Brayden’s CP Blog

An amazing day!

May 4th, 2008

I am very happy to report that we found the turtle!  He had crawled up in Brylie’s clothes and was resting very comfortably.  Jason put him back out on the balcony last night and gave him a towel and a tray of water.  Apparently he got very cold as he had wrapped himself up in the towel.  I couldn’t find him at first, and I was afraid that he had taken a 9 story fall!  We went about our day checking on Mr. Turtle a few times.  When we came back from our last therapy session, Jason and Brylie went out to check on him, and no turtle.  Apparently Mr. Turtle did this time take a 9 story dive to a better place!  It was very windy today, so that could have very well been his fate too. 

Brayden did better than normal today at PT.  He didn’t holler near as much and he didn’t fall asleep in the stander.  I really hope that we start seeing results where his tone is concerned.  I know it is very uncomfortable for his muscles to be so tight all of the time.  The big changes we will most likely see will happen over the next 6 months or so.  Even with Brayden yelling at Tom during PT, it is very hard to not have a great time when we go.  Tom, Martin, and Jason are very engergetic guys.  They are always dancing, singing, and having a grand ol’ time.  Jason and I about died on Friday, it was just our family and Tom in the PT room.  All of the sudden a song in English came on.  It sounded very much like Anne Murray from the 60′s.  Tom just starts belting out the song in Chinese- high notes and all!!  I gotta say, I don’t think any American guy would be caught dead singing an Anne Murray song, let alone attempting the high notes!!!  Sooo funny!!  We really have a lot of fun with them.

After PT, Jason decided to order spaghetti for lunch.  Hmmm, Italian from a Chinese restaurant.  It was really pretty good though.  They put peppers and onions in it, and they use diced pork instead of beef.   As we were finishing up lunch, we got another suprise from home!  Jason’s mom’s package arrived today, and let me tell you, it couldn’t have come at a better time.  I was starting to ration food so that we could make it the rest of the trip.  Sue, I am really glad you didn’t see the box when we got it!!  That thing has been through hell and high water!  They cut it to shreds so they could see what was inside.  You could barely even see the mailing label there was so much tape wrapped around it! They opened cereal box too- just the box not the bag.  I have never gotten a box from overseas before, so I don’t know if they do this same thing in the US or not.  I just can’t imagine having all of my packages gone through.  Another freedom we American’s take for granted!  Anyway, thanks so much for the goodies Sue!  I’m kind of glad that they delayed the shipment bc it really worked out for the best.  I barely even pulled the Snickerdoodles out of the box and Brylie was tugging on my arm to get one for her- but believe me, Jason wasn’t far behind!!

The surprise birthday party for Ching was a big hit.  We had spaghetti, pizza, duck, Chinese dumplings, veggies, fruit and two cakes.  Sounds like a lot of food, but Jason or I neither one made it through the line before all was gone!  Oh well, it was still lots of fun, and Ching was very suprised.  The crowd died down at about 7:30, and we had the most amazing ending to our day!  There is a man from the U.S. that is here for his second round of treatments.  I honestly do not have enough time or space to give his story the justice that it truly deserves, but I will try give you a short run down.  His name is David Aldridge.  He fell out of a boat, hit his head, and basically drowned.  When they revived him, he was blind, and paralyzed from the chest down.  He had no control, feeling, or movement of anything from his chest to his feet.  He also could not speak clearly enough for anyone to understand him.  He came to the Shenzhen facility 18 months ago for his first round of treatments.  He is now without his trach.  He can see about 8 feet in front of him clearly, and can see outlines as he looks farther.  He has complete control of his trunk, and can do sit-ups on his own.  He has feeling throughout his entire body.  He can move both of his legs and feet.  He can walk with assistance in a swimming pool.  He talked to all of us for about an hour tonight about his amazing progress with only a very slight slur.  I cannot tell you how absolutely wonderful it was to hear him speak.  I got about 20 minutes of video that I can’t wait to share with you.  He said that his vision was the first thing to return and that it continues to improve still today.  His story gave every person here hope.  Of course we will not all be as fortunate enough as David, but isn’t it great to know that we can tell the doctors that they are completely full of bs when they tell us there is no hope when it comes to brain injury!!!  Funny thing how David’s story isn’t all over the media isn’t it?  Apparently doctors and pharmaceutical companies aren’t the only ones getting rich off of sick people!  I guess healthy people don’t make good news stories. 

Brayden has his last spinal injection tomorrow- YEAH!!!  Please say a little prayer for him when you go to bed tonight.  I do hope things go as well as they did last time.  His final injection is Friday, and it is by IV.  This week is pretty busy, so hopefully it will go rather quickly.  Talk to you all tomorrow!  Our love from China!

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