able to be told during that time frame.

I recall waking up days after my second fusion surgery and having no clue how close I'd been to death or having multiple transfusions daily because they couldn't stop the hemorrhaging after the surgery or stop the infection that was spreading because of my severely compromised immune system. I didn't recall visitors or anything that happened during those days. Likely Trish doesn't either and doctors couldn't talk to a comatose, severely sick patient until she came out of it to full consciousness.