Hi everyone, I am in China now dealing with jet lag and having a hard time getting adjusted. A little bit of culture shock and a little anxiety about the whole experience. Todd is currently packing to leave. He has had a great time during his stay and is sorry to leave. I think because of all the great people I am meeting here that things will get better for me soon.
We went to Hot Pots the last night with some other families here. Todd really likes this resturant and all though the experience was cool, I had a hard time eating anything. Actually I haven’t eaten much but haven’t been hungry…nerves and scared of what exactly I will be eating. Cheryl is doing better getting adjusted than I am.
Bradley is also doing great. He loves all the people here and the time just hanging out at the hospital sitting around talking to everyone. As for results from the treatment we have not seen anything yet. Bradley thinks his eye movements are getting better but I have not noticed any change. There have been a couple other children here seeing slight changes already though. We have been told from the beginning that it will probably take up to a six months to a year to see the full results. So we are still praying for a miracle…it is in his hands and he knows what is best for Bradley’s life. Thank you for all your prayers for our family and Bradley.
I will post more when I am brave enough to venture out more and have interesting stuff write. ~Amy
July 18th, 2008
Lets see, I know it has been too long since our last blog, but we have been LAZY!!! I really didnt know what “Lazy”meant but I do now!! ( and I think that its ok once in awhile, LOL) Lets see , we have gone sight seeing, had a big breakfast, Amy and Mew maw(Cheryl) arrived today, YEAH and finished our 4th stem cell treatment.
Thats right Amy and Cheryl(my mom) arrived in Qingdao today. They didnt have any problems coming over, now we have to deal with the jet lag. Cheryl is staying over at the Hotel but Amy fell a sleep in the Hospital. I am going home on Saturday and I hope to be in church on Sunday. I guess Amy is going to be writing the blog Now, I hope You have enjoyed my writing as much as I have writing it.
We have been driving around town and seeing the sights so we decided to walk around the block, a rather large block, or at least a couple of blocks. Before we got done, we stopped to eat lunch and then we went back to the hospital. The 1st pix is of Macie , Shreeya, and Bradley at the local park, it is celebrating the Beijing Olympics and has alot of floats and colorful lights at night. The second pix is some of the Local cuisine, Joey from back home asked us to bring him some Cat on a stick, well Joe we think that we found it, but we dont know how we are going to get it home. LOL !!! ( Sorry Kelly!! )
The 3rd & 4th Pixs are Wednesday morning before all of the stem cell treatments started. (Stem cell treatments are only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and those patients that are recieving stem cells on those days cant eat 3 to 6 hours before they recive thier treatments so Keith, Garretts Uncle, had a great idea of fixing breakfast for everyone in the stem cell program. A few of us helped out and it turned into a great breakfast. (Kudos to Keith) When we first got here the experienced Families helped out the newbies and now its the newbies turn to pay it forward. I must say that I was following Keiths lead but I am very glad that I did, Everyone really injoyed it.
The Last pix is of Macie and Bradley killing time during thier 6 hours that they have to wait after thier stem cells. Well I moved Bradley into Macies room because Amy was really Tired and needed to sleep. I am thankful for Macie and Her Mom, Shell, because they have been awesome to Bradley while he has been going through the treatments. Time to go. See YALL later
July 16th, 2008
I just found out that the camera that I have been taking all of my pictures with is broken. I am glad that I bought the warranty but my picture taking is going to slow down untill I resolve the issue. It shouldnt take long, but Im not sure what I am going to do.
Today Braden and his father Brad were suppose to take us around in a Van, but Brad ended up getting a stomach ache and stayed home, But Braden and the rest of us still went. 10 of us total,Braden, Bradley,Macie, and Garrett were the kids and Teresa,Don,Kieth,Jenifer,Shell, and myself were the adults. 1st we went to JUSCO which is a mall and the kids got treated to Mickey D’s. They loved it. Then we went to Polar world and saw Penguins, seals, walrus’s,Polar bears, Whales and Dolphins. The had a neat little show and the kids were put on to the teleprompter, it was entertaining. After the long day we stopped for a nice cup of Baskin Robbins to finish off the trip. Again a very nice day.
I am going to go for now but I wanted to make sure we start gearing up for Wednesdays’ Spinal Stem Cell Procedure. Please pray for super duper cells and that God annoints the Doctors as well as the cells so that a maxium effect occurs from this Procedure. We love you very much, Oh yeah, we are getting alot of feed back and i love it, please keep dropping lines to us, they are very incouraging. Sorry if we dont respond but we will get to it sooner or later. Again Thank you. Todd and Bradley
July 13th, 2008
Saturday, yeah!!! free time and we didnt waste much of it. Bradley had acupunctor till 9:30 but then we decided to go to hit some Golf Balls and get some lunch. Then we decided to go to an American grocery store that was downtown.(about 35 mins away.) On our way downtown we noticed that the sky was the clearest it has been since we have been here, so we thought that it would be a great idea to to see the beach or harbour. It was really nice to smell the fresh salt air coming off the water, that was alot like home. After a little of Shopping we took Macie and Bradley to McDonalds for an early dinner. Ive never seen Bradley eat so much food. 2 double cheeseburgers a large fries and i large drink. Bradley was Happly miserable. The fries were good. Then we decided to go back and put an end to our excursion but we ended up getting a taxi cab driver that didnt know where the hospital was and got a little car sick from his starting & stopping. We got back it just took a little while longer than usual, and we got a scenic view.
Well the pix. 1st we have a pix of Bradley’s new Cross that Wendy ,the interperator, gave him. They were talking about what Bradley had been doing and he told her that he was a Christian and that he wanted a Cross to remember his trip to China. The next day she came in with this necklace. It really is beautiful. I told wendy thyat i really appreciated that she did it and she told me that “it was nothing, she really liked Bradley, He was a very nice young man.” That was cool.
The next our pix from around the harbour. It was the Funniest thing, From the time that we got out of the taxi at the harbour, people just started to stare at us. We had many people come up to us and ask us for pictures. It was really funny, the 2nd pix the boy thought that Bradley was Harry Pottter. Many people ask if he is Harry P or if he is his Brother. So know I call Harry. It is quite funny, They just love Bradley, they treat him like a Star. LOL!!!!!!!!!
the 3rd , 4th, and 5th pix are just tourist shots of the harbour area. Once again we have had fun filled day.
Bradley’s 3rd stem cell was very easy, I like the I.V. delivery method but it is more effective though the spinal Taps….
We will write later, Just a quick note for all, Bradley helps me write these blogs, we write them together most of the time, But I think I am going to let him write a few himself. We love and Miss everyone, Bradley and Todd
July 12th, 2008
Well, things have been going pretty good, Kishner(VP of Bieke) has come in and fixed alot of issues that were here. Things that were making the stay a little less desireable, but she has come in and has put alot of those issues to rest. Thank you Kishner.
I am glad that John added that comment about the fog, I am really glad to here that it is fog and not smog, but it would still be a very pretty place if the fog was lifted. I guess the mountains that are within eye sight of the hospital keeps the moisture from escaping.
Bradley is getting ready for his 3rd stem cell treatment on Friday. It is an I.V. procedure and not a spinal, so it will go pretty fast and there shouldnt be any side effects. There are two delivery types, Spinal and I.V. A spinal starts with an i.v. in the arm but that is only to hydrate during and after the spinal procedure. Then you go to get the Stem Cells inplanted by a Lumbar puncture.( which is very similar to an epidural) After the stem cells are injected into the spinal fluid by the Lumbar puncture, you have to lay completley flat on your back for at least six hours so that the spinal column has enough time to adjust the pressure back to normal. If you dont stay flat it causes severe migraine headaches. But an I.V. is simply that, an I.V. in the arm, the stem cells go through the blood and help the body out.
So, Bradley should have an easy day but lets keep him in Prayer just the same. LOL!!!
Thursday night was a lot of fun. 5 familys are shipping out tomorrow, well 2 tomorrow and three others in the next three days, so we all went out to the buffet and had a sendoff dinner. It was pretty cool, especially the part where there was a Driving Range nearby and Bradley, Macie,Rachelle(Macie’s Mom),Don, Teresa and Myself all went and tried to golf. It was neat, I havent hit a golf ball since Bradley has been born, but Bradley and Macie both Impressed me. Both of them got up there and just hit the ball. Bradley hit one about 150 yards right down the middle, it was awesome. After the fact, we sat down and had something to drink. All in all another great day in China.
Oh yeah, Going to dinner was the worst, and I mean worst cab ride that I have had since I have been here. Really crazy. We were passing on the left over double yellow lines, in traffic, with head on traffic only 50 yds ahead of us, which had to swurve so that they wouldnt hit us. We almost hit a mother and child on a bike and oh never mind Ill be here all night talking about that trip, Im sure you got the picture.
Well Ive got to go but stay tuned……same BAT TIME SAME BAT CHANNEL…….. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!
July 11th, 2008
Today Bradley was done early and all we did was go to lunch and then we took it easy. Not much to tell but i wanted to introduce Macie, A girl with ONH and is a very nice Girl. Bradley, Braden, and Macie are all getting along great.
The other pix speak for themselves. Smog, Smog and more Smog. It would be really pretty here if there wasnt so much pollution.
The pix that shows out our window is 3 hotels surrounding an indoor water park. sounds pretty cool but far from being finished.
We have had some success with so Kids here and that is very exciting. Weston is starting to have some light sensitivity and Jarret can see 3ft in front of him instead of 6 inches. Both of these are from only 1 spinal stem cell treatment. I cant swear to it but I think Bradley’s nystigmus(eye movement) is getting better or he has more control over it. Here comes the Blessings….. Stay tuned for more!!!………..
July 8th, 2008
Well, I messed up the Picture order but I am getting the hang of the blog so it will be better, I think. The 1st pix is of Bradley holding a Sword. He saw this one when we were out looking for souveniers. His POP POP gave him 100$ US dollars before he left which turns into about 700 RMB’s here. Bradley is looking for one to hang on his wall and something that he can always remember the trip by.
The Second pix is Adam and Bradley outside of a 5 star Buffet that was excellent. ( The 5 star buffet only cost us 8$ US dollars when it would have cost us 75$ in the US.) I wanted to thank Adam and Phil(Adams Dad) for putting Bradley at ease. They encouraged him when he was down and Bradley really liked Adam, He looked up to him. I thank God for Adam, He had a motorcross accident that put him into a wheelchair but Adam has the spirit of a Saint. He has a very positive attitude when it could so easliy be negative. He has been the best influence for Bradley, let alone everyone else here. I expect to stay intouch with him for the rest of our lives. Thank You Adam for Being You.
The 3rd pix is of Bradley at the Buffet. It had everything, we are so excited that we found this buffet because it is close to the hospital and is the best food of the trip. The Best thing about it is that it is really not expensive to our standards. Bradley said it was the 1st time this trip that he felt like he was full.
The last Pix is what we are here for. Stem Cell Therapy. Bradley has been dreading it since the last treatment but not because it hurt him but because he couldnt stand to sit still for 6 hours. (he must have gotten that from the Daisey side of the family, LOL!!!) So Bradley decided that he was going to stay up all night untill his procedure the next day. I really thought that was a great idea so I said, ” Good Luck with That” and went to bed. He called some friends but didnt get a hold of many. Then he watched TV or talked to AMY,Caleb,and Olivia back home using Skype. When I woke up he was playing with the kids in the common area at 5am. He made it all the way to his treatment at noon. and Now he is sleeping like a baby. No problems nor do I forsee any. I will let you know on the next Blog.
Oh yeah, Bobby Umphlett had us in Church on Sunday morning using Skype… It was really cool. They say you find out who your friends are when things are rough, All I can say is that I have got a Great Church Family, Excellent Close Friends, Outstanding Co-workers and the Best Family Anyone can Have, and YES that means TOMMY as well(MY Father in Law, LOL!!!!!!!)
Last but not least, we have a new member here at the hospital and her name is Macie. She is 15 and has the same diagnose as Bradley,ONH. Both her and Braden have been great to Bradley, Please keep them in your prayers as well with everyone esle here. Thank you, We Love You, Bradley and Todd
July 7th, 2008
“Hot Pots” is at a local 5 star hotel and by the hospital. First you must pick what kind of broth that u would like to cook in, Spare Rib, Chicken or a Hot and sour broth. Then You pick out your food, Shrimp, fish, beef, vegitables, Clams, Scallops, Pork or shrimp Balls, Oysters, different kinds of dumplings, and pastas.
Then you put whatever you want to cook into your pot and boil it. Hence “Hot Pots”. Once you have cooked it you pull it out with Chop Sticks and dip it into a dipping sauce that is really good. The waiting staff was excellent, The Chinese are very friendly, but expectionally to childern. They are not afraid to act childish with a child. It is a real neat thing to watch. The Chinese also like to get thier picture taken and then want to see it. It is really funny to see a grown man giggle like a girl when he sees his picture on the camera display.
well i am not getting but five pix on this blogg so i will start anotherone so that i can put more pix out there. If you are writing us back on the blog, please keep it up, and if your not please start, it gives us something to look forward to.
Write more soon, Todd and bradley
July 7th, 2008
Acupuctionor as usual. Bradley really doesnt mind it but thinks that it is a waste of time. we didnt really do anything special but the familys here got together and had a 4th of july party. We didnt have any fireworks because China has put a banned on them untill after the Olympics. They are trying to reduce the smog, but I dont think that it is going to clear up anytime soon. But we had Hamburgers, chips, sausage, Potatoes, and Ice cream. It really was a nice little party.
Bradley did participate too much because the day before at the zoo, he acted like a hampster in that plastic bubble on the water and his legs really were sore. He was so sorry he didnt want to move. I gave him advil earlier in the day but when it wore off he was done, he didnt want any part of anything so he fell asleep at around 6pm and slept thru the night.
I set up the Wii for Bradley and blew the power ac adapter up. I cant belive that I did that but I have found a store that carries them so i am going to pick it up.
Saturday has been uneaventful but I did get the Wii working. All the kids were in our room playing. It was a good Day. We are going to a place called “hot pots” U cook your meal in front of you. Everyone has said that they really enjoy it, so i will update you on that on my next blog.
I got Lazy on pictures but I will resume taking them tonite at HOT POTS, We love you, Todd and Bradley
July 5th, 2008
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