December 15th, 2007

Hello all, we hope you are well.  It has been a little bit eventful for Jitka the past couple of days.  Jitka has had a real problem with the fluid restriction of 1500ml.  With her spinal cord injury she has to drain her bladder manually and this should not be done extremely frequently to avoid complications.  Therefore the patient should not drink excessively.  Unfortunately her urine output did not decrease much with the fluid restriction and therefore it looks like she has something called “diabetes insipidus”.  It is a condition that can happen with brain trauma that reduces the levels of “antidiuretic hormone” or “ADH”.  This hormone acts on the kidneys to allow them to reabsorb water so that it is not lost into the urine and is the reason we don’t drink and pee constantly.  In any case, Jitka is being treated for this, and actually the over production of another hormone called “prolactin”-I’ll let you figure out what that one does.  She had a pretty nasty response to one of the medications and was vomiting quite a bit.  I spoke with Dr. Beauman and it looks like they are going to stop or cut back significantly on the med that made her sick.  Hopefully that will do the trick and there is nothing else going on.  Dr. Beauman was extremely kind.  He even gave me his cell phone number! I promise not to abuse it!  It is just so hard to try to understand what is happening through little tidbits from Jitka.  She has enough on her mind.

Jitka has been fortunate to have so many visitors from out of town.  It means alot to her that so many would come from so far.  I think that it is good for everyone.  I know that seeing her improvement at my last visit set my own heart at ease.  Hers too, I hope.

Otherwise, Jani is back in Greenville, trying to make arrangements for Jitka’s return.  We are still working on trying to buy that house next door-hopefully things will progress expeditiously as Jitka’s projected discharge is toward the end of January.  There’s alot of work to do between now and then.  Thank you to all that have offered help.  Right now, it is just a matter of waiting on the paper work.  Our friend, David Lever  is in real estate and has been working tirelessly with Jani to arrange the purchase and repair of the home.  David has done so much; I don’t know how to thank him.  God bless you, David, if you are reading this.

Well, I think I’ll stop there.  We’ll keep you posted on any new developments.  For now, I think that no news is good news.  I think that I have had all of the “news” that my coronary arteries can handle in the past two months.  I have been comforted by the tremendous outpouring of support.  We all have.  Thank you all so very, very much.

Have fun Christmas shopping!  Take care,

Kal