Archive for July, 2009
We have made it to Seoul, South Korea safely! It was hard to say our goodbyes to the families at the hospital. When you live together as a community for 40 days, it is difficult to say “goodbye”. We have made a pact at the hospital that we will say “see you soon” and not “goodbye”. Lawrence feels fine and is ready to get back home. He called all his friends as soon as we got internet here in Seoul. We will be boarding our long 12 hour flight to LA. It looks like it will be full, so we will have not have extra room to spread out.
We are now taking our 7,000 mile journey back home. Lawrence is so happy with the sight he has received from God. Just having a “brighter world” for my son was well worth it. I would do this and more all over again for my children. I know that the man above has much more sight in store for Lawrence in these next 9-12 months. And Emani, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my little helper.
Thanks for reading these 40 days. We will continue to update as Lawrence makes progress.
July 31st, 2009
Hi everyone! Lawrence had his last spinal injection today! Number 9!! He did very well. He was in at 5:32 and finished by 5:47 p.m. It went very smooth! I have been packing up our stuff today. I will finish tomorrow when we get our clean clothes back. I have been giving our stuff to the families that will be staying here. Tomorrow is our last full day here. We can’t believe that this 7,000 mile journey is coming to an end. The sight Lawrence has gotten is great and it will only get better with time. We are ready to come home and sleep in our own bed. I have packed our electric wave therapy machine and will make sure I know exactly how to use it tomorrow during therapy. I will be ready to take over Jason’s therapist job.
July 29th, 2009
Hi! Just updating everyone about our journey. Lawrence is doing great. He is practicing to use the vision God has blessed him with on this 7,000 mile journey. He has learned that seeing and feeling movement are two diffferent things. He says, “that I am just beginning to experience the visual aspect of movement and it’s just going to keep expanding”. On Sunday, he experienced the dizzy feeling when people are moving around him. We were getting out of the taxi and he felt a little disoriented as he was the last to get out and saw me and Emani moving out of it. This will be a constant learning experience as his vision improves. We passed by the red flowers today and he saw the color of them, in the exact same way he did the first time. We will practice, practice, practice.
Lawrence will receive his last treatment tomorrow afternoon. It will be a spinal injection. Please continue to keep him in your prayers as our journey comes to an end on Friday.
July 28th, 2009
Hi everyone, it’s us from China. We haven’t been able to blog because the internet is down, except for one computer in the community room. Of course, everyone needs to use it, so I haven’t had a chance to blog. I got up early this morning and was the first on the computer, so that I could let everyone know how we are doing.
Lawrence’s spinal went fine. He ate 2 boxes of hot chicken wings from KFC after the 4 hours when he is able to eat. He slept well and woke up rested. No headache and no backache. We have been so fortunate, as some of the patients here have a hard time with that. Our friend Nanna from Switzerland has had headaches and we pray that she will get better.
Saturday, we had therapy as usual and then went to Jimo with our friend Remi who is from Hong Kong, but lives in the US. Her and her mom are very nice people. Remi has gone many places with us and has been a lifesaver since she speaks Mandarin. We then ate at McDonalds. It was just like eating in the US, except instead of apple pies, they have mango, pineapple and taro root. We had the mango and apple pie.
Sunday was rainy, but Jack took us to an outside market. We were able to see the fish and produce market, but it started raining too hard, so we had to leave. Later that afternoon, it stopped raining, so we headed over to Lotte Mart to get a few groceries.
Dr. Tony said that the eye doctor from the eye hospital stated that Lawrence’s signal from the brain to the eye seems to be better. We
know that Lawrence has improvements, based on what he can see. We will work on training him to see and the results of the stem cells will be coming slowly, but surely. As Macie’s mom told me today, the improvements come a little at a time. Lawrence will have to start learning what he is seeing. This is not a cure, it is a slow process, as the stem cells continue to grow in his body. Thanks for reading!
July 27th, 2009
We are doing fine. We had the eye doctor yesterday and they were able to do Lawrence’s tests. Emani took a nap on the way there, since it is an 1 1/2 drive. It was an all day thing, but Amanda, our interpreter helped us through. The eye hospital is very busy. After a couple of tests, they told us we needed to wait for an hour before the next tests. So, Amanda took us to Jusco, a little shopping mall and there was a Starbucks. Lawrence and Amanda got frapuccinos. Amanda had never had Starbucks before. We couldn’t believe it. Emani had a coffee and I had an iced tea. We were on our way back to hospital at about 4:45 p.m. Amanda gave the doctors the eye reports and we are still waiting for the results.
Today was spinal for Lawrence; treatment #8. The stem cells were running late. He was scheduled for 3:00, but they didn’t take him in until 4:00. It took kind of long today for the spinal. As I wait, I get nervous when it takes so long, but he came out at 4:45 p.m. He was fine and relaxed. Dr. Tony let us know at the end of the day, that he had written the report and that Dr. Cheng needed to translate it. Since stem cells were late, they will give us the results tomorrow morning. I am very anxious to know what they are and I know everyone who read is too. I will post as soon as I know tomorrow.
Tomorrow, therapy as usual with Jason. It is almost time for Lawrence to drink something, so I will go for now. Thanks for reading.
July 24th, 2009
It’s us again. We went out today with Jack, our favorite translator, and his girlfriend. He took us to a cool park and a Confuscian temple. It was really pretty and interesting. We also went with our friends from Switzerland, June and Nanna. Nanna had a very bad headache and didn’t feel well most of the day. Jack also took us to a Chinese market and it was very neat. He took us through the back alleys, where they have a Chinese food court. It was like we were on Bizarre Foods! There was donkey meat, chicken heads, and all parts of the duck. They were cooking on coals outside of their food stalls. We told Jack we liked to see, but not eat.
Lawrence’s sight is still improving daily. Nothing drastic, he is just seeing a “brighter world.” Tomorrow,we are going to the eye specialist downtown. They will run the same tests they did at the beginning of our journey. We will keep you posted.
July 22nd, 2009
Hi to everyone! We are doing great over here. Sunday, we venutred out on our own. We went walking to Century Park. We rode on paddle boats, wich was great; Lawrence and I peddled while Emani steered. We had lots of fun. This park has many statues and Olympic monuments. Lawrence was able to identify some of the colors on the statues.
We found a french bakery and Lawrence got a chocolate donut, while Emani and I got a muffin. It was really yummy! We also passed by many other little shops and strolled through them.
For dinner, we decided to go to a Korean restaurant across the street from the hospital. It was okay. Lawrence really enjoyed the food and meat. Emani couldn’t eat the meat and I thought it was okay. We are becoming more advenurous in our eating!
I decided to start testing Lawrence’s vision with paper and markers. We did a variety of things yesterday. I made a large “L ” (about the size of an 8x 10 paper with a black crayon), but he was not able to see it. Then I wrote a 4-inch “L” with black marker and made it about 1/2 inch thick. He was able to see that it was an “L” about 5 inches from his eyes. I also had him trace it with his fingers. Then I closed the curtain to our room and showed it to him and he needed it 2 inches from his eyes. So, we figured he needs a lot of light to see the letters. We are soooooooo excited!!!! Since Lawrence doesn’t know much of the print alphabet, except his intitials, I made his initials the same size and he was able to make them out at the same distance.
Our friend June from Switzerland, came in with her computer, since it has a larger screen than mine. We tried the lettters there. She made an “A ” about 350 font and he could tell it was a triangle, and figured it was an “A’”. However, he can see the glare off the screen, which makes it harder for him. So, we will be using paper to test different things daily. Emani is very excited to be his “teacher” and teach him the alphabet. Lawrence says ” this feels more amazing than I ever dreamed it would”.
He had his IV in the afternoon. “Lucky Numnber 7″, as he states.
July 21st, 2009
Hi! It’s us again. Just wanted to give un update. Friday, Lawrence got his spinal and was out in 20 minutes. He has really learned how to relax with these. After every stem cell treatment, they take his temperature and blood pressure. This time he ran a slight fever right after, but it went down within 45 minutes. The doctors were not able to do the vision tests, since it was stem cell treatment day. Dr. Tony rescheduled for Monday.
After accupuncure yesterday, we went out with a few families. Our friends from Detroit left today, so we went to do a few things with them. We went to Jimo, the beer factory and fine dining Pizza Hut. It was a rainy day again. We had a fun experience at the beer factory. The locals wanted lots of pictures with us, they kept asking us to take pictures with them. We find that they like pictures with foreigners. Usually, they like the children, but yesterday, they wanted us all. It was a great experience.
We will continue to keep you posted. Lawrence gets treatment #7 tomorrow through IV. He says it’s “Lucky Number Seven”.
July 19th, 2009
Hi! Sorry it has taken us so long to blog. We have had a great week! Besides Lawrence’s ear infection, he is doing great! We stayed in on Wednesday so that his ear would clear up. Thursday, we went to the Laoshan mountains. Absolutely beautiful! We went to a traditional tea house and had a variety of teas grown on the mountain. He really loved this, since he loves hot tea so much, There is not much update on his vision; still improving slowly but surely. He could see the color of the green trees in the mountains. He cannot see any detail or shapes, he can just see colors from a distance. He has also been able to see shadows of people moving near him. This is very new to him, so he got a little dizzy. I have started reminding him to use his vision constantly. He will have to get used to doing this. Just a matter of practice. Dr. Tony will come to do some vision tests before his spinal. I will update as soon as I have the results.
Lawrence will be getting his spinal today at 4 p.m., which is approximately 2 a.m. El Paso time. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.
July 17th, 2009
Hi everyone, it’s us! We couldn’t get into this site to update yesterday. Sunday evening Lawrence felt a terrible earache, which ended up giving him a slight fever and severe pain. Dr. Lisa took him to the 7th floor of the hospital to the ear specialists, and sure enough, he had some secretion in his ear. We stressed a little, because fever kills stem cells. They were able to give him some ointment, ear drops and antibiotic that would not hurt the stem cells. What a relief! His fever went down by the morning, yeah! Monday morning, we were told reatment would go as scheduled. Dr. Lisa checked his ear first thing in the morning and Dr. Tony had come in to see him later. No shower for Lawrence on Monday! I had asked the doctors for a ninth stem cell injection, since we were seeing results. They have approved it, so he will be getting one more!
Accupuncture and electric wave therapy went fine. Accupuncture was more painful yesterday, since Jason put two needles in his ear. In fact, excruciating pain. But, today, he feels much better! We have also purchased an electric wave therapy machine to take back with us. We will get it next week and Jason will teach me how to do this. I will be giving him this therapy at home, once a day, like it is done here.
He got his 5th stem cell treatment by IV at about 3:00 yesterday. Starving as usual after the treatment. He says his eyes itched a lot when we went to bed last night. Great sign! By the way, this morning he asked me if the lightning in China is brighter. It rained all night, and he says he could see the lightning coming in through the windows with the curtains closed. He had always seen lightning as a flash, similar to that of a camera. He said it looked brighter and fuller. I really don’t think lightning is brighter in China, it is those stem cells working.
Thanks for reading and please continue to keep us in your prayers. By the way, Emani has made a new friend from Ireland.
July 14th, 2009
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