Grace’s Blog

Hi, Sorry i didn’t update everything yesterday but Grace has decided sleeping in Mummy’s bed isn’t enough and that she has to sleep on-top of me, which has limited my time a little bit!

Anyway, the first IV went really well with Grace sitting there quite happily for half an hour.  They don’t mess about with numbing the hand first here so she didn’t get upset with them pulling at her and the nurses are so good she didn’t even cry when the needle went in.  The stemcells look like weak tea and not what i expected at all, in my uneducated mind i imagined they would look like frogspawn (how they’d get that in your veins i don’t know).  After the stemcell injections it’s quite likely they get a fever, which Grace didn’t!  My little girl dropped her temp instead, and anybody who knows her will know this is unusual.  Other than that there was really no change.

 The rational side of my brain knew not to expect any differences in Grace so soon, The irrational maternal side of my brain expected miracles!  I’m really happy with the way things have gone this week, my only regret is not fitting Rose and Michael in my suitcase.

 I’ve a few questions to answer:-

No1.  No Jenny there’s no eggs but mum packed us some treats for Easter.

No2. Gary there’s no Sky Sports but there was American basketball with Chinese commentary.

No3. Gary again! There’s no ‘English Chippy’ like you find on he Costa Del Sol but there is KFC, Pizza Hut and Subway.  They do an alright Chinese Takeaway too!

Thankyou all for your comments, it’s good to be in contact with the outside world. Keep them coming.

Mum flys home tomorrow and she will be missed, she’s been a great help.  Grace started her therapy today with 1.5hrs of physio and 40mins of electrical wave therapy and is due to have her first injection by IV on friday. 

The Physio was good and Grace co-operated and many of the exercises we’re similar to Stick n Step.  The electrical wave therapy is like one of those slendertone machines that shock and contract you’re muscles and is meant to loosen her muscles.  She looked quite funny sitting there with her arms and legs twitching, she fell asleep halfway through so it can’t of been uncomfortable.

We went for a walk round the block today and it was nice to see some of the area.  It’s nothing like i expected it to be and is a strange mix of arable land right nxt to a high rise office block, and a five star hotel with locals washing their veg in the river next to it.  I cannot compliment the Chinese enough though, everywhere is clean, they’re all polite and will do anything to please.  So far the trip has been amazing, from Manchester to Amsterdam, Hong Kong and then Hangzhou.  The language barrier has been overcome at every step and i have to admit not on my part, it was probably harder to be understood in Manchester than anywhere else on the trip!

Hi, we made it safe and sound just a little tired from a long but suprisingly good journey.  This is the first chance i’ve had to catch up with everyone so apologies if you’ve be waiting for updates.  We’ve been here just over 24hrs now and have been quite busy since we’ve been here.  Mum is settled in her hotel which i can see on the skyline from our bedroom window, myself and Grace have already made ourselves at home in our room which is more like a hotel than a hospital with everything we could need.  We met all the doctors and therapists today and Grace wil be having 4 injections in the spine and 2 through IV, i’d like to tell you why but the head man doesn’t speak english! and we get her weekly therapy lists tommorow after her CT scan.

The three of us went for a walk today and managed to find the supermarket, bank etc without much bother, you just have to get used to people staring at you.  As lovely and polite the Chinese are it can be a bit unnerving when they blatently stare and point at you.  The supermarket was great with everything you could want including live fish to take home for your tea.

There’s so many things to say but i’ll save them for later, you’ve all got a month of me to put up with yet.  I’ve tried putting photo’s on this but it doesn’t seem to want to play, if i continue to struggle i’ll have to send out e-mails with them on or post them on face book.

Sleep now.

A huge thankyou to everybody who came and gave us a great sendoff.  It means alot to know you’re all thinking of us.

The time has flown by and i can’t believe there’s only two weeks before we set off.  Mum is coming over with me to help with the flight and settling in and then it’s down to the hard work for Grace.  I won’t post any more messages until i get over there now but hope i’ll have chance to keep it updated regularly while i’m there.  Thankyou for all the help and support that we’ve recieved and please keep in touch through e-mail while we’re away.