2009-01-21T13:40:00.000-08:00

The Rose Water Story

By Ken Aitken …
… When he was in hospital in February 1996
…. As at January 2009

After coming out of Intensive Care Unit (ICU), I was placed in the Critical Care Section of M7, the ward for brain injured people. While I was in Ward M7, the doctors believed I had damaged my thirst mechanism. I apparently did not know when to stop drinking. The doctors called this disease, Polydipsia. It was as if I had been in the Sahara Desert for two weeks with insufficient to drink. I had such an insatiable thirst that I dreamed of drinking all the water from the end of a running garden hose. I believed at the time the nurses were just being difficult when they forcibly limited my water intake to three litres of water a day.

I have since found out from a nursing relative that in such a case as mine, it has been reported that if you drink too much water, your kidneys can fail from water overload. The doctors had to ascertain whether my problem was physical or psychological so everything I drank was recorded on a chart at the foot of my bed. How to get a 230ml -hospital cup of water became the whole goal of my day. When the nurses came on ward rounds with torches at about four in the morning, I would be awake for the morning round, I would be awake for that welcome light. `Could I have some water, please?’ If I was within the three litres per day, which I was allowed to drink, I could have some.

Polydipsia was such an acute problem that I felt on the edge of insanity. In M7, I desperately wanted the doctors to change their minds on the quantity of water I could have. In protest I began throwing anything from cutlery to boxes of tissues out the window. Fortunately, there was a metre wide shelf outside the window, which prevented things from hurtling down from the 7th floor to the pavement below.

Eventually in Feb 1996, I was transferred to the Head Injuries Unit (HIU for short) in the same hospital. I still had this major thirst problem. I was so discouraged with this problem of how to get enough water to drink; I almost quit on rehabilitation. It was here that I had a very funny experience. They still had me on water restrictions. I guess they were trying to get to the bottom of the problem.

The nurses suddenly announced to me one night that I was to have a test. I had to fast from 9.00 o’clock that night to 7.00am in the morning. It was never explained to me the reasons for this test and as a result I saw it as the doctor’s test, not mine.

I was awake at 11.00 p.m. at night and absolutely dying of thirst. What could I do? I could get into my wheelchair or walk around by hanging onto the walls. I then saw the vase of roses in fresh water, which Harriet my wife, had brought in for St. Valentines Day, the previous day. This night would have been February 15th. Grabbing onto the cupboard doors, I got out of bed. I took the roses and threw them into my wardrobe. I drank the vase of fresh water and said to myself `That is the best St. Valentines Day present Harriet could have given me!!’.

In the morning, at about 6.30 a.m., I was concerned for the wilted roses. I took the empty vase to the bathroom in my wheelchair. I was busily rinsing out the vase when Sister Clare who ran the ward came upon me and asked me ‘Did you drink the water from the vase?’ ‘Oh no’, I lied. ‘I’m just getting new water for my roses’.

A week later, my conscience was really nagging me about lying when she was showering me. I said to Sister Clare, ‘I have something to say to you. I DID drink the water from the vase. I am sorry I lied to you the other week’. Out of that confession came a lot of trust. I began to obtain water for myself and the problem of my thirst quickly went away.

If it was Polydipsia as I now believe it was, I don’t know how this event corresponded with my physical thirst. Somehow, the water restrictions were lifted, as the doctors never came back to check on my final outcome. I just know that period of my hospitalisation was extremely difficult. I only came to this understanding it was Polydipsia in late 1997. I believed the nursing staff were just being negligent with my water. I have perused the details of all this through my Medical File as I had permission from the Freedom of Information Officer at the PAH but I am none the wiser. (I can drink only two litres / day and not feel thirsty as I did in Hospital).

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The Rosewater Story