Well, It was a terrific day for Jitka.  Jani has called me several times today to let me know that she is much more communicative.  She is smiling at his stupid jokes.  She is amazing!  To think that just last week, we were sick with worry that she might not live. She remains on the ventilator, but was able to sit up in a chair. Her fevers persist, though cultures have been negative, and her favorite thing now is the damp cloth that Jani places on her forehead.  Hopefully, she will make it out of the ICU soon.

Jani and I would like to thank everyone for their well wishes and prayers.  My inbox is full, and I have tried to answer as many e-mails as possible, but there are so many!  Jani and I would therefore like to express our extreme gratitude here on the blog so that you all know how much your messages have meant to all of us.  We are planning on printing them all and binding them and giving them to Jitka.  We have also started a scrap book in which the family has written and placed pictures to remind her of how far she has come.

It would seem that her life has been saved by this tremendous medical team at Pitt County Memorial, but she still has many obstacles.  Many of those obstacles will be emotional.  She will need the love and support of every single one of us on this tough road to recovery.  She will be so moved when we can actually show her how wonderful everyone has been.

Thank you, and good night.

Kal

I would like to let you know that Jitka has put on a few smiles today.  I have a feeling that they were put on just to make me feel better, and not because she was so joyful about her condition.  But smile is better than tears.  She had a tracheostomy done yesterday and she feels very uncomfortable about it.  It hurts her to move or cough.  The ventilator is still on PEEP 5 and 30% Oxygen. The last remaining 2 chest tubes were removed today and her chest X-ray seems OK.  Also, first time today the nurses put her in a position that more or less resembles sitting.  She did not look to happy about it.  I tried to make her head a little bit more comfortable.  Than she fell back asleep like that.  Her white blood cell count is at 19300.  We’ll see if it is still in the downward trend by tomorrow morning. She still has 38.5C fever.  Today the two wonderful nurses gave her a wash. I am sure Jitka was grateful for that.  Her left eye still had the contact lens in.  That was removed and after lubing the eye a bit she opened her beautiful big brown eyes all the way for a quick moment.  That is how she shows appreciation now.  I keep telling her I am not there to cheer her up with silly stuff.  I don’t think she has much energy for that.  It is just my guess.  She can totally comprehend everything that she hears, but it tires her out and she falls asleep.  I tell her I am there to pull through this horrible time together.  She gives me strength when she tries to communicate with her eyes. 

I am not sure, but have a feeling I made her wonder if all my bulbs are screwed in right when I talked to her about food…..   I got a dirty little look and a frown.  I do not want to taste the tube-feed for sure….

I am going to inform those here who asked about a trust fund that it is in the works very much.  It takes a little legal attention by two very kind and generous attorneys to make it just right for her situation.  They are working on the details how the trust can be used and and so on.  After it has to be given a federal ID #, and opened at a bank here.  The official name of the trust will be: Jitka Virag Recovery Fund Trust.  I personally not going to be contributing to it too much since I am not going to be able to work for a while, but if you wish, you can send a gift filled out to that name.  We will post the description and details of it here on this site when it is ready. 

Jitkát október 19-én pénteken este elütötte egy autó ahogy hazafelé ment biciklivel. A Traumatológián van, gépi lélegeztetésen, mellkascsövekkel, folyamatos altatásban. A baleset során bekövetkezett sérülések többek között agyvérömleny, többszörös bordatörés tüdözúzódással és légmellel, jobb felkartörés és ami a legrosszabb T4-5 csigolyatöréssel.
Az elmúlt tíz napban elöször javult aztán kissé rosszabodott az állapota, majd újra javult, tegnap pedig megmütötték, a T3-6 hátcsigolyákat két vaskapoccsal kétoldalról összefogva egyesítették. A sebész a mütét során a kemény-agyhártyán nem talált sérülést így két óra alatt végzett.
Jitkának a gépi lélegeztetés, a törések-zúzódások és a légmellek miatt tüdögyulladása van amit agresszíven kezelnek antibiotikumokkal. Saját maga lélegzik, a gép támogatásával.
Legutóbb a vér nátrium tartalma esett kritikusan alacsony szintre ami elöfordul fejsérülteknél epizód-szerüen, magas koncentrátumú só-infuzióval most a normális tartomány alatt van kicsivel.  A mai nap folyaman eltavolitottak a csoveket amelyek a szajan at voltak.  A hangszalagok maradando karosodasanak veszelye miatt.  Most a nyakan/torkan at van helyezve a lelegezteto.  Nagyon nehezen ebredezik, de ugy veszem eszre szereti amikor a fejere teszem a kezem es suttogok a fulebe.  Nem tudommit erez.  Valoszinu nem fog tudni beszelni meg 2 hetig.  Kerem hogy gondoljon mindig jo pillanatokra es probaljon lassan, melyen lelegezni.  Remeljuk erosodik valamennyit minden nap.  Nagyon koszonjuk a rengeteg jokivansagot, aggodalmat amit iranta kifejeznek.  Probalok en is energiat meriteni a sok joakaratbol.  Ezentul probalok irni ide minden nap egy keveset magyarul. Elnezest hogy eddig nem tettem.

Vince, you never let me down! Vince is the man in Winnipeg who set up this site for Jitka.  I am sure she would like to say say thanks to you for it.  So many people can read about her rocky road of recovery.  I have so much help offered to me.  There are some truly wonderful people out there helping me with the children.  Thank you so much.  I tell Jitka about it every day. I place a cold towel on her head and whisper into her ear.  She seems to love that.  I opened her eyelids today and showed her the pictures of the children.  Her tears came out.  I can’t imagine how much she misses them.  I think it is time for me to tell Rowan what happened.  I know it will hurt him to hear about his mommy being like this.  And I really don’t want that.  But I am tired of coming up with stories.  I hope we will get through it OK.  I tried to put them in a daycare today.  It was not the experience we were looking for…  I guess we are just all too fragile now.  And we are just all waiting for our little fragile flower to bloom again.  Someone stepped on my flower, but she will bloom again.  It is hard to feel pain, but now I find it harder to see it.  Thank you so much helping us get though it. 

Okay, sorry everyone, but yesterday was a busy day for us.  Jitka went to the operating room yesterday and had a fusion of her thoracic vertebrae with placement of harrington rods (rods that hold the vertebrae in line while the bone grafts heal and fuse the actual vertebrae).   Dr. Reeg, the surgeon, (whom, by the way, we were told by many that if they required surgery like this-he would be the man) told us that there is little hope that her spinal cord will recover function.  We have decided to plan for the worst and hope for the best.  With prayer, anything is possible.  She made it through the operation quickly and without complication.  Thank God. 

Jitka chooses something to test my coronary arteries daily. Today, she just did not want to wake up.  She was completely off sedation, but we could not get her to open her eyes and respond.  A CT scan of the head was repeated and we were very anxiously awaiting those results all day.  It showed only some mild interval improvement in the subarachnoid bleed.  Thank God again.  Finally, at the 4:30pm visitation she started to open her eyes a bit and respond to our voices by lifting her arms a bit and moving her face.  What a profound relief!

I would like to take a moment to describe her setting.  She is at Pitt County Memorial Hospital, a 750 bed, state of the art medical institution that serves more than 30 counties.  Both the facility and the care are world class.  Dr. Newell, the attending physician on the trauma team has been amazing.  Not only is he an excellent physician, but an outstanding human being.  Dr. Joe Goodwin is the trauma fellow.  He has kept his eye on Jitka and comforted me when my mind was riddled with countless, horrible scenarios.  There is a team of nurses, the names of whom I cannot mention because there are so many!  They are top notch, one after the other.  Simply said, there is nowhere else that I would rather my dear sister be.

Jani has been a rock for my sister.  I can’t imagine anyone else at her side.  He has been loving and compassionate and has the spirit to help her through this, and lift her when she may falter.  He has been an inspiration with his children, from whom they will both gain strength.  I find myself dreaming of the day when she will look on her babies again.  Just a few days ago, that was a dream that may not have come true. 

Finally, I would like to thank all of you again.  We have had friends who have displayed kindness and generosity that is beyond conceivable to me.  I dare not mention names, for fear of accidentally excluding someone. We are overwhelmed by the love and prayers that have come forth.

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.

Hello again,

Today, our dear Jitka has been making steps forward.  She is being treated with antibiotics for her pneumonia and after the bronchoscopy yesterday, her right lung has remained inflated.  The tension pneumothorax on the left has imroved and has allowed for one of the three chest tubes to be removed.  Vent settings are improving slowly and she is now all the way down to 40% oxygen and 13 of PEEP.  Sorry, I include these little details for my auntie Jitka in the Czech republic and all of the clinicians that are reading this that need more specifics.

Many of Jika’s friends have offered to jump on a plane and come to see her.  This is terrifically appreciated.  The problem is that the ICU rules are strict and non-family members are not permitted.  Even we are quite restricted in our visitation priveleges, and it is for good reason.  She is so, so fragile right now.  Please save that plane ticket for when she is awake and alert and you can come and bring back that captivating smile to my sister’s face.

We have not activated the blog on the site because many folks would like to leave personal messages that they would not like read by everyone.  Most have been e-mailing Jani and myself (kal.ismail1@gmail.com).  We verbally take these messages to her, and will save them and print them up and give them to her when she can read them herself.

We are again grateful for the overwhelming upwelling of love and support.   Unfortunately, this will likely be more of a marathon, than a sprint-so stay with us!

Since the last update,  we just wanted to let you know about today.  It is amazing what can happen in a day.  Over the past 2 days, Jitka has been having some trouble oxygenating.  The Doctor’s were afraid that she might be developing ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome-a severe inflammatory lung disease).  She was found, however, to have a worsening tension pneumothorax (air in the chest compressing the lung) on the left, which required a second and now a third chest tube to relieve it. In addition, she had collapsed her entire right lower and middle lobes with a mucous plug.  She has had bronchoscopies the last 2 days and she is now expanding that lung well.  We all prayed through the night that it would be something like this, that at least we can do something about.  She has also required a central line and arterial line.  I fail to believe it is my prayers, because  God owes me no favors.  But when so many of you wonderful people are in her corner asking God to help her; how can he not listen? We all think that today is the day that she will turn the corner that will stabilize her enough to go to the operating room for surgery on her spine.

With regards to the children, they are doing well.  They have no idea that mommy is fighting for her life 4 miles down the street.  I think Rowan is suspicious, because he knows that there is no way that mommy  would let us visit while she is away at a meeting, but something in him subconsciously tells him not to ask.  They are both as sweet as ever and play happily.  So many have come forward and offered to babysit for them.  We seem to be okay now, but please hold those thoughts because we may need you in the future!   Our deepest thanks, again to all those who have come forward with well wishes and hugs and offerings of food and extra hands. 

Dear all,

Apologies for the delay in this update, but as you know, things have been very unstable.

Jitka, as you know was hit by a car while bicycling home from work on friday, Oct. 19th.   She was hit from behind by a car that was travelling at roughly 50mph.  She is currently in the Intensive Care Unit under the care of the Trauma team who has been absolutely outstanding.   At this point, her injury list is extensive and includes a small subdural hematoma, a small subarachnoid bleed, bilateral ruptured lungs (which seem to be causing most of the immediate problems), bilateral lung contusions, ventilator-dependent respiratory failure, multiple fractured ribs, a fractured right arm, a fractured shoulder blade and worst of all, numerous fractured vertebrae with spinal cord injury at T4-5.  I know that I am likely forgetting something, but it seems there is a new injury every time we enter the room.

We would like to thank the community and all of our friends and neighbors for stepping up in our family’s time of need.  Words cannot express the gratitude that we feel for all of those who have sent well wishes and offered to baby sit or bring food to the house, or whatever we need.  God bless you all. 

With regards to flowers or gift packages, we would like to ask that flowers not be sent.  For all of you who know Jitka, you would know that she would rather something more useful be done with those resources.  Therefore, we would ask that you send whatever money that you planned to spend on flowers or candy to either the Christopher and Dana Reeves Foundation for Spinal Cord Research, or, Theresa and David Lever were kind enough to set up a “Jitka Virag Recovery Fund” to which donations may be sent and will be applied to medical bills or the support of her little children. I am told that this fund will be up and running by this Friday, and I will keep you posted with the address.

Thank you all very much for your support and compassion in this time of need.  We as a family send our love to you all.