Update #12, Nov. 11th, 2007

Hello everyone, this is Kal again.  I wanted to wait for the next update until I spoke with the Doctors.  I spoke with Dr. Weibel, the trauma surgeon today.  He kindly answered all of my questions.  Jitka had a skin graft placed on the wound on her right leg on friday morning.  That went well.  She was later to have a percutaneous enterogastric tube placed
(a feeding tube that goes straight through the abdominal wall into her stomach, rather than through her nose or mouth).  The procedure was aborted when she developed a large amount of air in her abdominal cavity.  This could mean that they accidentally injured the colon, or that the air from the insufflation of the stomach simply leaked into the abdominal cavity.  In any case, they decided to take her to the operating room urgently to open her belly and take a look at the bowel.  Fortunately, everything was intact and it was simply the gas from the procedure. 

Mervie and I got into Greenville at about 1:30 am on Saturday and I went straight to the hospital.  She smiled when I came in.  I was literally overcome with joy to be sitting and talking with her again.  I told her that it had been too long since we sat and talked- just the two of us. She lipped out that the she wished we had some red wine.  No joke. She asked me “What happened to me?”  Jani has told her, but she forgets, and is traumatized every time she hears it.  I told her that I would sit down and explain the whole thing when she was more fit to talk and she wasn’t getting all of these medications to make her forget.   I told her I want to make it as easy as possible on her.  She nodded and said “I appreciate that”.   I told her that I have a scrap book with pictures and an account of everything that has happened.  I’ll give it to her when she is ready.  Not yet.  She lipped the words “I can’t move my toes.” My heart sunk into my chest.  I explained to her that she is going to have alot of work ahead of her.  She will only get as well as she believes she can, and we are all going to do everything in our power to make sure that she does it.  She put up her arms and replied “super-Jitka!”  That’s the spirit!  Minutes turned into hours and before I knew it, we had both fallen asleep.  I woke up in the chair at 6:30 am when the resident came in to round on her.

For all that is going on with her, her main complaint is that she is thirsty.  Really thirsty.  She will do or say anything to get a glass of water in her hand.  I feel so bad for her.  Her sodium had crept up to about 147 yesterday (normal is 140, the higher, the more dehydrated), and so she was feeling as dry as a bone.  She can’t swallow yet and we don’t want her to develop pneumonia again from fluids going down the wrong pipe, and so she can’t drink water.  I was using a sponge with some ice chips in it to swab her mouth and she keeps reaching for it as if to say “don’t trouble yourself, I’ll take care of it.”  As soon as she gets her hand on that cup it goes straight for her mouth.  Her tenacity remains intact.  I spoke with Dr. Weibel about some free water replacement and he assured me that they were on top of it.

Last night (saturday), she had a horrible episode of coughing.  She was coughing for about three hours and then began vomiting.  Jani stayed with her until she fell asleep, and that required a bit more sedation.  She became quite confused with the sedation and began tugging at her trach and tubes this morning.  She just does not like that stuff.  She was having trouble with breathing off of the vent, and so they had to put her back on.  By the afternoon, she was more comfortable and back to herself again.  Just a little step back, but a small battle in this war-a war that she is winning. 

Thank you all again for your love and support.  You are all in my prayers every night. 

Have a good night,

Kal