Archive for September, 2008
Ok so today was our first real day off from last weeks ‘kick-joshies-assathon’ I tried to log on to FFXI to say hi to my friends there but it won’t let me /cry I think the internet is not strong enough to support it or something I will talk to the people that run the network later and see what I can do.
So that night Dad, Joe, Riaz and myself went to a Night Club called Paradise Cove. It was a really fun place when we got there we all had ordered some drinks and watched the Comedy show they had going on at the time ( Of course we couldent understand what they were saying but like they say actions speak louder than words lol) Then the music started playing. They have really nice dance music over here and all the fun bells and whistles ( Smoke, Strobe lights etc) at first I was to shy to dance… Until I got 2 drinks with vodka down then I was feeling really relaxed 
then I got out onto the dance floor and started ‘dancing’ like a fool! I don’t know what it is but when I was dancing with people and the beat was flowing through me I felt so happy and so alive! ( That could of been the vodka as well but thats a minor detail! ) Apperently I was ‘Dancing good’ or people were just amazed that I didnt let my condition keep me from having a good time, that one guy bought me a drink lol.
Also one guy must of been really drunk and mistook me for a girl and started to dance real close to me and he even took off his jacket ‘seductivly’ in front of me ! Then this one girl was like freak dancing real close to me and around me lol It was such a fun time! Even the Translators Wendy and Jack were there! and Doctor Tom! haha so awsome! We must have danced for like 3 hours and met some really nice people, Dad even got up there and showed off some of his moves lol.( Thats a scary thought eh?) Also, to protect the Innocent ( or in some peoples cases not-so-innocent) some stories can not be said at this point! lol j/k
After the club let out at 1:30ish we left to go back to the hospital some people wanted to go to the next club down the street but the few of us still thinking logically decided that if this club closed at 1:30am the club down the street was surely closed ( Plus I was just tired ) so we called it a night. We plan on going again sometime this week with our Irish friends, oh that should be a awsome time! anyways just updating you all on my life here we should be going to a bazzar market of some sorts tomorrow so I will update you shortly! I miss you all and hope to talk to you all very soon!
P.S. We have a little over 2 weeks left so I will be home soon ! though it still seems like a long ways away
September 29th, 2008
Hey guys! great news!! so I am laying in bed at night ready to sleep and I feel a strange tingling and warm sensation in my hips and legs well I found out I am able to now move my hip muscules on command!! also if I concentrate I can move and contract my thigh muscules as well-without causing spasms! This a great and wonderful improvement and has boosted my spirts tremendously ( For the record this is the night after my 4th STC my 2nd Spinal Injection) I am skipping ahead a bit to get caught up to present day so you guys can get daily updates if possible on my progress I was also so tired this morning because I was so wired and happy about my new improvment I couldent sleep until like 5 am haha. Once again I thank each and every one of you for your prayers and positive thoughts
This morning I awoke really sleepy and the lady who cleans the rooms came in and was speaking in chinese to my Father about something, well apperently she cleans the rooms generally after therapy ( usually when I am too tired and we clean up the room ourselves…. sorta ) well this time she was hell-bent on cleaning the room! we were confused at first to why she was so head-strong on cleaning. Well actions speak louder than words and she did the awsome ‘finger-on-table-pick-up-and-show-dust’ action and we all bursted out laughing. Dad even made pig noises indicating that we were messy lol. She is a really nice person and we are going to try to get her a gift when we leave, speaking of, if all goes well we will be leaving on the 16th of October (guesstimating from the schedule they have us on) Well we might have plans tonight seeing as this coming week we will have some time off of therapy aside from the treatments of course, It’s supposed to be because of a holiday or something I will look more into it later so I will keep you guys posted!
September 28th, 2008
Ok, ok! I know I have not been posting on here like I should be I apologize for that. but this time I acctually HAVE a good excuse! you see during therapy one day I was doing stomach crunches/situps and I was doing really well, my balance was great and I had my fathers streak going in me, you know: Stubborn-’ I can do this myself! cha!’ and ‘lo and behold on that one I pulled my muscule from my neck to my lower-right shoulder blade. I felt like I was going to pass out then and there, I couldent move without my body hurting, So that day I missed my therapy and the day after I could barely do anything, It reminded me of when I broke my Collar Bone where I could only move one arm
I also had my 4th STC my neck still didnt want to move much and I could still barely move, so I had alot of down time along with much tossing and turning at night , Gravity was not kind to me on my injury whether i was on my back or sitting up, So sleep was not much of a option hopefully I will learn to be more careful and take it easier.
September 22nd, 2008
Today we went on our long trip from the hospital to all over Qing Dao! I have all sorts of pictures and I will try and send you some when I get some time as you know I have been slacking on my posts, I blame the techies! 6 days without internet makes Joshie grumpy and you would think that a hospital would need internet well apperently it does not apply in China ” In China the internet eats you !” sorry I my witty-funnyness is on ‘E’ today the coffee really sucks here and the coffee you can get out of the machine costs 1 RnB ( its like 1 dollar) but it only accepts coins and apperently the coins are a dying thing here and the paper bills are the ‘in’ thing , go figure eh ?
Where was I …..? Right field trip! lalala here we come! so we got up early and left in 4 vans they are not very accecible and you have to litearlly lift yourself into the seat by A: physical injury by ones self. or B: Injury of the lifter/s once that was out of way we were on our way to happy Polar world! Dolphins I say ! but before Polar world we had 40 mins of driving in China! and like I mentioned in previous posts they have no road rules, on our way we almost got hit by a black car, almost ran over a biker and almost had a fender bender with a sudden stopping car needless to say that Vodka back at the room was looking preeeety tempting right about now , but once we saw the signs for Polar World all was well in life.
Polar World(tm). Home to one Big pool for the Dolphins to dance in like the monkey who dances for his master playing the music to the amusment of others, along with the Dolphins ( who were taken care of decent enough) there was Polar Bears and Penguins, who deperatly needed a good washing, The Animal behavoralist in me wanted to set them free but that would lead to a cruel twist of irony in me behind bars I guess they had a ok home, they just looked so unhappy and they should of been taken care of better, there was also a Beluga Whale who would swim around and talk to us which I thought was cool, oh and no tourist attaction would be complete without a KFC next to it! and for those of you going along with the running joke of the dogs and cats being served as food in restraunts you can put that myth to rest as it was real chicken and I DID see a cat! we almost ran over it. Dad got the puppies back home some toys, now here is the thing, when you think toys for the doggies you think squeaky cheap toys right ? Of course with my Father being the Morbid person that he is, gets 3 little sea lion plushies , cute as can be un beknownst to their fate of a slobberymouth and teeth in a month or so. Save the Sea Lions!
Next stop, Jusco. Qing dao’s biggest mall nothing to special for any of us just a glorified shopping mall It has pretty much everything you can get elsewhere except for one thing…. Mc Donalds! I never thought I would be so happy to see those golden arches we were so freakin’ happy to eat food from there and it tastes just like it did back home! ok, enough nostalgia after we ate we decided not to wait in line for starbucks coffee, though I miss those little frapachinos /cry I wonder if they sell them there… anyways it was so fricken’ busy in that mall the only other things we grabbed were heinz ketchup ( REAL ketchup, the tomato’s grown over in China are way too sweet it tastes like sugar) and paper towels, there was a road block in the way of the isle and as soon as dad moved it this rude man brushed past me and dad, not sparing a second glance, I wanted to hit him over the head with my ketchup bottle but I decided I should pay for it first
After Jusco we headed for the beach ( getting in and out of that hellish van everytime and having to deal with the headaches and fluid level difference from the spinal injection didnt help much either ) once we got to the beach like 20/23 people wanted to leave and just go back to the hospital we were so tired, so while we gathered people around to go back we watched the people fly these giant kites , it was really cool,and the sea breeze felt great. Once we got people gathered we left to go back to the hospital, we almost hit a group of kids this time and it made me think of the funny youtube video “Dr. Tran and the Toy Cack” then we almost hit a guy on a bicycle and the Irish lady who was sitting in the front seat said in her lovely accent ” Ooooo you just about lost your sweet ass!” I instantly bursted out in laughter and in tears because it was so funny , that made the ride back so much more enjoyable!
Once we got back we all just went to our rooms and slept because we were all exausted and worn out and kinda depressed we didnt get to see any of the Chinese History or Culture ( besides the way of driving and pushy rude men ) I know that their culture is much better than that and I will learn more about it before I leave, ok well I am super tired so I am gonna stop here for now I will see you in the next Blog!
September 21st, 2008
For all rights and purposes of not grossing anyone out I ask that anyone under 18 or with weak constitutions to not read this post
I hereby hold no responsiblity for nausea-heartburn-indigestion-upsetstomach-diahreha~ (Yes I just had to add that little number in there)
ok so scroll down a bit if you are still reading and I will tell you about my strange yet awesome improvement!
……………Almost there…….
…..Farther……
….Farther……..
….. TOO FAR!!!! Ok stop right there wise guy!
So Judging by the name of the post and disclamer you have a vauge idea of what my improvment is about.
after writing in my blog one night I layed down to go to sleep and I felt a strange, needle like pain -down there- thinking I needed to re-adjust
I reached down to do so and found out I had a errection, now please realize this is really embarasing for me to put this on my blog but it is a improvment.
the slight pain I was feeling was coming from the tip of the penis and when touched it emits said pain. I know it’s weird and all but I was thinking of no sexual thoughts
nor was it from stimulation either so I consider this a big improvement. I hope to see more improvments in the future as each day passes!
September 20th, 2008
Day 2: Still no internet! I feel like we have been going in circles for hours I am lost and scared * goes into hysterics with snot running down his nose in a bad blair witch project spoof*
What was that sound!? it sounds like…. Still no internet! the patients have been going absolutely bonkers with no internet, they cannot contact their familys without paying a hella lot of money.
Today it should be fixed but I will be out of it most of the day since today is my first Spinal Injection, From 11:00am (during therapy too) to like 7 or 8 I am cut off from water and food and
I have to lay still for 6 hours So I am hoping I can sleep through most of it. I am gonna ask them if they can make me all loopy on Valium If I don’t ask I know its going to come back on me and bite me on the ass.
Well, the Lumbar area really , but I will get to that later. This morning they put the IV in my arm before therapy so I had to work with a IV in my hand it was a real distraction as I don’t think it was put in
correctly, but I lived. I keep getting stronger everyday and my Balance is much improved, I don’t have much pain in my right hip anymore thanks to Owen, He is my PT he is amazing and his massage/accupuncture
is to die for. Everyone is so nice and kind here and the staff does not accept tips! So I am going to try and get some little souviners back home and give it to them.
We are going to Polar World tomorrow!!!! do you know what that means!? DOLPHINS!!!! <3<3<3 for those of you who know me Dolphins are my favorite Aquatic animal! ( Yeah, I even freaked out when I found out my shower in my room
has Dolphin curtians!!) I hope I can play with the dolphins while I am there, but just being able to see them would make me happy! we are also going to be around a shopping mall and the beach coastline so this trip will be awsome
I can’t wait! 
Well, I had the spinal injection around 2:30-3:30pm we going to the room I felt much anxiety and I was really scared, it reminded me of when I went to have my fateful surgery 9 years ago
I asked them to give me something to relax and they put Valium into my IV, it felt like my entire arm was going to blow up! but when it thinned out the pain in my arm was gone but that was about it. I couldent relax
and it did nothing to relax me ( Next time they are going to give me stronger stuff let me tell you! I want my body to be on the table and my ‘inner self’ to be 20 or so feet above)
The changes I have gotten from the Spinal Injection #1 are as follows ( Fyi I am getting 9 injections via IV and via Spinal, so far I have had 1 of each so 7 more to go!)
I have gotten a increase in appitite , It’s like they have gave me Miracle-grow or something, or like a pot head would have the ‘munchies’ whatever it is I hope it stops soon,
or I will come back to the states with like 300+ lbs! other changes include some form of sensitivity to the cold and many tingling warm feelings throughout my middle back, down to my feet.
The doctors say that is the stems cells at work so lets hope for the best !
September 19th, 2008
So today the Internet went out I was unable to check any e-mails or call anyone via Skype, so I am writing this blog in my word pad.
They say the whole hospitals internet is down by some form of a hacker attack so me and a computer wiz Joe, are trying to find a working
wirless access point, his PDA found 28 of them just in the hospital and as I type he is trying to ‘hack into them, I am going through computer
withdraw I miss playing FFXI and miss playing with my friends on there I was free today and was going to try to log on but unfortunatly the Internet
went down the translator said the ‘tech savvy person’ went home for the day and It would but up tomorrow at best. Unacceptable! I will
have internet, I need internet My precious….. Ow! oh thanks dad I needed that! I almost lost my sanity there for a second……
…wait a minute have I ever -been- sane? anyways most of the men around here were drooling at the gathering of a dozen chinese nurses giggling and
smiling for a photo, I don’t think I will ever understand Straight men Oops did I just out myself to all my family and friends who don’t know I’m gay?
oh well now you all know and since I am on the otherside of the world you will just have to deal with it hehe I am the same Josh you all know and love nothing has changed
just decided to be completely honest in my blogs anyways we had a big dinner tonight with everyone it was really cool to have dinner with
everyone from around the globe and enjoy each others company we all had wonderful food from the western areas the best meal I have eaten since I came here!
I was soooo stuffed later that night I layed in bed and relaxed because there was still no internet and we had no voltage converter to charge
my nintendo DS so I was bored, but I could feel warmth and tingling through my legs and feet like the stem cells were working It was a wonderful and reassuring feeling.
well I will write more tomorrow we are planning our trip for this weekend It should be fun to get out of this hospital for a change!
September 18th, 2008
So a bit about my Father, for future saftey of my life and sanity I will keep it Good .I love my Father with all my heart but my God at times he can be a very stubborn old man! for instance…. No wait, that would take way too long. Lets talk about the good things! He has the patience of a choir of saints he went to the local Grocery store here, they call it the’R-TMart’ He left at 2:30pm Mind you the Sun sets here around 5:30pmish to pick up a few things leaving me to be pummeled by the PhysicalTherapists I finished around 3:30ish and went to my room to call some Family/Friends and check my e-mail. well the Sun was setting and he was not back yet so I got a little worried but I waited thinking nothing of it then the sun set. So I grab my trusty English/Chinese Translator(Tm), my Wallet and my room key (Complete with a Cute pink mickey mouse ear theme holder and a Sagitarius sticker-Please note I am a Sarcastic/Witty -insertcensoredwordhere- Hi Grammie!- and left to find my Father which shouldent be too hard to find a Tall,White Tattooed man who looks like a lion ( not really anymore but when he was 30some back in the 70′s he had a Lions Mane ! I will try to find a picture and a scanner and post it on here for proof later but for now take my word for it) of course my ‘rescue mission’only got as far as the nurses station seeing as only one of the double doors was open and my chair does not fit through it so I waited and waited, then the anxiety and paranoia kicked in.
I think to my self ‘ we are on the otherside of the world, he is out there on his own amoung the lovely 8 million people of Qing Dao, It is dark, Stories of crime and muggings ( ‘I have been robbed!’ is even on my translator) only add to my ever growing worry and 99% of them do not speak english outside the hospital, if I were to go looking for him ( Provided those damned doors would open!) the city is not very wheelchair accesible so yes the alarms were going off in my head as soon as I head to the nurses desk to say my father has been gone for a long time ‘lo and behold he shows up shopping bags in hand and sweat on his brow. I give him the ‘Where-have-you-been!?’ look and he just shakes his head and laughs and we go into our room where he proceeds to tell me about his venture into Qingdao city which coming from someone who has never been there is like stepping into the imaginary wardrobe and into a entrirely new world, First he got to the taxi driver who spoke no english but supposedly knows the words ‘R-T-Mart’ well after 20 mins of driving through city streets, dirt roads,and back alleys they pulled up to a clothing store, Dad shook his head and the driver nodded his head and he went out of the Taxi to see if the market was on the other side of the store. No such luck, so he got back into another taxi, back to the hospital, and to the translator who wrote ‘R-T-Mart’ in Chinese and then he left the hospital again in another taxi to find it.
Ah R-T-Mart. Home of many goods and about 25 people with carts in every isle pushing and bumping into eachother to get their goods , like a special day after thanksgiving sale, did I mention it was a Friday night? After getting his goods and leaving the store he waited 30 minutes for a taxi when he finally got to a available one ( in my own dad’s words) ” This 18 year old dressed up bitch walked in front of me shut the door and gave me a go-to-hell-look” thus leaving him to wait 10 more minutes for a taxi before coming back. After his story he wants me to go to the mart next time.
The next day I had Physical Therapy again follwed by Accupuncture and Electric Wave Therapy. during Accupuncture I sweat below the level of my injury for the first time! Chinese Medicine is so Well Practiced and Ancient it produces amazing results I want to go into much more detail about this day but I think I would be up forever writing this ( and you reading this!) so I will skip ahead to the next day which is the date I am posting this ( The 17th) I recieved my first IV injection STC Normally it is done through the site of injury but the first time they do it through the IV to see how well the body takes it or if you are allergic to it they say one in a million are allergic to it thankfully I was not and I recieved the Stem Cells one thing I noticed was weird while waiting on the Cells to enter my body my right leg would slightly move in and the back to its normal posistion, this was not a spasm and it was not of my doing, I just thought it was strange.
Thankfully Laundry day is Tomorrow and we will be getting our clean clothes back the wardrobe is looking very bare right now, Gosh I miss you all! I feel like I am one of the children from Narnia who stepped through the wardrobe and into a new and wonderful world , the people are kind here and very respectful and somethings you see here are like something you would see out of a fairy-tale. but I really miss home and want to go back , but I know I have to stay, I must remain positive and do my best to get the best results so until then you will only get to hear from me from this blog and e-mails ( and Skype but with the time difference it might be hard to call you all ) but your e-mails, and comments keep my hopes and spirts up I am super busy and usual very tired after therapy so it may be some time before I can respond to you so don’t feel like I am ignoring you! I really miss you all and hope to see you all soon !
Bao Zhong,
Josh/Joshi/Joshmizuno
September 17th, 2008
Ni hao everyone !
This is Josh, we made it to Qing dao! It was a very long journey to get here (15+hours of Flight time) but we almost didnt make it here at all. Confused? You should be! Flash back time! Ok so my Dad did not plan enough time for us to get from my house to Detroit ( I blame it on my mother who takes forever to get ready) We arrived at Detroit Metro with 20 mins to spare to catch our flight of course we rushed to the check in station and the lady at the counter gave us the worst news ” You are not going to get on that flight there is not enough time” My heart sank Both me and my Father were nearly in tears I had to get to China on time. Here is where the miracle happened. My Father asked them if there was ANYTHING that we could do to get on the plane the lady said no. we were ready to call for our ride back home when the lady said ” Wait a minute, the flight attendant left her badge at the hotel and cannot fly without it you have time to get on ” If that is not a miracle I don’t know what is.( Thank you Jenny the Flight Attendant!) So we got on the plane and we were ready for take off I finally stopped shaking and the anxiety was overwith for the most part, well what comes up must come down right? ( Thank god this was not the case literally ) One of the engines in the plane would not start so we had to transfer to another plane, finally after that we were on our way to Chicago when we got there we had a 4 hour lay over, We killed the time by eating at a small diner and browsing the book store.
Once we got on the plane in Chicago we flew to Beijing, China. on the way we had lots of things to do to tide us over till we got there, Books, Nintendo DS, Ipod, Inflight meals, Screaming babies, Oh! and Movies! ( Go go Narnia!) when we finally got to China we had no time to look around because we had one more flight to catch and because of the delay in detroit we had 15 mins to check through Chinese customs and get on the plane and if anyone has been to Beijing’s Airport its HUGE! we are taking shuttles going everywhere, but yeah we didnt think we would make it but this Chinese man led us through customs, to the right terminal and onto the plane ( <3 you Chinese guy wherever you are) In america if you had to do that you were screwed! ( Or the occasional miracle) Anyways we flew from Beijing to Qing Dao , on our decent we overlooked the city there is so much smog there and lots of factories, when we touched the ground we looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief, We made it ! Finally we were in China!
First order of buisness when we got off the plane: Bathrooms! I was holding it for 14+ hours and I freaking had to pee! once we got that done we found the translator for Beike and the driver and we drove to the hospital. Oh. My. God. do not drive in China they have no rules the driver drove into oncoming traffic and cut many cars off (the same happened to us as well ) I think I lost 5 years of my life right there. We got to the Qing dao Chenyang Peoples hospital around 7ish and went to our room , the rooms are nice, for a hospital that is. when I got into my room all I wanted to do was sleep I had so much jet-lag and we were just plain tired from the trip but the doctors had to do a asessment on me first I was doing my best to answer the questions -but when you have lack of sleep and don’t speak any Chinese and the translator dosent speak as good as english as we had hoped- you didnt get very far Ok so FINALLY get to sleep ( the matresses are like wood with a blanket over it ) and the next morning real early , and as you guys know, I am not a morning person I had to get my blood drawn I really hate needles but the nurse was very gentle and it didnt hurt much at all
That morning we learned alot of stuff I will be getting 9 STC and the doctors said that we have to have 5-7 days between each one so we could be here for 2 months I was kinda depressed from that fact because I get home sick real easy and I was still adjusting to the time difference (12 hours ahead of EST in the US fyi) so for about 2 days I didnt do much but stay in my room and sleep ( therapy dosent start till Monday) my dad was sick of me staying holed up in the room for so long he insisted that I go out and talk to the othe patients and their familys , I am glad I listened to him , Guys they work Miracles here. 2 children ( one from wisconsin and one in Colorado ) came here blind after several weeks they were able to see! one of them read and learned the entire alphabet in one week! Another lady had a disease where she couldent walk well , had partial paralysis, she could not tie her shoes or write when she got here , but that day she WALKED up to me and greeted me by taking both her hands in mine and giving them a gentle squeeze! she can write now and tie her shoes her paralysis in her face is gone! Those are just a few miracles that they do here! My Spirts were boosted and my mood changed for the better I am now positive that you guys will see a surpirse when I get back home
So that’s my “Quick” Update until then I hope everyone is safe back home please keep me and my Father in your Prayers and thoughts I miss you all and I hope to hear from you all soon !
Much love,
Josh
P.S. If you wish to send a care package ( Please do! we need some food from the states they have food like that over here but it is not processed like we do in the states) send it to the address below:
Qingdao Chengyang People’s Hospital
Stem Cell Treatment Rehabilitation Center
8th +9th floor, VIP Ward, Changcheng road 600#,
Chengyang district, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China.
TEL: 0532-80653954 or 0532-80653905
Postal Code: 266109
Also If you guys want any souviners please tell me I will be going to a Temple and a shopping mall this sunday so keep in touch !
September 15th, 2008
