Friday, August 24, 2007 – Second Spinal Injection
August 25th, 2007
This morning we woke up at 3:00 am filled with much apprehension regarding Dave’s second spinal injection. After his morning therapies, we decided to go to the only bank in the city of Hangzhou that will cash travelers cheques. Johnny went with us which was a good thing because nobody in the bank could speak very much English. It took us an hour to get the cheques cashed. By the time we got back to the hospital it was past the time that Dave could eat or drink anything before the spinal…poor guy! The nurses knew how stressed Dave was so when they put the IV in they gave him “something to make him relax”. Boy, did that work – one minute he was talking to me and our friend, Jack, and in the middle of his sentence, he was sound asleep with his eyes half open. I must have had a very frightened look on my face because Sunny, the nurse, kept telling me “it is okay, don’t worry, he is only sleeping”. He was out so suddenly that I must admit that Jack & I were studying Dave’s chest to make sure he was indeed still breathing.
While in the transplant room, Dr. Mike asked Dave how he was doing. After answering him, Dave asked Dr. Mike how he was doing. He replied, “It is my duty, Dave, to make you well”. We really like his philosophy!
When they brought Dave back to his room after the spinal, Sunny was very concerned about the ‘problem’ with Dave’s leg. She told me to massage his right thigh very rapidly for 30 minutes to get the feeling back. Evidently, the position he was in during the injection caused the leg to go numb. Initially, Dave thought he was paralyzed, but his feeling did return nicely.
Sunny came in to change the IV bag and Dave was very groggy. He looked at her and asked if he was in heaven. She said “No, you are in the people’s world and you must stay there while I am working! You cannot go to heaven on my shift!”.
The good news is that after the six hours of laying flat, Dave got up feeling the best that he has felt since his days of pain. That intense pain in his legs is now gone. He does have a very small headache and a bit of a sore back, but these are minor side effects that he can live with (easy for me to say).
Todays pictures include a typical morning Doctor’s visit (in addition to the four doctors there are usually four nurses who attend also), our normal evening chat session at the nurses station, our favorite form of transportation…the rickshaw, and another picture of our day at the foot bath.
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