Sometimes a buggy computer just needs a hard reboot. You mash the power button, hoping a drastic restart will unscramble your RAM. The machine shuts down. You mentally catalog all the precious things on your hard drive: homework you didn’t save; irreplaceable family photos; a list of e-mail contacts; the stuff you don’t want anybody to find. Panic rising, you bargain with the gods of technology. Oh please, just let me get one good back-up before I lose it all forever.
One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three one thousand.
The screen flickers back on. But you don’t risk breathing. Not yet. The password prompt. 007_BrIaN_iS_cOoL. The operating system’s signature chime. So far so good. Desktop. Star Trek wallpaper. Batman cursor. Recovered Word document. Browsing history cache. Yep. It's all there. Thank you God. Thank you thank you thank you.
If you think you’re happy when your data is rescued from peril, maybe you can imagine how encouraged Jim was yesterday when his kidneys came back on line. Okay, he’s not at 100%. But it looks as if his body remembers how to pee. That’s something it hasn’t done for about a month. This sign of recovery makes Jim a more hopeful transplant candidate. Obviously, it’s easier to find a single organ (heart) than a matching set of three (heart + kidneys).
Doctors are taking the positive step of downgrading his dialysis from constant to intermittent. That increased freedom simplifies a walk down the hall. Yesterday Jim managed two 500’ excursions, pausing for only standing breaks. His therapist teases that Jim can leave when he can walk a mile.
If you’ve been wishing for good things to happen to Jim Southerland, this corner-turning hard reboot of his kidneys deserves your celebration. Tomorrow morning, doctors will weigh in on just how cautiously we should party.
One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three one thousand.
The screen flickers back on. But you don’t risk breathing. Not yet. The password prompt. 007_BrIaN_iS_cOoL. The operating system’s signature chime. So far so good. Desktop. Star Trek wallpaper. Batman cursor. Recovered Word document. Browsing history cache. Yep. It's all there. Thank you God. Thank you thank you thank you.
If you think you’re happy when your data is rescued from peril, maybe you can imagine how encouraged Jim was yesterday when his kidneys came back on line. Okay, he’s not at 100%. But it looks as if his body remembers how to pee. That’s something it hasn’t done for about a month. This sign of recovery makes Jim a more hopeful transplant candidate. Obviously, it’s easier to find a single organ (heart) than a matching set of three (heart + kidneys).
Doctors are taking the positive step of downgrading his dialysis from constant to intermittent. That increased freedom simplifies a walk down the hall. Yesterday Jim managed two 500’ excursions, pausing for only standing breaks. His therapist teases that Jim can leave when he can walk a mile.If you’ve been wishing for good things to happen to Jim Southerland, this corner-turning hard reboot of his kidneys deserves your celebration. Tomorrow morning, doctors will weigh in on just how cautiously we should party.
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