Hello!
Yesterday I went to RT Mart to take pictures so you guys could get a feel for the mass quantity of people that push and shove on you daily. Well, I thought I was going to have to stay at the store until they closed and made everybody go home! I had to so some serious self talk to avoid a claustrophobic panic attack. It was the day before New Year’s Eve grocery shopping and what is usually a scary situation on the weekends was beyond anything I could ever have imagined. For those of you that were at the inauguration, that was nothing compared to RT Mart the day before NYEve in China. I took some pics before I realized how bad it was and began to concentrate on how to get out before the sun set and rose again. Check it out on flickr.
I came home and Jeff and I ordered Chinese food and watched Wall-E and Boston Legal and Heroes. .16 I am halfway done with your scarf…but who needs one in Austin!?!
We just got home from brunch buffet at the Holiday Inn. It is very cold, but very sunny beautiful. We walked the 2 miles home and Jeff was dragging me down the street. He is doing remarkably well with his feet!
We are being served dinner by the Beike Staff tonight in celebration of NYEve! The fireworks are at a demolition decibel level at the moment. Happy New Year!!!!
xoxo
J&S
January 25th, 2009
Jeff’s IV treatment was a big success and we just wrapped up a long, much less painful walk than the norm. We went to the mall (just a couple of blocks from the hospital) and went up the 4 floors and turned around and went right back out. Their malls here are something to behold. It is floors and floors of kiosks rather than stores. Each floor has a theme. We experienced this in Quingdao already so it was not so unusual to us this time.
Then we walked a little farther down the street to a restaurant I have been eyeing on my runs. We went there for lunch and had a Chinese Luby’s lunch. It was a cafeteria and had only down home type food. I am thinking Chinese comfort food. It was do-able.
Now we are going to spend the rest of the day and night knitting and watching movies.
Love and Kisses,
J&S
January 24th, 2009
HOLA AMAN!
ADIOS,
SARITA
January 24th, 2009
Good afternoon. I am getting here late today. A cold front blew in last night and we are on the 20th floor so the wind is very much on our radar way up here.
We did the usual wake up routine…we become very routine here in Happy Hangzhou! Jeff did his pt, and ewt, acupuncture, dr. visits, etc.
I chose today to grab a book and stay in bed really late…jealous anyone?
I got up at 11:00 after finishing my book and went for a really long run!!!!! It is windy, cold and very sunny…dreamy running weather if you have enough layers on.
Last night Jeff and I went to the Holiday Inn for the Western/Asian buffet and were in paradise! One of the waitresses was a girl from Estonia (a little blonde–rare sight here). She graduated from High School and decided to go as far away as possible for a new life and found herself in Hangzhou, China…not speaking a bit of Chinese, but oddly enough she speaks English. Come to find out she has had a little flirtation going on with one of the Beike guys here at the hospital, so we had a lot to talk about.
Anyhow, we made reservations for Sunday brunch. The whole city is expected to blow wide open this weekend in celebration of the Chinese New Year 2009! I went to RT Mart and stocked up for the weekend ’cause the people are really gearing up for a big time and I can barely get it done under normal circumstances. However, I will go to RT Mart tomorrow and take lots of pics so you guys can get a glimpse of the masses and masses of people that we see everyday.
Jeff has just left the room for his 4th treatment of stem cells. This one is an IV so we know how very easy that will be for him and them!
We have hooked up to KGSR on the computer and while I sit here and type I am listening to 107.1 Austin, Texas! Small world isn’t it.
That’s all I have for now. Hope y’all are as happy as we are and we will be home pretty quickly…12 days if you are counting.
xoxo
J&S
January 23rd, 2009
Slow day today. It did get really sunny and beautiful for about 30 minutes and we went out to the fitness park and took pics. They are on flickr.
We are going to the Holiday Inn for a Western/Asian buffet tonight…yeehah! No fried rice today.
As I have been reading the comments the last two weeks little questions have come up that I should have answered, but, feeble little head of mine in need of stem cells can’t retain questions long enough to answer them. I just went through everyone’s comments and answered all of the questions. So, here are the answers to all of the questions that all of you have been asking. And retorts to comments that got a rise out of me:
Russell: We went back for a $10.00 scraping and pinching and sure enough the price went up…just as you predicted.
Kay: Have you moved into your house?
Grama Jo: We won’t be going to a hotel as the room is so much nicer than last time and we are not experiencing the culture shock that we had last time and we brought a better coverage of things to watch on the TV in the room so not feeling a need to escape
They have discontinued the hot bootie treatment and have been giving him some pain management pills for the burning sensation in his feet
Laura aka Sissy: Your ribs are on the way.
Cory: I am being very careful. I am guessing you are sadly about to start packing to come home. Real world…trust yourself…you ARE a lawyer
Mike and Pam: Have you returned from Sunny Hawaii and did you get caught up in the Obama-craze while there?
Grama Jo and Russell—please, cleaning a tile a day. Don’t go aggravating me 3 million miles away!
Mary Millwee: Yeah for Amanda and I hope she makes it out of the restaurant biz alive before she reaches 50! Oh, it’s worked out for some of us okay.
Bubba: Great to get a blog that won’t get us locked up forever! Good job with the restraint.
To all…I have stayed away from the hair salons and my hair is really long and it has gotten thick and curly while I am here. You won’t even recognize me when I get home. It must be something in the fried rice. However, my biceps and triceps have gone the opposite direction.
Russell: Running is good. I have gone north, south, east, and west. Today I went northeast and found the farming area. One family had some (dead) baby goats hanging in a tree and they were skinning them. I am guessing they were goats…they didn’t have any skin…so not 100% sure.
Grama Jo: Don’t get all worked up over the prezzies. Remember everything we have in the US was made in China.
Mary and Nora regarding fireworks…two weeks later it is starting to feel like “Chinese Firework†torture. It wakes you in the night, it wakes you in the morning, and it wakes you at noon. We came here to go into a coma for Pete’s sake.
Kay: Thanks for the down low on Silar. We are going to go back to those Heroes tonight.
Addie: I have begun to brainwash Jeff to love Gomie as much as we all do. He is on my computer as the screen saver and every time Jeff looks at the computer he says…â€Gomie†and sounds just like you do when you say it all sappy and lovey-like.
Bubba: Please let us have our dreams of ‘hope’. We all know that the bottom line on Obama and all of them there politicians for that matter is that ‘politician’ is a dirty word. But, golly gee ‘O’ says it so much prettier than ‘W’ did! Yes, your down home reading material makes Jeff giggle every time.
Jeff is the only adult in the hospital at the moment being treated. It is all children. It is people from Spain, US, Canada and China from what I can tell. January seems to be a slow month for them. There are 13 rooms and it appears that 8-9 have been used since we have been here. There have been some people coming and some people going. But they are averaging 9 full rooms.
Kane: The staff here gave me all they had to give to verify your whale blubber story. Finally, they all looked at me blankly and then googled it and came up with the answer that perhaps the rich elite people in China eat whale blubber. Does this help?
January 22nd, 2009
Greetings All! Jeff had a good day yesterday. We wheeled him off at 10:30am. (I get to push his bed around…isn’t that fun. I always suggest to the nurse that we run while pushing his bed down the hall, but they never will go for it.) He popped back in to the lobby an hour later. That is about 30 minutes longer than anyone would prefer (doctors, nurses, Jeff and myself), but it is much better than the 2 hours it took last time. I think they finally have a fix on where the spot is. He was a bit frazzled, but happy to have his bone marrow stem cells returned. The doctors all commented on what a great batch he had harvested. He stayed still for 4 hours. They give more valium here than they did in Qingdao and he is better behaved as a result. We watched (in honor of Inauguration Day) John Adams. It felt appropriate. From beginning to the dying end (didn’t know that he and Jefferson died on the same day on July 4th…funny to come to China to learn that little ditty)! We had dinner brought in..you guessed it fried rice and cashew chicken…yummy!
Because the treatments have come more rapidly than we anticipated, we will be here a week with nothing to do so he has signed up for one extra stem cell treatment. He will get an IV on Friday (manana) and then two more lumbar puncture treatments before we come home. He woke up and was feeling much less pain in his feet and his physical therapy session was well balanced and greatly improved.
Today is rainy and cold and we have nothing planned. Maybe, just maybe, I will start knitting .16′s scarf. I have nearly finished the blanket. I will send a pic as soon as it is done.
When Jeff’s sister Joanne was here she gave the staff speech therapy. (Joanne, they say ‘bowel movement’ perfectly.) I think she set a precedent. They have really been on me to teach them yoga before I leave as they are very curious about all of my physical activity in the room. I think I will leave them with a Firm Butt Exercise CD and an exercise ball and see if that whets their appetites for Western things.
Hope everyone is leaving Rosi and Robert alone about the schedules. I am sure you are. Again, we miss you guys but are having a top notch time in Hangzhou!
xoxo
J&S
January 22nd, 2009
Greetings all! Happy Inauguration Day! We have missed the whole thing and I quite frankly am glad. I am too much of a cry baby to endure it! Jeff pulled up Obama’s speech on the internet and it played a 5 second snippet and I had to go to the bathroom just for that part. Glad China wasn’t exposed to an hour of Obama and me together.
Yesterday we went to get scrapped, pinched, bathed and reflexologied…it was heaven! They called in a specialist to cut old glass out of the bottom of my foot. So I am coming home a little lighter!
Generally, I do the shopping at RT Mart. Today on the way home from the massage parlor, Jeff and I stopped and I gave him a seminar in how to push and shove through the RT. I really have become proficient at rudeness (the Chinese socially acceptable kind) and am afraid that I might not be able to shake my pushy ways back home in ‘line standing’ Austin, Texas. As I walk up to the door at RT Mart every day, I feel my pulse increase and my brows begin to frown to get ready to get some yogurt! It is a high stress deal.
We came home and much to our surprise, his bone marrow stem cells have cooked and are ready. They had posted a note on our door indicating that he will get his bmt today at 11:00am. So, everybody be thinking the ultimate great thoughts for Jeff and his stem cells tonight in Austin (Tuesday night at 9:00pm!!!!)
Muchas gracias and we will be home in two weeks from today. My my my time is flying ain’t it!
xoxo
J&S
January 21st, 2009
Wish it was Tuesday, January 20th in USA. We are anxious to watch a little O-Bama!
We didn’t have any internet hook up yesterday with our blog so I missed a day and I certainly missed all of y’all while I was at it!
But, we filled the day with merriment and msg anyway.
Chinese New Year celebration has begun even though it is a full week away. The kids are out of school and all seem to have access to fireworks. On my run today, I was dodging kids and explosions…made it more my style of excitement.
Last night we had a firework show outside of our room window that puts Auditorium Shores to shame and I think that is just the neighborhood kids popping off! Can’t wait until the actual day comes. Seriously, fireworks are going off all day and all night…it is an extreme sport here.
Okay, what we did yesterday…Monday, January 19th…
Got up to fireworks. Made coffee. Got blood pressure checked…report was good. The doctors and interns came to the room for their daily visit and to look at Jeff and have him do his performance. He did Physical Therapy, Accupuncture, and Electrowave Therapy. We got Jack (local driver) to give us a ride to Oushan Square (2nd visit). Jack speaks enough English to want to speak English and it made for interesting conversation between Jeff and Jack. I had the luxury of riding in the back seat and watching the confusion between the two. Jeff pretty much just agreed with everything Jack said. I snickered the whole time.
It started off as a warm sunny day and about the time we got out of Jack’s car it was suddenly windy, rainy, cold and grey. We had a great shopping day and got lots of goodies for lots of folks. We went to the flower market and the fish market and then went and squatted in the Dairy Queen on the corner to get out of the cold wetness. Jeff was taken with the fact that they handed him his Green Tea blizzard upside down…even in China…if it’s not upside down, it’s free!
We came home about dinner time…ordered fried rice and watched Boston Legal. Heroes is turning out to be a wee bit too scary for me. That Silar guy gives me a stomach ache…sorry to all of you Heroes fans, but Jeff and I like happy fairy tale stuff! Does Silar ever go away? If so, I can continue to watch, but if he is going to haunt us forever, don’t know if I can continue…answer please?!?
And in conclusion to our day, we went to sleep with fireworks.
Today we woke to fireworks. Did the usual blah blah blah. We have plans to go get our feet pinched and scrapped and bathed and massaged and that’s about it.f
Can’t wait to see what Michelle and O-Bama! wear tomorrow…
‘Til then…
We love and miss every stinking one of you!!!
xoxo
J&S
January 20th, 2009
Good Morning Jo and RLou! We are staying up really late tonight. It is Sunday night at 8:30pm and we are still up.
Today was a free day from therapy for Jeff. We got up, made coffee, checked blood pressure (which is finally that of a teenager), I ran, Jeff did pilates/stretching type stuff.
At noon, Sam came by and drove us to West Lake and we went to the Hyatt and had buffet…food from around the world. We overly sated our bellies and then stumbled to Starbucks to get supplies for the hospital (coffee).
As we left Starbucks we were entertained by the Music Fountain across the street at West Lake. It was choreographed to dance with Elvis’ Viva Las Vegas. It was wildly entertaining…obviously it doesn’t take much to entertain us.
Anyhow, then Sam drove us back to the hospital and we are still digesting din din and watching Heroes.
I have posted new pics to www.flickr.com sara.courington@yahoo.com password charlie
xoxo
J&S
January 18th, 2009
Wow time is flying here!
Yesterday Jeff had his first spinal which was a bit rough! When they wheeled him out they said he would be back in 30 minutes. They spent two hours trying to get a good spot. After calling every doctor in to the room, they succeeded. He feels great today, other than the 10 some odd holes in his back. They are taking him down to xray his spine today to avoid this situation again. I paced and ate licorice until I got a bellyache!!!!
He is just the toughest guy ever and made it back to the room in pretty good spirits in spite of his ordeal.
He laid really still for 3 hours…a record for him.
I got to cook–for real. I made popcorn (appetizer) and spagetti with italian sausage tomato sauce (entree) and apple juice and toblerone (dessert).
We started on ‘Heroes’ but are not completely hooked yet. We are just ready to go back to the island with Jack and Kate and Ben.
After all of his doctor visits and therapy today, we are going to stroll down to the New Century Grand Hotel for a little lunch.
All is well and he is being a great patient and I am being a superb caregiver!
Hope things are going as smoothly in your world!
xoxo
J&S
January 17th, 2009
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