kyburg | It's official

There's additional damage to the kidney - frankly, if she lives more than another year or so, she'll be looking at dialysis. That's what it says to me.

Today, no. But she's moved out of the 'high normal' range for creatinine clearance to 'renal insufficiency' range. Numbers? December she was between 2 and 3 - yesterday, 5.5.

I'm putting out some hope that the last twenty days on Cipro and this backflow is to blame for the increase, but her doctor yesterday didn't seem to think that number was going to come down much anymore. We'll see.

One good injury, one big infection, one big surgical intervention - and it's over.

Having had someone on dialysis before, I know how well it works and what kinds of worries it ends. I also know nobody enjoys it. It's a huge undertaking.

Death from renal failure is a very gentle one - you stop eating, go to sleep and don't wake up. But you could also be in a coma for some time before death eventually comes, so -

I'm more worried about my siblings this morning, to be honest. While this isn't a spa vacation, she's resting quite comfortably and improving. She's very concerned about how sleepy she is, but after being hit by the truck, as I call it, and receiving a lot of high-end opiate painkillers, she could be sleepy for a long time and I wouldn't be concerned about it.

Dialysis will break my siblings' hearts. They'll get through it, sure enough - but watching them hurt so for Mom is hard for me too.

But that's not today. Tomorrow or the next day.

Today is Friday, payday and the beginning of my weekend. And I got lots of stuff to catch up on.

Forward!