Well here we are on our 5th injection and only an hour and half into the recovery from it. Brooke is really hungry right now and thirsty. If you mention the words “hungry” or “thirsty”, she begins to cry. I can give her something to drink at 6:00, thankfully that is only 35 minutes away now. She is doing great. She is trying to lift her head alot. We did not give her any valium this time. Not much to say.
Add comment October 21st, 2008
Good evening everyone. Well we ventured out again today. We went shopping downtown at jimo market. I love jimo market. Once again, we had to take a taxi. Taking a taxi is like having a death wish. People do what they want on the road here, there must not be any rules when driving. They drive into oncoming traffice and it seems like you are gong to get into a head on collision. People honk alot here. It is called honk and go. We do not like the driving here in China. It is about a 40/45 minute ride and along the way we seen 2 or 3 accidents. I thought my husband was the worst driver in the world, not anymore…..LOL. And then let’s talk about crossing the street. Here pedestrians do not have the right of way, you WILL be hit if you don’t get out of the way. The chinese like to use their horns alot, I mean alot.
We ended up doing quite well shopping. We bought gorgeous hair clips, North Face jackets, Coach Purses, Gucci watch, Gucci purse, wallets, and Chinese pajamas and more. As we were exiting jimo, there were these men outside selling real mink fur, tigers, skins, etc. from real animals. Diane looked at one the was a neck wrap/scarf, the mouth was the clip. How sad……..poor animals.
Brooke has another spinal injection tomorrow. I will write more tomorrow, I am tired now. Goodnight
Add comment October 19th, 2008
Hello. Sorry I haven’t blogged in a few days. Not much to say I guess. Brooke has been doing her therapy. She is still walking around with me assisting her. We only have 2 weeks left but who is counting. I am ready to come home. I miss my bed, my bathtub, my family, normal food, and my freedom. Diane is really going crazy too here as well. She will be going to Florida Nov. 4th for vacation. It is not horrible here just beginning to miss America. I would do this again if I see improvement. Brooke has two spinal treatments this week, Monday and Friday. I have already sent an email to Brooke’s Therapy Clinic, to schedule her therapy for November and that I want to increase it to 3 days a week. We have to push those new little cells in her head.
We did get out of the hospital and spend the night (Fri) downtown Qingdao. We originally booked two nights but we only stayed one. The doctor here at the hospital told us that it was against the rules to leave but they agreed to one evening. Our hotel room was decorated incredibly unusual. Nothng matched in our room. A blind person must have decorated the room. It was extremly busy downtown, so many people. We did some shopping (not at jimo though), we walked around alot. We went to May 4th Square. Seen were they hosted the Olympics. Met a few Americans. Ate an an American diner. While walking we seen two traditional wedding ceremonies outside of a hotel. What they do is they have a band like set up with drums only and have men dressed up in these unique dragon costumes and dance. It is really quite interesting and different. The ceremony was done outside of a hotel. We also were able to eat McDonalds. That was the first thing we did after we checked into our hotel, was immediatelly go eat a Big Mac, and it was great. The sauce was a little different but for the most part it tasted the same. Brooke had chicken nuggets and fries. We had to order her a second order of nuggets. The area we went shopping at was just incredible. The buildings were all painted colorful and it all lit up in the evening.
Well today is Sunday and not sure what we are doing. We have a free day. I want to go back downtown to jimo where all the good bargains are. See ya soon
Kris, Diane, Brooke
3 comments October 19th, 2008
good evening, and good morning to you all back home.
We had our normal therapy schedule today.
Brooke had her fourth injection today and it went much better then the first injection. Her injection was at 3:00, she could not drink or eat for 6 hours prior to that. We were not able to let her drink for 2 hours afterwards, and she could not eat for 4 hours afterwards. Not to mention she had to lie still for 6 hours without lifting her head. She was very coopertive. If the patient lifts their head then they can get severe headaches and/or back pain. Four more injections to go.
Our friends from Ohio, dad Larry and patient Josh left us today. Josh is a victim of spinal cord injury caused by the hospital. Upon leaving he has had some feeling in his waist, here and there. I wish him the best. Our friends from Austraila left today also. We will miss them all. I have spoken with Lisa and Riaz, our friends from South Africa and they are doing fine. Little Keanu did get ill, same syptoms as Brooke. Keanu was in an automobile accident when he was very young and has suffered severe brain damage. He is very precious. Riaz is Lisa’s boyfriend and not the boy’s father but you would never know any different. Way to go Riaz for being the man you are. Barb and Deena should be home as well. Barb has Ataxia. She was very disappointed upon leaving because she expected more from the treatments. I think she will get better with therapy and the new stem cells have time to work. Be patient Barb. We will miss everyone, we have bonded with several of these people, they become like family in China. Also, the staff has been great here at Qingdao.
We will be heading downtown Friday after therapy and spending Friday and Saturday there. I want to see some of downtown, eat at McDonalds, and do some shopping. Bring on the Big Mac. I will be bringing the laptop of course.
Goodnight all
Kris
2 comments October 15th, 2008
Hello all and Hello Savanna. Savanna thanks for the comment. We miss you too. Brooke sends her love.
Brooke had Electric Wave Therapy today and PT. She finally back to her schedule of having therapy 5 days a week. I walked her alot in the hospital hallways again. I see an improvement in her ability to walk better. It is much easier for her to take steps. This is a huge improvement for her and we still have 5 more treatments to go. I hope we continue to see much more improvements. The nurses and doctors also say to allow time after we go home for more improvement, especially if you have outside therapy. While Brooke was receiving her Electric wave therapy today, I had acupuncture done. I am having Dr. Frank give me accupuncture on my knees to see if it will help. Diane is still getting it on her feet as well.
We went to the open market again today. Saw more dog for sale. Bought a few outfits for the kids (like they need it). We saw a new food item today, baby chicks. The baby chicks were still in the fetal position with their fine little hairs on them and some appeared in the egg still. Another disgusting site.
Not much else went on today. My daughter says only nineteen more days. We have alot to acomplish yet in these last few weeks.
Until next time everyone.
Miss ya
2 comments October 14th, 2008
Hello everyone. Well Brooke is finally done wth all of her IV’s. She has been on an IV since the 8th of October. She is doing very well. We take her for walks in the hospital hallway alot. She likes to walk around.
Anyways, yesterday (Sunday) we went out to dinner downtown to a Japenese Restaurant. We could not read the menu. We had to call the interperter and have her talk to the server. Then we got new menus. We had to order one food item from each page. There was 4 of us and the server came and took each and everyones order individually. We ordered some of the same things and some different. We were first serveid peanuts and two other food items that I have no idea what they were. Then we were servied BIG PRAWN with fish eggs (I did not know they were fish eggs) Yes, I ate the fish eggs. Then we were served pumpkin soup (which none of ordered) and some kind of tart. Then we were served raw Salmon, which 3 of us did not order, the salmon was servied with Wasabi dipping sauce, this sauce was so HOT that I needed a fire extinguisher…OMG! We did not like raw fish, so we asked the chef to cook it and she did and it was so good, Then we were served our beef (which we all ordered something different again) that was very tasty. After Beef, we were served Bean sprouts, which I only ordered, then some chinese noodles that looked like white worms again, which we did not order. I don’t even know why the server took our orders individually because we did not get what we ordered. What I did order and get was beer.,..YUMMY. All in all it was pretty good and quite the experience. We had to take a taxi to get there. The cost of our mean was $200 RMB per person, which is about $27.00 US per person, not bad for what we ate.
Today, we did not do much. Brooke did not have therapy and won’t until Friday. The doctor’s want her to rest and take it easy. We have a spinal treatment on Wednesday (finally what we came for). I am excited. I just hope it goes better for her. No change in Brooke yet from the Stem Cells but we are not done. Our friends from Massachusetts are leaving today, how sad. Then our other friends from leave tomorrow. That leaves only one lady and her son, Thomas (from Canada) left from when we originally arrived. But there are alot of new people here. We had a large gathering in the common area last night. I think just about everyone from our floor attended.
Today, we saw a 3 car accident (I’m not suprised about that), I am actually shocked that I do not see more accidents. There has to be an astronomical amount of accidents. Today, we also went to the Qingdao gift shop hoping to buy souvenirs. That was not the case, it was just statues and weird other useless items, not what we expected. I am still yet to find a shirt of some sort that says Qingdao, china on it. All of the shits here have American writing. I even found a MICHIGAN football shirt but no China. This weekend is free and we are defintely going downtown and spending a couple nights there, go the zoo, polar world, shopping at the jimo market, and walk the cost. It will be nice to get away from the hospital, especiallly since we had to stay in for so long. For dinner tonight we are having BLT. Diane made Brooke left over chicken and made a white sauce. She loved it.
Again, to everyone that is following our journey, thank you and we love and miss all of you. My email is just4brooke@gmail.com if you want to email me.
Until tomorrow or the next day.
Kris
1 comment October 13th, 2008
Brooke is very good today, they are still continuing with IV and antibiotics until Sunday. The Doctors said we could leave the hospital, we are so thankful, we went exploring. Not much to see, we found a KFC and had some french fries, yes junk food, hooray for junk food. We found a spot outside of the KFC and were sitting there and this family walking by stops and pulls the childs pants down and lets him pee right there in front of us, wipes him pulls his pants up and walks into the mall. This was right at the entrance to the mall, tons of people coming and going. One of the patients family member saw a child poop right there in the open while she was going shopping at the market. She said they did pick it up, but I quess it is normal practice in China.
The nurse just came in and they are giving Brooke another IV of antibiotics. Brooke is so unsure of the nurses here, she thinks they are going to hurt her. If they come anywhere near her IV she starts crying, poor thing has had some many IV’s, and more to come.
Tomorrow we are going with our friends from Massachusetts Barbara, and DeannA to rent a car and go to the Qingdao Zoo, do some shopping and eat dinner, downtown Qingdao, a 45 minute ride from the hospital. I can’t wait…………freedom from the hospital.
This sure has been an experience. It sure is a different world. I will have alot of pictures to share with everyone.
Brooke’s next treatment will be spinal on Wednesday……..
1 comment October 13th, 2008
Good Evening from China. Brooke did have her 3rd Stem Cell treatment today via IV. This treatment went well for her. We had to go to the 9th floor to the IV room. Before we entered the room, we had to put on protective shoe covers. Diane did not walk with me there. I carried Brooke to the room and wanted a book or DVD player for her while she was receiving her treatment, so I asked the nurse if she could get Brooke’s grandma but of course she had no idea what I was saying. There were these people from Romania in there and they spoke english and went to get Diane for me. Anyways, I was sitting in the IV room with Brooke and I could here Diane cussing outside of the door because she couldn’t get the covers on. She kept falling over and ripping the covers trying to put them on. She did this several times. I was laughing so hard I was crying. She did not know that we could hear her.
Brooke is feeling much more like her happy self. She is pretty much back to normal. She is still on an antibiotic and will be until Sunday. Her next stem cell injection is Wednesday. This is suppose to be via Spinal. This also means that Diane and I will not be able to leave the hospital all weekend and we do have a free weekend. We are beginning to go a bit crazy here because we have to stay in the room. Along with her antibiotic, she is receiving glucose and sodium water. I sure hope this does not delay her treatments. Brooke has not been to therapy all week. Today i borrowed a therapy ball from my neighbor who is from Canada and did some exercises with her. She cooperated very well and was eager to exercise.
We have been eating Chicken Ceasar Salads the past few nights. It is very good and safe. Diane walks to this outdoor market in an extremly poor area accross from the hospital and buys fresh veggies, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and red peppers.
1 comment October 10th, 2008
Good afternoon all. Brooke seemed to be getting better until this morning. She was talking to daddy and her sister via the webcam, laughing and smiling but shortly after that she was sick again. She was coughing a bit and extremly exhausted and not eating or drinking. I called Dr. Bing in to communicate this to him and he quickly ordered a new and better antibiotic and more glucose via IV. It is now 2:00 in the afternoon and she has eaten a bit and drank a little. Another day of sitting in the hospital not going anywhere. There is not much to see around here but it is nice just to get out and get some fresh air and exercise. Tomorrow we are getting a stem cell treatment via IV. It originally was suppose to be spinal but she is not well, so the doctor’s do not want to take the risk with the anthesia since she has an infection.
I did get out and go grocery shopping today. That was my highlight of the day. I am also going to go with the interperter and another family from Austrailia to the store to print pictures. Isn’t this exciting.
Sorry not much to say today
See ya all
1 comment October 9th, 2008
Hello all, They got another Doctor, Dr. Bing to look at Brooke. They have taken blood test and put her on IV with antibiotics. The blood test have come back and Brooke has tonsilitis. They have had her on antibiotics and IV’s all day.
This afternoon she is feeling better. They have taken her off IV”s but will continue them in the morning. She is eating some and drinking. She is almost back to herself, our always laughing happy Brooke, she had us both scared there for awhile.
I am feeling better today. Dr. Bing is a very good doctor, he was very concerned about Brooke and got the medical attention that she needed. He got the head of pediatrics to evaluate her.
I forgot to mention about last night before Dr. Bing saw her this moring. I told the Doctor on duty about her vomitting, not eating, and not drinking. They are going to put her on an IV. So before they put in the IV, we put numbing cream in the area where they are going to insert the needle. They were going to insert the IV in the top of her hand, so I numbed the tops of both of ther hands. Well, the nurses 5 of them tried both hands and couldn’t get it, then the tried both her feet, still couldn’t get the IV in, then they tried again in her hand and could not get it still. I said this is enough you are not going to keep poking her, get someone who knows what they are doing. They decided to send us to the pediatric ward to have the pediatric nurse do it. We get to the pediatric ward, it was dark and very dirty. We are outside of this room in the hallway and there is a boy getting stiches in is head. Then they put another kid in the same room on the same table without cleaning the table and the nurse begins working on him without washing her hands or the table. Then they call us in and we refused to put Brooke on the table until the cleaned it. They went and got a sanitary sheet, and put that on the table. Then the nurse starts to open the IV packet and I said wash hands and she said “OH YEAH” couldn’t believe it. They never wear gloves when work on any of the patients here. They were going to put the IV in her head and my mom and I both said “NO”. Poor Brooke after all the poking and crying, they finally got it in. Now when any of the nurses comes into our room, she is very uneasy. We had to go by the emergency entrance, they do not furnish wheel chairs to there patients, or gernies. We saw patients being carried in by both legs, a patient walking in front of us, head bandage and blood running down her face. We were told that handicapped people in China cannot afford wheelchairs so they never leave there homes. Outside of the hospital, there is nothing handicapp accesible.
They have taken the IV off for now. Tomorrow at 6:00 am they are going to put her back on antibiotics and draw blood for more test. Her stem cell therapy has been cancelled until Fri. I hope that they will be able to do all the stem cell treatments, otherwise if there is not enough time we may have to stay longer, I am not going to worry about that now, this will be another expense if we have to change our flight.
Until tomorrow, good night all.
Add comment October 7th, 2008
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Nov | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
