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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
Hi everybody! This weekeend was great. On Saturday, we went to the Buddhist Temple, which was something I had been looking forward to. We went to all the different shrines and offered incense, along with a prayer. It was very interesting to see the customs of the worshippers. We went to the gift shop and the people were very nice and allowed me to touch all the stuff. It was raining and so I was not able to see as much as I would have liked with the sunlight. However, the colors and light were much more vivid to me. I could tell my mom and Emani everytime I saw red; it is all over the temples. My sister even got to ring a bell in a bell tower – it is an experience I will never forget. After this, we went to Pizza Hut, which in China is something of a fine dining experience. I got the chicken curry pizza and there are many other dishes equally interesting. Next on our day was Jimo, a Chinese baragining market, which is similar to the “mercado” in Juarez. We were able to see roasted beetles on a stick, which I did not try. Emani tried squid on a stick and liked it; she was much braver than me. It was an exotic experience to see the things we see on our favorite travel channel shows. Itt was drizzling and cloudy all day, so I couldn’t test my vision results much.
Today, we got up and took it easy. We went to RT Mart for our grocery shopping. We must go every 4 days, because there is not enough space in which to store ample amount of groceries. Today was sunny and I was able to see the ”brighter world” again. I could see the crosswalks (white lines) from the window of our moving taxi. I have always been able to see the lines, but not in a moving vehicle. The red lettering on the hospital was also visible to me. I cannot tell the shapes of the letters, but I could point to the red. After leaving the groceries in our room, we went to eat at a brand new KFC across the street and walked passed the same flowers I had seen. Of course, my mom keeps giving me vision tests. So, we stopped where the flowers were and I stepped back 2 yards and was still able to see that they were red. The closer I was, I could see that the red was not all one mass.
Then, Jack my favorite translator, took me to a small music school that his friend owns. It was cool; I hadn’t been on a drum set since we left. I got some practice and the musicians were very friendly towards me and asked me all sorts of questions.
This was our weekend. I will have IV treatment tomorrow and spinal on Friday of this week. Thanks for reading and let’s keep praying.
July 12th, 2009
Today is Friday. The doctors came in again today. The head doctor along with 5 others came with Dr. Tony and were very excited by Dr. Tony’s report. Yesterday afternoon, we walked across the street to LotteMart and on the way, I was able to tell that the flowers on my left hand side were red. The world seems a shade brighter than before. The doctors encouraged me to go out and to look at things to see what I can see. I have the next 2 days off, and plan to use them to sightsee. I will keep you informed. Again, thanks for reading and all your prayers.
July 10th, 2009
Hi, it’s Lawrence. I woke up feeling great this morning. Emani helped take very good care of me. I don’t know what I would do without her. I’ve had no headache and no backache and I was also informed today that my vision is improving slightly. Dr. Tony sees that my nystagmus is lessening. Today, I was able to see a candy wrapper on the floor. This is really exciting news and after this it will only get better. Thank you all for your prayers and please continue to pray for us.
July 9th, 2009
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