Awareness

Some of you have asked whether Evelyn or Marilouise know what is happening. We sat down with Marilouise in June to have a full discussion about Evelyn's illness. I pulled up youtube videos to show how kidneys function. We ask her every once in a while how she is feeling. Sometimes I get interesting answers. "I can't wait until she doesn't have to have shots anymore. I don't like hearing her cry." Sometimes I get "I'm fine" when asked how she's been feeling lately.

Evelyn is very familiar with discomfort and pain (daily shots, headaches and flu-like symptoms from high blood pressure and high levels of toxins in her blood, frequent vomiting, monthly lab draws, IVs, catheters). She hasn't known anything else. After the initial pain of a large incision on her stomach I think she is going to be happier than she has ever been. I'm not sure she is able to comprehend that future joy.

I did overhear a completely spontaneous conversation between Ev and ML ("My kidneys are broken"), which sadly sounds a little scripted when I was able to capture it in video. Still pretty sweet.