Austin’s CP Blog

China4

June 24th, 2008

Hi – Sorry it has taken me awhile to update. Not a lot to report with treatment but we seem to be so busy. Austin had a slight fever after his first stem cell treatment. So they cancelled his next treatment last Friday. He will have his 2nd treatment tomorrow via IV.

The weekend was pretty quiet but went very fast. I have made some great friends and have been busy doing the daily care of Austin and trying to get out of this hospital some. The other night we went out to a real fancy Chinese restaurant. It was amazing and weird at the same time. Some of the things they eat are very surprising. At this restaurant you walk in and choose your meal from about 100 different plates of food. They had live fish and you pick. After we ordered our meal, they took us upstairs to a private dinning room. We had a room all to our selves. It was amazing. We felt like royalty. I have been eating many vegetables and lots of rice! My meal cost about $15.

Saturday we went to a local market. It was neat. A little Chinese girl, her mom signed that she was 2 years old, was fascinated with Austin. She also really liked my calculator (my US friends make fun of me because I bring it with me to figure out the cost of things in US $). Some of the people here are so nice. Others like to stare a lot. I just like to think we are movie stars! The men here love on babies more than I have ever seen anywhere. It is so cool. I have a hard time explaining to them why Austin does not respond back. I often show people our hospital card and hope they get the idea.

Sunday a group of us walked to a local Qingdao park. It was so beautiful but very hot that day. The Chinese take such care in their parks and many of the roads have beautiful flower beds growing in the grass nearby. They take a lot of pride in grooming and caring of plants and parks. Then we ate at a Korean restaurant. The food was very interesting but good. They served amazing small bit size cuts of beef and lots of vegetables. One thing that I have noticed is that here in China I get full during a meal but I do not feel bad afterward. The food is so healthy. We could learn a lot from the Chinese. They are also all skinny! The usually have watermelon for desert.

Today Austin had another full day of therapy. He did well but cries when they work his hands well. It is hard to hear him cry but good that he is letting us know when he doesn’t like something. He is getting much more opinionated. He does 30 minutes every therapy day in the stander! Gertie and Kim (Austin’s therapist back home) would be proud! His body feels so good when he is done with therapy.

I need to get to bed! Another busy day tomorrow! God Bless. Love Jenny and Austin

Entry Filed under: cp,Uncategorized