Day 1 – Thursday 30th April 2009 – We’ve arrived safe and sound!
What a long day! We left Caernarfon at 4am on Wednesday 29th April, and have been travelling until 1200pm Hangzhou time (5am British time) Thursday 30th April. Our flights went well, although almost an hours delay at Heathrow. The flight to Shanghai was half empty and so we all had a chance to stretch out. Josh was really well behaved, and slept for around 5 hours on and off. When we arrived at Shanghai, we were a bit lost as we couldn’t find our transport. We had previously organised for a taxi shuttle via the hospital, but it turns out they got the times mixed up. Thanks to Johnny, Kate and their two sons Oscar and Theo, who we met on the aeroplane, they managed to organise transport to Hangzhou. This was an eventful journey, which took us approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes. The roads here are chaotic, the road lines and signs mean nothing to the drivers. We had about 5 near misses as we travelled to the hospital, narrowly missing pedestrians, cyclists, scooters, cars, trucks…
When we got to the hospital, we got the most amazing welcome from approximately 10 members of staff who all introduced themselves to us, carried our bags, opened doors for us, and gave us a tour of the Beike Treatment floor. We felt like celebrities!! All of the staff have been amazing with us and Josh so far, which is really nice.
We unpacked and settled ourselves into our new room, which consists of a large bedroom, with a double bed, cot, tv, dvd player, fridge, air conditioner, water cooler, and then a seperate closet room for all of our clothes, and a washroom. We then went for a short walk to RT Mart which is about a 5 minutes walk from the hospital. As we walked around, everyone could not stop looking, and cooing at Josh. This was very strange at first, but we realise that its not very often that they see Westerners, especially young children like Josh.
Josh has been really sleepy this evening, but we’ve been mean and tried to keep him up, so that hopefully he will sleep well tonight. Josh will have a blood test first thing in the morning, followed by a meeting with Dr Tony, and some physiotherapy. We have had the schedule for his first Stem Cell Treatment which will take place on Monday at 2pm, via an IV line.
I can’t quite believe that we’re finally here, and would like to thank everyone once again for making this possible.
Add comment April 30th, 2009
