Josie's Journey

Josie Is The Most Severest Ever

Josie opened her eyes. She was weak and her head hurt. She blinked slowly - her eyes felt swollen.

"M-mom?" Josie croaked. She made a feeble attempt to sit up, but could barely raise her head. "What's happening to me?"

Elaine was right beside her daughter's bed; she'd pulled up the reclining chair meant for the patient's family staying in the hospital room and parked it at the bedside. In the four days Josie had been there, Elaine had only gotten up to use the bathroom or get food. She didn't want to leave her sick daughter's side - any moment together could be their last.

"I'm right here, Josie," she murmured, brushing back Josie's thinning hair. "Don't worry, Mom's here darling." She held her daughter's hand gently, afraid of hurting her.

"Why are there so many tubes in me?" Josie turned her head to the side, taking in the blurry view. There was a machine pumping next to her, two IVs dripping, a clear plastic tube leading to an oxygen tank, and a tube coming from under her gown doing who knows what.

"Ask her instead, sweetheart," Elaine replied, gesturing to the doctor who just walked in the door.

"Hi there Josie," said the doctor, a Japanese woman with a stylish pixie cut. Josie vaguely felt like she'd met her before... maybe someone in a dream? "I'm Dr. Nakato, your nephrologist. I'm not sure if you remember me."

Josie groaned. She couldn't remember if she remembered.

"Well," Dr. Nakato said with a chuckle. "I can answer any questions you have. This is the most conscious I've seen you since you got here - you've been under what we call 'moderate sedation' for almost three days now. You've been conscious, but unable to feel what's going on, and you probably won't remember very much either."

"What— why am I here?" Josie struggled to sit up; Elaine pressed the controls on the bed to raise Josie to a sitting position. "I don't... the last thing I remember was seeing my friend Sarah, and then... then I... I can't—"

"That day, you had a major seizure," the doctor explained. "That evening you had another one, but since then we've kept you seizure-free. We ran some blood tests and found some things that are, frankly, disturbing. The most important thing we discovered is that you have gone into kidney failure."

"How is that possible?" Josie asked. Elaine held her hand a bit tighter.

"I'd say it was a perfect storm," Dr. Nakato answered. "Your mom told me you've been managing your chronic pain with over-the-counter medicines like ibuprofen and aspirin. Over time, that damages your organs. You were severely dehydrated, most likely because of having POTS, but also because of your anorexia."

Josie tried to object, but the doctor cut her off.

"Don't deny it. I've seen cases like this before, but granted it's never been this severe..." She cleared her throat and continued. "You were severely dehydrated because water means weight, so you weren't drinking nearly enough fluids. And, in addition to all of that, you had two kidney stones blocking urine flow, and an infection in your kidneys that we suspect started as just a typical UTI."

She sat there, stunned that things had gotten this bad without her knowledge. Her symptoms had developed a few months ago with Stage 3 kidney disease, and she barely noticed - all she noticed was a bit of back pain and slightly swollen feet. She'd had symptoms of a UTI develop a few days before her seizure incident, but she was too embarrassed to ask her mom to take her to the doctor because it hurt to pee.

"You said you'd have an update for us?" Elaine asked, leaning slightly forward in anticipation, ready to take notes on a pad of paper she'd pulled from her purse.