Update #14, Nov. 13th, 2007

Good evening, everyone!  This is Kal again.  I told Jani that I would update tonight, but I guess he thought that I had fallen asleep. (he is usually right)  He left out the best news, though!  Jitka was off the ventilator today.  I am told that they took it out of the room entirely.  That is a huge step toward recovery.  Now, the main thing that I am worried about is the amount of urine that she is making.  8 liters yesterday.  Funny, I spend the better part of my life worrying about people not making enough urine (I am a kidney specialist for those who don’t know me). I am thinking that she is just getting rid of all of the salt water that they gave her to support her through the surgeries (a solute diuresis, if you will).  Sometimes when you do that, the kidneys become “washed out”, and one loses the ability to concentrate the urine and therefore conserve water.  The urine output remains high in order to excrete the salt, and there is obligatory, yet inappropriate loss of water. Hence, her serum sodium is up to 150 (normal is 140).   This leads to a tremendous sensation of thirst, which remains her primary complaint.  The speech therapists have not yet cleared her to swallow, and therefore she may not drink.  As Jani said, they give the water throught the feeding tube.  Hopefully her sodium will come down with that and the horrible feeling of thirst will abate.  I felt so helpless sitting there with her as she begged and begged for water.  You would think that it would be such a simple thing to do.  Swallow.  Nonetheless, we gave her none, and I don’t think that she has forgiven me yet.  I told her I would buy her an ice-cold case of aquafina once the speech path folks gave me the green light.  That, and some Warsteiner.  She rolled her eyes.

I can’t tell you how overjoyed I was to be with my sister again.  We all get so busy with life, and put off the phone call or the visit.  If anyone takes anything from this blog, let it be that you must charish each moment with your loved ones.  Recognize the happiness that they bring.  You truly cannot imagine what life would be like without that person, until you face something like this.  Thank God that I have a second chance with my sister.  Most importantly, little Ro-Ro and Encsi have their mommy.

Goodnight,

Kal