A Bottle of Champagne

If you're toasting the holiday with a little bubbly, take a good look at the bottle.  It's probably 750 milliliters.  That's how much Jim drank today.  Not champagne, obviously, but a honey-thick cranberry-flavored liquid that he really likes.  Well, maybe "likes" is a bit of an overstatement, but it sure beats having gooey stuff slip down the back of your throat through a tube the nurse has run up your nose.  

Anyway, the point is, that Jim put 750 milliliters of liquid into his body today.  And here's the magic: that's approximately how much came out.  Without the aid of dialysis.  How's that for a slice of fried gold?  To celebrate, his renal staff decided to try a little experiment.

See, twenty days ago, Jim's kidneys were in awful shape.  They weren't working at all.  He needed dialysis all day, every day, 24-7.  Eight days ago, doctors downgraded his dialysis from "constant" to "intermittent."  Today, his team decided to see what happen if Jim skipped a day of dialysis entirely.

Tomorrow, we see whether he can do it again.  Hold your breath.  And keep your eyes on that Christmas champagne bottle.