Nate’s Ataxia Blog

Today we were politely asked to stay close to the hospital, probably a good idea considering our experience yesterday.  Nate is doing very well with his therapies and we have been able to notice some improvements in his balance and his walking which is encouraging.  So far he has not noticed any vision changes but I expect if it comes, it will be a gradual process. They say that he can continue to see improvements for a year or so after treatment and it does seems like every day we notice some small changes. He is feeling better although the head aches come and go.  Nate doesn’t want to take any more medicine for them so we just take more soup!

Chinese students are on their summer holiday and we have had many visitors wanting to practice their English and learn American English.  It has been fun, we have used our Chinese/English dictionary and the computer to help us communicate when we get stuck.  I think they are college students, they said they have their dipolomas and are working on their degrees. Our faces hurt from smiling so much all day!  We learned as much as they did I am sure.  I asked one girl if she had any questions about life in the States and she wondered if it was as violent as they hear it is with people getting shot in the streets.  She also wondered how expensive it is to go to college.  Both good questions, and both difficult to answer because while it is true we do have that kind of violence it is not everywhere and it is very expensive to attend college but there is help with scholarships and grants.  Hopefully I did a good job representing the truth.  From Nate they wanted to know about his educational experience.  They don’t have band or athletics as part of their school.  They also do not travel outside the school to museums and things which explains why most of our nurses have not visited the Great Wall, even though it is relatively close.  We had our photo album so they liked looking at the kids pictures from the dances.

We also learned we have been making some mistakes at the restaurant.  We eat all of our soup, the broth and everything while Max said they only eat the noodles and vegetables.  Also, soup is considered a main course so we usually order soup and dumplings so that is 3 main dishes.  Oh well, we always take half the dumplings home for later.  We use an English menu and just point to the item we want to order and today we got something totally wrong.  It was fried watermelon and bananas rolled in sugar..wow talk about sweet!  It was like carmalized fruit. It was really good but too sweet!  I was actually pointing to the steamed rice.  Oh well, I would have never tried something new.

Tomorrow is Nate’s 4th treatment, and we are closer to coming home – only 14 days left.  This treatment is very exciting and it is good to be a part of it; everyone is so optimistic. I am sure the process can only get better as we learn more about stem cells and their potential.  Lovingly, Nate & Nan

8 comments June 16th, 2009