Update # 4, Oct 26th, 2007

A good day!  Jitka is breathing on her own with some pressure support on the ventilator.  Her pulmonary function has dramatically improved.  She is scheduled to have her back surgery tomorrow morning at 7:30am.  She is still having fevers, but has any number of reasons for those, and is being treated for pneumonia.  This morning, her white blood cell count increased to 17k from 11k (a possible sign of ongoing or worsening infection), but all cultures (blood and urine placed on bacteria food so it can grow, if present in those fluids) other than sputum are negative.  She also developed hyponatremia (low sodium concentration in the blood) at 119meq/L (normal is 140) which we are in agreement is likely some degree of cerebral salt wasting (a disorder of salt wasting by the kidney caused by head injury; usually self-limited) .  She required a little bit of concentrated salt in the IV to stablize that, and I think that once they stabilize her T-spine we’ll do another CT scan of the head to make sure that nothing new has developed.  Neurologically, she is moving her arms and blinking her eyes. These Doctors are unbelievable-they have been absolutely wonderful.

The kids still don’t know, and so we have spoken to someone in the hospital who specializes in breaking bad news to kids.  I think it is going to be tough no matter what advice we get, but nonetheless, hopefully we can cushion the blow a little.  Everyone who knows little Ro Ro knows how sensitive he is about his mommy.  In the meantime, some of the local day care centers have been extraordinarily generous in helping us through this time.

We, again, cannot put into words how grateful we are to all of you for your tremendous support during this time.  Our friends have told us that the Jitka Virag Recovery Fund is off to a strong start, and that is so much appreciated!  I have been learning a little more about how the medical bills might roll in and they will likely be quite daunting.

We would like to thank all of the hundreds of people who have been praying day and night for our sweet Jitka.  Please keep it up because it is working!  We are encouraged with her progress, and we know that it will take everyones’ love and prayers to see her through this.