Josh’s SCI/China Blog

The Chronicles of Joshnia: The Father,The Biotch,and The Ever-Diminishing-Wardrobe.

September 17th, 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

Entry Filed under: Blog,sci