Jackie Kay's Blog

Sunday, 16 July

July 16th, 2006

It’s early Sunday morning, so a quick update that has turned out to be not so quick……..

We are here in beautiful Qingdao. The Cheng Yang Hospital is close to the airport and about 60 km from the coast. The setup here is quite different from Nanshen Hospital in Shenzhen. Here, I am in a two room accommodation in a separate building from the hospital proper, but we are the only folks here at present. It is modern and comfortable and the staff are fantastic. Everyone speakss English in varying degrees. Our life has been made wonderfully easy as we have Katey who is our translator and makes appointments and communicates with out contacts about Sailability, and has become a good friend.

The flight to Qingdao was pretty uncomfortable as I had a wicked headache and my ears blocked on the plane. I knew before leaving Australia that I should have seen to my ears….. but you know how it is. Anyway because my ears blocked it affected my inner ears and then I felt nauseous, so I wasnt a happy girl by the time I arrived in Qingdao. To top things off, at the airport there was no awareness of what to do for people in wheelchairs and I was stuck on the plane for nearly 30 mintues. However with Jon and crew waiting in the airport with warm smiles and a beautiful bunch of flowers, I began to relax.

So first thing Friday morning I was taken to the “Ear Department” where the dr. fixed up my ear problem as quick as a flash. I was then taken to the “Eye Department” for good measure and got them checked out as well. Wonderfully efficient staff. All the nurses are fantastically friendly and I am being treated extremely well – like a queen really.

Because I wasnt feeling too well, I have had 2 hours of Rehabilitation in my room each day. This involves electro-accupuncture and electro muscle stimulation. On Friday, one of our email contacts, Mr. Chen also came to meet with us on Friday afternoon……. and in amongst all of that activity I had the 4th stem cell I/V treatment on Friday afternoon with the local QTV (Qingdao TV) filming proceedings and doing interviews with the doctors, hospital administration and me. So Friday was really action packed and I was soooooooo glad to roll into bed on Friday night.

Yesterday (Saturday) I had rehab first thing and we (Katey, Hongwai, and myself) headed off to Qingdao for the day. We met Jon and his wife, Rose at the Hai Tian Hotel where a fantastic banquet lunch was organised for us to discuss the establishment of Sailability with the Assistant Mayor of Qingdao, Mr. Wang. Mr. Wang also happens to be Vice Chairmant of the Qingdao Sailing Federation. We also met Mr. Xie, Driector Assistant of the Qindao Municipal Economy & Trade Committee.

Throughout lunch Rose helped us to explain the concept of Sailability to Mr Wang and Mr. Xie. At the end of lunch we were able to show our Chinese translated video. Rose will initially be our liaision with the Qingdao Government until a Sailability committee can ge established.

Afterwards, Mr. Shi, Chairman of the Qingdao Disability Sports Committee took us for a banquet dinner with other gentlemen from the Beijing Sailing Committee. So dinner was a discussion about Paralympic sailing, coaching, sailing venues, classificatiion etc.

So it in now 5.30 Sunday morning and we are readying ourselves for another trip to Qingdao as yesterday Mr. Wang invited us to attend a function to meet the German organisors of Kiev Week and to observe sailing activities in Qingdao. Another big day today, but as we are flying back to Hong Kong on Wednesday afternoon, there is a lot to fit in.

Soooo…….. the reason for being here (believe it or not) is stem cells. How am i feeling after the 4th treatment on Friday? I havent had time really to think too much which is possibly a good thing. Let’s see. Well I definitely have more feeling in my feet and legs. A couple of the muscles in my legs were twitching yesterday, which was a lovely memory. Yesterday morning while laying on my side I definitely had more movement in my legs and ankles and they seemed to be jerking around a bit. This wasnt particularly comfortable, but it was very different from being the blobs of nothing that they had been for the past few years, so I am not complaining.

So after today’s adventure there will be more rehab when we get back. And a final I/V for me on Tuesday afternoon. There is still a lot to do between now and then, so now that I have caught you all up, stay tuned. The internet connection is excellent here – I will just have to find the time to sit down and write.

Here are a few photos:

Katey and me Lunch – (front)

Jackie, Mr. Wang, (back) Rose, Mr. Xie, Jon and Linda.

Entry Filed under: ms