Kade’s SOD Blog

Kade has been doing very good!! We think that the stem cells have started to help him in some way.  We can’t exactly say what we think he MAY see, if indeed he is seeing something, but he is deffinatly more confident.  We put him on the ground and he took off crawling, when before we would do that he would use his head to scoot around.  He also seems more confident in standing up.  Before he would grip our hands tightly and now he will barely hold on and try to stand by himself. Kade has also been moving towards things and then putting his hands out when he gets close to touch them.  It’s really hard to say if it is 100% the stem cells or if it’s because we have been working with him!  Hopefully it is the stem cells and we will start to see more significant improvements!!

Today we went to Hooters!  It was fun, the girls in there are crazy!  They sang Steven a birthday chant and were all amazed with Kade lol.  The food there was a lot better than what we have been eating, although their hamburgers taste a little diferent.  After we got done eating we went to a shoping square, and walked around for awhile.  All of the people there were so interested in Kade.  At one point I think there was about 10-15 people around his stroller just looking at him lol.  We had a good time!  Hopefully we will get out a little more!  13 days to go!!! We will write again soon!

Love,

Annalise, Steven, and Kade

Kade had his second spinal today and it went pretty well.  They didn’t give him valum this time, instead they gave him this medicine to just make him drowsy and go to sleep.  Unfortunalty, he woke up during the procedure and they had to control him and then finish.  When they brought him out he was okay and finally fell asleep.  He still has 3 hours left of laying down, luckly he is sleeping right now so I don’t think we will have to give him any more medicine.  So all in all he did good, we just wished he wouldn’t have woken up, it would have made things easier. 

Kade is getting 3 teeth . . . there’re all so close to be cutting through the gums!  I bet they will come in within this next week!  So with that being said Kade is a little more fussy than usual.  We will probably stay in tomorrow to make sure that Kade is feeling alright, so it’s going to be another boring day in the hospital!  We plan to go out this weekend and a little next week.  We want to go to the night market again, we had a good time there.  We are thinking about going to Hooters down in Hangzhou, so if we do we will be sure to let everyone how that is! lol! Well we will talk to everyone soon!

Love,

Annalise, Steven, and Kade

Last night we went to the night market in down town Hangzhou.  It was really packed, but we found a lot of things to buy so it was fun! We had Kade covered in the stroller because everyone would stare and try to touch him.  There were a lot of bugs out too!! It was fun buying things because you could bargain with the people, and if you tell them a low price they would say no, no, no, so we would walk off and they would come running after us saying ok, ok, ok!! lol it was so funny!  Our driver was trying to bargain for me and the guy got so mad and started yelling at the driver, so we just took off walking! Another lady from the US came with us last night, she seems very nice and seemed to have a lot of fun.  She just got here and is still really overwhelemed with everything, especially the time difference, so we were ensuring her that it does eventually get better!  The people here must have a death wish for themselves, because they will just walk right out in front of cars without even looking!  The driving here still scares me!!

Steven had acupunture yesterday on his shoulder.  He said it hurt a little, but it seemed to have worked a little bit.  The doctors here are so in love with his body lol!  The guys tell him they love his muscles and he is so big!! They have been taking work our lessons from him lol! Especially one of the interpretors named Johnny!  I think Steven is his idol, no joke!! When he’s not busy with work, he will come in our room just to talk to him and get work out lessons lol!  Then the nurses came in one day and started taking pictures of Steven because they said he has big muscles!! haha he’s a star over here! Our interpretor Lucy told Steven te physical therapist like me, and if it makes him nervous! hahaha it was so funny!

Kade is going to have his next spinal Friday and we will keep everybody informed on how he does!  He is teething and is getting 3 more teeth, so he gets really fussy at times!  Other than that he is still himself!!!

Love,

Annalise, Steven, and Kade

Kade had his first spinal yesterday and it went very well! They gave him valum to try and make him go to sleep, but all it did was make him laugh and a little loopy!  It was the cutiest thing, right as they started giving him the medicine he just started to crack up and wouldn’t stop lol!  The procedure only took 15 min, so we were really surprised at how quick it went!  They said Kade did really good and didn’t even cry!! He such a little trooper!!!  The nurse had to give him some medicine to make him fall asleep after the procedure because he just wanted to get up and play, so he slept for the 6 hours that he had to be down.  As of this morning Kade is his normal self and he doesn’t seem to have any pain!  I think the doctors want to give him another spinal on Fri because he did so well with this one.  We will keep everyone posted on how he is doing and if we start to see and improvements!! Lets all pray that we do!  Again thank you everyone for your comments they mean a lot to all of us!

 Love,

Annalise, Steven, and Kade

Steven finally uploaded some new pictures so ill let him post them for everyone to look at. hope you enjoy and ill be sure to write another blog tommorow after his spinal treatment.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i282/bouncer6470/DSC00673.jpg The view from our room.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i282/bouncer6470/DSC00704.jpg Kade walking. the next couple pictures all look the same but its actually of every step he takes

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http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i282/bouncer6470/DSC00721.jpg another great view from our window

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i282/bouncer6470/DSC00742.jpg IV stem cells

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i282/bouncer6470/DSC00751.jpg Kades first kiss from elanor

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i282/bouncer6470/DSC00752.jpgfirst blue sky since weve been here

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some of the staff

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i282/bouncer6470/DSC00769.jpgJonny (and his gift for kades bday) anna and kade sleeping in..

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i282/bouncer6470/DSC00761.jpg  the night view

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i282/bouncer6470/DSC00785.jpgSteven getting him to stand for his very first time

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i282/bouncer6470/DSC00786.jpgAll by him self

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i282/bouncer6470/DSC00791.jpgKades birthday party

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i282/bouncer6470/DSC00794.jpg And of course… the birthday cake

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i282/bouncer6470/DSC00798.jpgKade being his silly self

Well first off I want to let everyone know about the little birthday party we had for Kade.  It was very nice, although Kade was asleep for pretty much all of it!  They gave Kade a chinese outfit for his present, but they call it a prize lol, and we ordered him a cake. The cake was interesting and huge!  It had fruit on top and inside, it wasn’t too bad! Another mother of a patient gave Kade a little stuff animal armidillo, and man does he love that thing!!  A lot of the patients came and all of the nurses and some doctors also came to sing him happy birthday. It’s was really cool, they sang him happy birthday in chinese, everyone was so happy to see him!  So that was pretty much all we did for his birthday besides eat cake and socialize with everyone, it was a good time!

Yesterday we went to downtown Hangzhou.  Elanor’s family went with us, so we had fun!  We had to take two cars, and still everytime time we get into a car I swear the driving gets worse!  People get so close to the car when your driving it’s scary, there could be traffic coming straight at you and they will just pull out in front of all of the cars!  People walk along side of the highways, and I saw what I think was a church lol.  It was really cool being able to see all of the city and how people live.  I don’t think we saw 1 actual house, it’s all apartments.  I guess there’s no room for single living homes. Too many people!! First we went to the silk market, which they call silk city, and we walked around and bought some things.  They just have roads full of stores on each side with pretty much the same stuff in every store.  It was nice to finally be out of our room, eventhough it was raining pretty hard, but it stopped eventually.  Then we went to a mexican resturant called Panchos.  It was pretty good food for being a mexican resturant in China lol. We were more in a tourist spot, so people didnt stare as much, but we did have people take our pictures when we were walking at the silk market.  There is no age limit to drink in China so we ordered a margarita, but it just tasted like a frozen lemonade.  There was a dvd store we went to that sold American dvd’s, so we bought some movies to watch, we got 7 movies for 64RMB, so about  $9 US money.  We also went to a Rolex store, but they are just about the same price as they would be in the US so we went to the nike and addidas store across the street, but didn’t find anything interesting.  The shoes were a little over priced.  We got to see west lake, which was very beautiful!  It gets packed on the weekends, so I think we may go sometime one weekday.  They have boat rides you can take to all the different islands, so that might be something we’ll try!  Kade was really good the whole time we were out!  Him and Elanor arn’t too sure about eachother quite yet.  They will get close to eachother and then one of them will start to cry lol it’s cute!  Elanor did give Kade his first kiss the other day!  I have a picture of it, so when we get new batteries for our camera I will post it along with some more pictures!

One night we woke up and turned on the lights to see what time it was and right when we turned the lights on Kade started to cry and sat up real quick.  We turned off the lights and he laid back down and went back to sleep.  We don’t know if it was the lights that made him cry and sit up or if it was just a coinincidence

Kade is scheduled for his first spinal on mon around 2. I think he will do just fine!  I’m a little nervous, but Steven is doing a great job at keeping me strong!  We can’t wait to see if this spinal will give him any improvements!! We sure hope it does!!!  We hope everyone back home is doing well and we miss everyone, can’t wait til we come home!!!! 

Love,

Annalise, Steven, and Kade

Today is Kade’s birthday!! We can’t believe he is already 1 years old!  It’s crazy how time flys!!  We are going to order him a cake today and have a little birthday party with all the other patients in the common room.  He is getting so big!  He slept A LOT better last night and woke up in such a good mood!  He must know today is his special day!  Thank you everyone for all of your comments we love reading them! 

 Yesterday we went to the RT Mart again, it wasn’t nearly as packed as the first time we went, so that was a reliefe! (Speaking of RT Mart, you can see it through our window)  They have a whole section in there with hanging ducks and geese, and then a huge acquarium thing full of live reptiles.  There were live snakes, eels, turtles, frogs, fish, crab, and other things . . . .I could’t stand the smell so I just took a quick look!  It’s SO nasty!!!  They also have huge squid and frozen fish that are just laid out on a table for you to grab.  We were walking past the meat department and you could see the people cutting the meat and they don’t even wear any gloves!  They also don’t package any of their meat so it’s all just sitting out in tubs!  I think thats why it stinks so bad in there! They have turkey breast laying out in the middle of the store, unpackaged, but they leave the feet on them!! ewwww it freaked me out!! They also have like sausage links just hanging on bars around the hanging ducks.  I don’t know how these people can touch any of those things, especially since there’re not pacakged, you just have to grab it with your hands! 

We did find some good stuff at the store, finally!!!! We found these little nesstle esspreso drinks, they taste like the starbucks drinks, they are really good!  We bought some more bbq chips, which are really good too.  They don’t taste anything like our bbq chips because they put soy sauce or soy powder on them, but the taste is good.  We also get lime chips, which don’t really taste like lime, but there’re good too!   The food here is very interesting, just there’re type of flavorings for things.  Like, even the chips, they have shrimp flavored chips, grilled duck . ..weird types of flavors!  We aso bought some spaghetti and sauce, but surprisngly is wasn’t that good.  The cookies we got are good though lol!!

Our driver was very funny!  We had Kade’s stroller with us and it was too big for the trunk, but he still put it in there half way and drove with his trunk open! When we were in the store he was pushing Kade, but he walked so fast I could barely keep up!  Then he was pushing Kade and the cart, finally I told him I was going to push Kade, it took me a couple of times of telling him because he was just trying to be helpful and didn’t want us to have to do any work lol. Ohh!! . . . I think we finally figured out the whole babies not wearing diapers thing, and how do they keep places clean!  When you go to the mart there are always people moping the floors, then it finally clicked!  We put two and two together, and figured out that that’s why they probably mop so much is because of the babies not wearing diapers!  SICK!!!! 

Well I am going to give Kade a shower now.  We will write again soon!

Love,

Kade, Anna, and Steven 

Kade had his first IV treatment around 2 30 toady, and it went VERY well!!  They had to put in an IV to start his fluids, and suprisingly he didn’t cry at all when they put the needle in.  The nurse who did his IV was very good at it, so we asked her if she would do his IV’s every time and she got very happy that we asked lol! Its about 11 here now and Kade woke up wanting to play, so I took him into the common room so he could walk around.  That’s his new favorite thing to do is walk with the toy! We are going to have to go to the RT Mart here again soon, so that should be another fun adventure!  Well were back off to bed, write again later!  Good night! Love Annalise and Kade

Kade will have his first IV treatment today at 2!  We are all very excited to see what this can do for our little guy!  He has been such a trooper through all of this!  Although, he hasn’t adjusted to the time yet so he goes to sleep at about 6 and wakes up and 1 in the morning and stays up!  So that is kinda hard on us, but we get through it! Our neightbors don’t really care for us too much though lol.  When Kade woke up yesterday morning, they started pounding on the walls and told the nurses he is too loud, but he is just a baby so he’s just going to have to deal with it!  We told the patient cordinator we would move rooms though, that way we would not have to listen to the guy complaining lol.  Kade has been in such a great mood and all of the nurses and doctors love him!  Our interpreter Lucy, especially loves him!  She always comes to us to hold him and then walks around with him, he just adores her!  I tried taking him from her yestersday and he started throwing a fit so I gave him back to her and he was fine! lol silly guy!   Steven and I have been working on walking and standing up with him, and wow does he love it!  They have a little walker toy that he can hold onto to walk with and push by himself, and he does it!!! I put him on it yesterday and he went back and forth about 10 times all by himself!! We were SO proud of him!!! Then Steven will get him standing up for about a good 5-10 seconds all by himself!  We will write more after Kade has his first treatment today to let everyone know how it went!!  

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Wow, where do I even begin!! We arrived and got to the hotel at about 12, and barely got any sleep. Kade did really good on all of the flights over here! All the nurses are so in love with Kade! We went to the RT Mart today. That was too overwhelming for me! There are SO many people over here, everywhere is packed! When we were walking through the store people would just stop and stare. I guess they dont ever have tourist over here, so when they see an American they are very amazed! The babies over here do not wear diapers!!! They have clothes that have the bottoms cut out, so when they need to go, they just go. Its gross!!!! The driving over here is scary. No one uses their blinkers, they will drive on the worng side of the road to pass people, and I dont think we have ever heard someone use their horn so many times!! I think we are going to try and stay inside as long as we can. It is SO humid and hot over here that it is a treat to stay in your room with air conditioning! Kade will get his first stem cell transplant either tomorrow or wed, so we will keep everyone updated! We are all just relaxing today, trying to get as much rest as we can. We will write more soon!!

Love,

Kade, Annalise, and Steven