So there may be a pattern – go out one day and be sick the next. No fevers, thank gawd, but I’m all stuffed up again, sneezed about a thousand times and the energy levels around here for all of us are really low. It was a nice sunny day yesterday when we were out, but today it’s like living in a smoggy smoggy cloud. And the air indoors is barely better. It’s very warm and stuffy in the room and the hallway is a little better, until someone lights up a a fag out in the hallway. We had heard that there was no smoking allowed on this floor, but that’s a rule with no teeth. There is a lot of indoor smoking here, we Canadians are so spoiled. Cigarettes are bad enough, but the cigars, cigarillos are extra stanky. And at least no one is spitting on the floor (at least on this floor, knock wood). A LOT of that outdoors, blech! So we stayed inside today, breathing the least offensive air we could, and had some naps.
Big news!! Bex is a movie star!! Tony and Lucy came in after her morning physio and shot a video of her. Bex really wasn’t ito it, but it was kind of like that offer that you just can’t refuse. They basically shot some demographic stuff, who she is, diagnosis etc, and had her do some demo’s of standing, walking, some manual dexterity stuff. Bex did really well, considering the feeling like butt today, a headache, and having just finsihed acupuncture and physio. Actually the whole thing went quite a bit better than the initial assessment that was done right after we arrived. IMAGINE how she’s going to rock the house down in subsequent videos!!!!
Sorry for the short post, having a little medicinal rum and OJ and am off to bed. Hopefully tomorrow i will be able to put up a longer and more interesting post! love love k
December 21st, 2007
Today we went out! After acupuncture and morning physio, Lucy came with us and we went out to the wholesale market. Bit of a taxi ride and what a place! First floor is all shoes. Hundred and hundreds of little ‘stall’ type stores with shoes, boots, and more shoes – Ariel, my girl, you would go nuts – option paralysis, where do you go first? And you can’t really hedge your bets and think you’ll come back to a certain shop later, cuz there is no way you’d find that shop again later. At least I never would, but then i have zero sense of direction and seem to be missing the shopping gene too. I just don’t care that much. Anyway, second floor is all bags, purses, suitcases, etc. too much. Lots of Chanel, Gucci, Prada and the like, none of it genuine. And there is a lot of bargaining going on. I suck at bargaining, i would really just rather pay a fair price. We will need to go back there before the trip is over because two of our suitcases bit the bullet on the trip here. One of Becky and Pat’s blew the zipper and my big expensive Air Canada suitcase has a bum wheel. It was a real DRAG for the last part of the trip!! bahaha!! ps, haven’t had any beer. and the reason i only have half a one is cuz Pat and I share a big one. You can buy booze at WalMart here. bizarre. Back to our shopping trip… we decided to have something to eat before coming back to the hospital and decided to go to Pizza Hut. Pretty much like a Pizza Hut back home, with some strangeness on the menu like fruit and seafood salad, peaches, prawns and squid, yumma. anyway, the pizza we got was the closest thing to something Canadian that we’ve eaten thus far. Leftovers tonight. Actually i’m having stinky garlic peanuts. How do they make a peanut taste so garlicky while it’s still in the shell? Used to have these in miniature form in the Arabian Gulf. kinda glad i haven’t found them back home.
so now, Bex is having the iv that she missed having while we were awol this afternoon. Her pm physio went very well. She pushed Pat sitting in the wheelchair back to the room. She also marched up the 4 steps into the Pizza Hut when we were out. She’s pretty darn awesome! And we all agree it was really nice to get out of these 4 walls today. We will go to the stores on ‘Middle Street’ maybe on the weekend. It’s a pedestrian only area, no cars, and if Sunday is a nice day like today, then that’s where we’ll be.
Take care all…peace out
kim
December 20th, 2007
Well….
For some reason the font is teeny weeny. My apologies. Why, when i figure something out, (like the picture uploading) does something else have to go wrong? Hope against hope that it doesn’t look like this when i press the “publish” button.
So we have our days kind of figured out now. I wake up between 4 and 5, and sit up to meditate for awhile. I’m sure Becky is awake in her bed, but she’s quiet about it til about 5. We get up and kind of try to be quiet cuz Pat is showing a valiant effort at sleeping in. We have a little instant coffee, I’ve switched to some lovely jasmine tea i bought just down the street. Our little water ‘cooler’ is a water heater and pretty much boiling temp water comes out of the warm spout. It does mean that the ‘cold’ or ‘room temp’ water is pretty warmish though, but it’s great for hot drinks. We try to put on the least glaring light possible (this is not really possible). Again, this is to not disturb Pat. Becky is feeling better now, no fevers, so it was down for acupuncture at 9:00 am. Then physio with Jimmy at 10:00 am. Jimmy had her doing some stairs in the physio room today. Bex was tired and had a nap after physio. Then someone came round to see if we wanted to order lunch. Bex and Pat decided to try MacDonald’s, Mickey D’s, Wack Arnold’s, whatever name you may choose for that beloved franchise. I declined and had celery and cream cheese that was in the fridge. It was weird and it was cold fast food. Bex tried a McChicken and it was super spicy, she couldn’t eat it, had to give it to Pat who said it was like eating hot wings. While we waited for that bounty to be delivered i managed to get in a little yoga practice in the corner of the room, thanks to the powers that be. I also decided to take advantage of the massage that is available just across the hall. It was about a half hour and cost me 30 yuan, which is about $3.75 Wasn’t the best massage i ever had, but did i mention, it was $3.75 and right across the hall?!? Matt the massage guy, was all like ‘see you tomorrow? same time?’ I’m like ‘sure, why not?’ Bex is going to have a foot massage tomorrow too. same price, a girl in the same room does it. Bex isn’t into the massage though, she says she has enough people poking and prodding at her through the day.
so it is 6:00 in the evening. the stem cells were late coming in. Apparently they are flown in from another city, and it was foggy today so the flight was late. It’s foggy/smoggy every day, and i’m just glad the stem cells make it here at all. So Bex is down having the spinal injection. Pat is with her, well not ‘right’ in the room with her, but outside the room waiting. I waited here cuz we ordered food. We are trying the ‘chinese’ food again. Some ginger beef, Tony didn’t know what we were talking about when they asked for that. Some ‘combination’ vegetables, and szechuan tofu for me 
and some won ton soup. In chinese it’s hun dun. Hope it’s good. I was hoping the food would be here before Bex went down, but they came about 10 minutes ago and were like ‘STEM CELLS ARE HERE REBECCA, WE HAVE TO GO’ So into the bed she went, with her pillow just for the trip down, not for the trip back. I told her we would feed her like a bird when the food came. I even offered to chew it up first and spit it into her little beak. k, can you tell i had half a beer? I’m SUCH a cheap drunk. K, i’m going to go before they get back. My apologies for small font. And love love the comments. love love you all for reading. k
December 19th, 2007
We’ve had a quiet day today. Bex and I feeling better. Pat – fingers crossed that he stays healthy. No treatments for Becky today, she’s been getting antibiotics and her fever is gone. Tomorrow is another spinal stem cell in the afternoon and she figures she’ll be back on schedule for am acupuncture and am and pm physio. Click on the titles to see the pictures.
Becky and Pat in Beijing Airport this is Bex and Pat after our plane returned not being able to land in Shenyang due to the fog. 30+ hours travelling and still not at our destination. They still look pretty good, maybe not very impressed, but still pretty good. And they didn’t punch me out for taking the picture either
Our room Hospital 463 Shenyang the room is pretty big, but we have a lot of shite with us too.. The bathroom is a sight to behold too, the whole room ‘becomes’ the shower, no partition or shower curtain, just a drain in the floor, interesting…
Mmmmm mini bananas and miniorange.jpg we’re pretty excited about cute fruit, the rest of the food, mostly meh… see the next pic…
snoutsnacks.jpg Bethany asked if everything at WalMart in China was Chinatized….. have you ever seen snacks like this? not in Kansas anymore Dorothy!
love to all
December 18th, 2007
Poor Bex. She had her ‘bone marrow’ harvest today, which was basically some fluid drawn from her spine. She had to lay flat for 2 hours, not completely flat, she was allowed a pillow this time. Then she had an iv inserted. The first iv went insterstitial and they inserted another which burned the whole time that bag ran through. Her back was hurting the whole time too, just a sore back from lying flat i think. (Uncle Raymond, if you are reading this, know that i wonder every time i use a term like lying, laying, or lay, i totally wonder what is the proper form to use. My apologies, i didn’t bring a copy of “Eats, Shoots, and Leaves” and I haven’t committed that rule to memory). So no other treatments today, no acupuncture, no physio, probably a good day to be sick!!! Yup, Bex and I both woke up crappy as can be with colds this morning. Sicker than i’ve been in years, Bex too. Of course, we have to come to China and get sick. Not able to sleep, and sleep is what we need. I’m down in the lounge because the new and improved internet still isn’t working in our room. At least i can sit and type in some comfort. Bex is actually running a fever now, so they gave her a shot in the butt and she has another iv, in the other hand. This one isn’t hurting, so i think we’ll keep it in. Tony says she’ll need something via iv every day, so if this is a good one, we better keep it. Poor pincushion. Oh and Lorne, we did remember you to Tony and he certainly remembers you and asked after Brad.
And we read Lorne’s comment about the pineapple. Of course, this was after i just came back from the store with 5 packages!! i like it, so i’ll eat it, and Becky was all pretending she doesn’t even LIKE pineapple while she ate a regular apple this morning. I’m really hoping tomorrow will be a better day. I told Bex that this is the worst it can get, hope i’m right.
Thanks for all the comments and good wishes everyone. I read Bex every one when the internet is connected in our room. My flawed memory tries to recall them when i come back from a distant connection.
Little complaining time, skip over if you don’t want to hear me whine – we got clothes back from the laundry and they smell like lighter fluid! Honestly, i don’t know where they were hung to dry, but it’s really nauseating. We’ll have another chore, doing laundry in the sink and hanging it around the room. Just another thing to make us appreciate our home and native land when we get back
Bethany called today. Very nice for your mom and pops to hear your voice Ubby. You and i can talk via text on here okay? Be well, everyone. We are doing our best to kick these colds’ butts.
love k
December 17th, 2007
Sorry, i know time is limited here – i can only piggyback onto some outside wireless by standing in a stairwell or by the elevator, can’t plug in my laptop there, and the battery is almost dead. had been trying to post pictures, guess that was a mistake. anyway, Bex is sick with a cold today. Poor kid, she hasn’t had a cold in years and now, in China, up all night coughing and sore throat and and and.
our phone number if anyone wants to call -
011-86-24-24357257. i hope. there is a smear on the paper, it might be 011-86-24-24351257. sorry, but if i go back to the room to check, i lose the connection and have to start all over. it’s probably the first one.
so tomorrow Becky has fluid drawn from her spine for the ‘bone marrow transplant’. not at all what one would think, no ‘bone marrow’ or ‘bone’ involved. Not much will happen besides that. Have heard from other patients that they are pretty wiped out for the day after and Bex is also fighting this dang cold as well. hopefull she can sleep tonight and will feel better tomorrow. Apparently i am as long winded typing as i can be talking, but i better go cuz i’m pushing the envelope for battery life… love to all from all.
December 16th, 2007
I am in a smelly smokey chinese internet cafe… I have brought my little flash drive with a couple of posts for the blog but i’m pretty sure i’m not allowed to plug the flash drive in. i can’t ask anyone because they don’t speak english. The stupid internet in the hospital has been down for days… It’s really nice to know that people out there are reading this, so i’ll stay in here for a bit and write some of what i remember from my saved posts. Bex seems to be doing pretty well. She did better on the second day of physio compared to the first day and she hadn’t had any stem cells yet. In some ways the time is going quickly, but in other ways it seems liek this is going to be a really long month It’s pretty cold here, but at least the sky is clear today. The 3 of us went for a bit of a walk today, but the sidewalks are pretty bumpy and all that rattling makes Becky’s head hurt. It’s a very smoggy place and kinda smelly air outside usually. so what am i doing today? inside at an internet cafe, ah well.
So acupuncture… second session today, the needles tend to be in the lower back, aka butt, yup some crack was showing. and one in each calf at the back, one in each forearm and two in the back of the neck. Then some little jumper cables are attached to some of the needles and then powered up. Becky says it does hurt. looks pretty bizzare-0 but trying not to let on.
And stem cells… first session yesterday and then Bex had to lay flat on her back for 4 to 6 hours. We were back in the room by about 4:30 pm, wondering how we would know if it should be 4 hours or 6 hours?!?! We’ve all been going to bed pretty early anyway, pooped and a little jetlagged still. So Bex was closing her eyes lying quiet and Pat was watching some old Saturday Night Live dvd. Soon Bex was snoring like i’ve never heard. She doesn’t believe it, but boy some logs were being sawed!! She says it was cuz she was lying so flat and wasn’t allowed to have even a wee pillow. But she didn’t really have any side effects, so seems like she came through it pretty dang good considering some people get totally debilitating headaches, or fevers. But with all that napping, she was slept out by about 2:00am. I think there are other nights that she’s awake at that time and doesn’t have such a potentially helpful excuse as stem cells to blame it on.
Soo, the landscape around the hospital… Pat noticed out the window, maybe a few city blocks away, a nuclear power plant! 3 towers, eep! i had heard Shenyang compared to Springfield – all we need are Homer and Bart. Kinda creepy, but of course no one else is concerned.
We’ve been very impressed with the staff in the hospital. Yesterday Becky and Pat gifted Jennifer the afternoon physio, with a little package, a wee bottle of maple syrup, a denman island chocolate bar and a little comb and mirror set emblazoned with “Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada” lucky girl!! Becky said she is just great, the physio is very different from what she had in Estevan. Soo thorough and encouraging. Jennifer asked if the maple syrup was beer! Girl after my own heart. We gave the team of 5 day nurses with the same today. They come in these little groups, waving and saying “Hi, How are you?” and “Bye Bye”. It’s hard to know if it’s the same 5 from day to day or a different group. We’ll gift the night shift tonight and then we’ll wonder about when to gift the docs… We have two ‘more special’ bottles of maple syrup and the chocolate and little pen and paper set from Estevan. The info we got before we came was to gift the doctors toward the end of the treatment. That chocolate is going to tempt me… better move it from my side of the room.
Anyway, i’m starting to get burning eyes from cigarette smoke and i’m sure my hair and clothes are going to stink. I’ve got to get outta here and walk to WalMart and get Bex pineapples! They have the best fresh cut pineapple there, gonna get about 6 packs for the fridge. there are waaay worse things we could be eating.
I really hope the internet is up at the hospital again soon. Becky asks first thing if i get on if anyone has posted any comments. Thank you all for the good wishes and the comments. Keep them coming.
cough cough… kim
December 15th, 2007
Hello — this is Haley. I just talked to my mom and aunt kim and they are having a hard time getting on the internet over in China so that’s why the havnt posted anything recently. She has things ready to post and as soon as she can get a connection with the internet she will post them!
Take care all
December 15th, 2007
So, ya, writing another blog while i can. The internet is a little flaky, couldn’t get on at all through the day today. it’s Thursday evening. Becky had blood work drawn this morning, a chest xray, an EKG (no waiting), a very thorough assessment by a team of doctors, and a session of physio. AND we also went to Walmart to get some essentials. Lucy, translator/patient liason, took us, she is such a gem. She translated for the doctor who did Becky’s initial assessment, hailed cabs, directed us around the huge walmart, and chatted and laughed with us too!
Soooo, the schedule – starting tomorrow, Becky will be going for acupuncture every day from 9:00 to 9:30 am. Physiotherapy from 10:00 to 10:45 am. (this afternoon’s session was over an hour!) and physio again in the afternoon from 3:00 to 3:45pm. And of course she will be getting the all important stem cell injections. She will be having only one intravenous infusion of stem cells, the others will be via spinal cord injection. Apparently the spinal injection is the preferred mode of delivery for the stem cells for MS, as it is the direct route to the damaged areas that need the stem cells.
And about life in Shenyang – it’s a little smoggy here. The plane couldn’t land on Tuesday because of fog, and we look outside and say it’s ‘foggy’, but there is definitely the ’smog’ component too. Pat says it smells like coal, that there must be factories burning coal that don’t have any ‘scrubbers’ I’m sure he knows what he’s talking about, and i’m sure there are some peeps from Estevan who will understand too, coal capital or whatever the claim to fame is – i’ve been away for awhile. All i know is that it’s a little smelly outside and quite warm inside our room. We don’t want to open the window too much but have to in order to cool off and get a little air flow going.
So lost the internet last night and couldn’t post this, so am posting early this morning, fingers crossed!!! Becky goes for her first acupuncture this morning. and we should make a plan for Sunday, the day off! Maybe we’ll take a tour, but should get that arranged with Tony or Lucy, because they understand us the best. I’m thinking about a massage too. It’s 30 yuan, which is less than $8, sounds well worth it.
Well, I’m going to post this now, and then see if i can get some pictures up too. Love you all and love love getting comments. Becky asks if anyone wrote, it’s the first thing we check when the internet is up. Becky says “Love love to all” “Be well…. love k
December 14th, 2007
Becky here… so glad to be here finally. Had my MRI yesterday – can’t believe that happened that quickly – waited for months and months and months to have an MRI back home. Waiting for them to come draw some blood this morning at 7:00 am. Then we’ll have some kind of breakfast. Kevin took Kim on a walk around the neighbourhood and found a fruit store where the fruit guy is going to remember her the next time she comes!! so we can have a baby watermelon and baby mandarin oranges, baby bananas- is there a theme here?! Waiting to get our schedule of treatments etc today so we can plan around that. We have a plan for WalMart, and a better plan for spa treatments down the street. There are a few places offering mannies, peddies, massages. Kevin pointed them out and was saying how good they are. Pat will come too and have a foot pampering.
The people in the hospital are amazing. Such friendly faces coming in to see us. We will take some pics and post them. Everyone is super helpful – of course there are some language issues but we muddle through. Tony and Lucy speak very good English and they are here during day shifts every day, i think.
Anyway, we’ll post again. The internet connection is really good here in the hospital so far. Kim says it’s better than in Duncan!! Maybe she’ll have to upgrade Ariel’s connection when she’s back. Apparently Lennox is getting a tooth and Kim is sad, thought she and Lennox had an agreement that he wasn’t going to grow or change while she was away… aw well.
take care everyone. be well. we will be… Becky
ps we love comments!!!
December 13th, 2007
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