Kai Merilä was eating a Midsummer meal when the enormous pain took away his consciousness – The hospital revealed the shocking truth: “It was of the worst quality”

Last Midsummer Kai Merilän57, life had to end.

The doctor told his wife that it was worth preparing for the funeral, because it could be ahead.

Matti Nykänen the long-time entertainment reporter, known as a credit reporter, fell ill completely unexpectedly with a bad pancreatitis – and it was a lucky coincidence that he is alive now and able to tell his story.

– I had previously had a stomach ache and bloating, but I had put it down to the kebab meals I ate. On Midsummer’s Day, after a meal and a couple of beers, I felt bad, and I managed to walk a couple of steps from the fireplace room to the bathroom, when a terrible pain came. I saw stars, and that’s where the film cut off, says Kai Merilä to Iltalehte.

His wife Sari Merilä had slapped the man in the face and called an ambulance.

One of the lucky coincidences was that this time the ambulance happened to be right in the center of Somero. In a normal situation, it would have taken a long time to wait, and at that moment Kai Meril didn’t have time.

Merilä remembers waking up unconscious on the Turku highway and begging for medicine for the terrible pain.

At Turku University Central Hospital, Kai Merilä was suddenly in the intensive care unit on a ventilator in the middle of tubes. His bile ducts were blocked, which had caused severe pancreatitis over a long period of time.

– It was the worst kind of pancreatitis, the kind that kills people, says Merilä.

He is satisfied that the truth was not embellished for Sari’s wife either, but the matter was told as it was.

– I don’t remember anything from the first three weeks. I was a bed patient in my diapers being turned and lifted. Plasma fluid accumulated in my lungs, which was sucked out by the liter from each lung, he says.

All in all, Merilä was an inpatient for one call for 2.5 months before she got home to Somero.

At that point, there were rumors circulating through the villages and social circles, in which Merilä was said to be in a mental state, perhaps because of drinking. Such talks made him bitter, because Kai Merilä recalls that he stopped drinking alcohol already in 1995 when he married his wife Sari.

– This is considered a disease of alcoholics. Some people drink Lasol and don’t get sick from this. I drank a few bottles of the store’s average beer, and I’m getting goddamned pancreatitis, Merilä shakes frankly.

– Yes, I myself wonder how the hell a person from here gets such a pancreatitis, when I’ve always been athletic, and for years I’ve only drank a couple of average beers on weekend evenings. I quit because I had a bit of the same problem as my friend Matti Nykänethat when I touched the strong ones, the tables started to topple and the hands started to twist, he sums up.

A new opportunity

Miraculously, Kai Merilä survived pancreatitis. Since then, it has been euphoric to walk on a regular forest run with the dogs, to smell the scent of pine needles and to marvel at all the beauty in Finnish nature.

When life gave a new chance, even these things can still be admired.

Kai Merilä says that he does not really believe in God, but he feels that he has received a wonderful new opportunity from the universe. It is only right that it should be approached with the appropriate seriousness.

The months spent in the hospital with pancreatitis shrunk the athletic, muscular man of more than 90 kg to 70 kg. He says he knows he looks withered, but it doesn’t bother him.

– The doctors said that that athleticism specifically saved my life. My body was in good shape when I got sick. I had been working out all my life, doing Krav Maga and working out at the gym. If I had weighed 70 kilos when I got sick, I probably wouldn’t have survived. There would have been a funeral for the wife to organize.

The entertainment journalist says that at first even walking felt heavy, but his condition has slowly returned. According to him, after pancreatitis, the body recovers slowly, and complications are likely. Merilä says that she has already ended up in TYKS eight times and has accumulated more than 130 hospital days this year.

Even the medication caused challenges: from one antibiotic, Merilä’s upper lip swelled up into a banana, from another her eyes swelled up into balls, and her body developed an itchy rash.

At worst, his inflammation values ​​hovered close to 900, while the optimal value is 5-7. Currently, the inflammation value is 20, according to Merilä.

While doing the interview, Merilä is at TYKS again. The inflamed blood mass was removed from him again with an exploratory operation. Because of that, the stomach swells into a ball.

– It looks like you are ten months pregnant, and your stomach hurts, she describes.

In January, the operation will be done again.

Being seriously ill has taken its toll, but Merilä has not lost her basic optimism. He describes himself as a lively Karelian, whose father survived two wars, and whose grandfather, grandmother and mother left Vyborg for evacuation with the power of two kick sleds when the war broke out. As a fighter, he has focused his thoughts on moving forward one day at a time.

– I have gained tremendous strength from my dogs and my wife’s support has been invaluable during these times. Strangely enough, it is also moved when there are nice messages from friends. I dream of being able to play with my band again. Music has been part of my life since I was a little boy, says Merilä.

If it’s up to him, the Hired Gun cover band will be back on the boards with camp hits.

However, the man is still on sick leave and is focusing on recovery.

– I have been able to learn patience many times through this illness. I’ve always been the guy with speed and things to do. In my wife’s words, I’ve been a durecall bunny. Now it’s time to learn to stop, and it really hasn’t been easy, says Merilä.

– The mind would like to do everything, but you have to give the body time to recover. I’m moving forward with small steps!

Kai was the first to tell about Merilä’s pancreatitis Forssa’s newspaper.