CER, Leblon. Rio de Janeiro.
January 19th
Bill has been doing progressively better.
Today the day started with a question mark: does Bill have kidney failure?
The blood tests that have been conducted every morning, and which have shown Bill’s creatinine levels steadily dropping, retreating from what appeared to be the sure road to dialysis, today returned absolutely normal readings – perfect kidney functioning.
The results that were received upon his arrival here were aggravated by dehydration, which lowers the capacity of the kidneys to eliminate wastes properly.
The other issues – the lack of bowel movement (bm), and difficulty urinating, have been surmounted with varying degrees of success.
A healthy, yet scant, bm was induced today via enema in an attempt to “proof” the working of the intestines. It was enough to satisfy the Dr. on duty that there was no need to fret over that facet of Dad’s physiological functions.
The catheter has shown that Bill produces a healthy volume of urine on a daily basis. Now, without a catheter in place, we are waiting for his plumbing to prove likewise viable. Thus far (five hours have gone by) Dad’s expressed no need to pee – yet.
If he can urinate on his own – the staff will release us to “the wild” (i.e. Tavares Bastos) with a recommendation for a specialist in hand.