Hello Everyone;
We have been home for a month now and we are experiencing small changes. London’s vocabulary has improved. When we left to go to china she only said “Momma, Daddy, Nanna and Cy.” (her big brother) Since we have returned home she has now added “Ut oh, hi, no, good and good girl” most 2 year olds are already saying a lot more words than London, but this is huge for her and for all of us. Watching her and listening to her new vocabulary is wonderful. We still are not quite sure just how much she can see, but her eyes are still dilating and she covers her eyes if it’s dark and we put a light on them. She also picked up a flashlight we had sitting on the floor one morning but it’s only happened once so far so it could have been coincidence. Her balance continues to improve and she will stand holding onto the sofa for about 30 minutes at a time now and she will push herself up into a sitting position from a prone position. So these are the newest updates I’ll write more when we have additional information to pass along to you all. Thanks for always being here for us we appreciate your love and support so much.
Will talk to you soon, with light and love; The family of London Ruby Call
February 18th, 2010
London is looking right at the light!!
Hello Everyone;
We just wanted you to all see the new photo Jessie took of London last night. Jessie was shining the flash from her cell phone camera in London’s eyes and she was looking directly at the light. We don’t know how much London is seeing, but you can tell by the most recent photo she is seeing the light. Her eyes have never been so focused. We are happy to share the news.
With Light and Love from all of London’s family
February 3rd, 2010
Hello All;
Some good news to report today London saw her pediatrician and when we shut off the lights and put the Dr.s light in her eyes she covered them with her hands. The Dr. also said both eyes were dilating. So we are happy to report this new bit of news to you all.
Then this afternoon she came down to the newspaper and had an interview about our trip to China when it is published I’ll let you know so you can read it.
So for now we leave you with a bit of good news from Saranac Lake NY!
Blessings; The family of London Ruby Call
January 29th, 2010
We have settled back to our world at home now and London is very happy to be home again.
While we were in China we were trying to get London to say “HI” but she wouldn’t and we are happy to report that today she said “HI” not much to most people but a big step for London.
Her vocabulary is growing!
Will report more when we have anything.
January 24th, 2010
Turner, Jessie, London and Grandma Ruby
Well hello from the wonderful Adirondack Mountains;
Just a short note to let everyone know we made it home safe and sound. Only one delay at Newark airport the rest went pretty well considering the problems we had on the trip there. London did really well on the flight again and was happy to be held by all her loved ones who missed her while she was so far away from home.
I will post more as soon as we see anymore changes in our little trooper. Today’s photo is of Turner Gutmann our patient rep from Lake Placid Jessie, London and I just before we left Qingdao.
God Bless everyone for your support and continued love~
Ruby
January 20th, 2010
- Final EKG
- Final EKG
Hello Everyone;
This will be our last post from Qingdao we have finished up and will be headed out to the airport tomorrow morning at 8AM. We will leave Qingdao to Beijing we have a 5 hour lay over in Beijing then we will be off to Newark NJ and another 3 hour lay over and on to Albany NY. After 23 hours we opted to stay the night in Albany and drive home on Tuesday. We are really happy to be going home.
The only thing London had scheduled today was her EKG so we finished packing up and cleaned up the rest of the day. We went over to the Lotte Mart across the street to take London on the little boat ride but it was closed so we just got a new luggage to replace the one that the zipper broke on and came back to the hospital. We sent flowers for our appreciation to the Dr.s, Nurses and translators and they all seemed to enjoy them.
This has been an amazing journey and we can only hope London won’t remember the pain she had to endure these past 40 days but we have lots of documentation for her when she gets old enough to understand what everyone did to try and help her to see. I also want to give my thanks to all the people who donated their umbilical cord stem cells so London may have a better future for without the stem cell donors none of this would have happened either and now she has 90 million new stem cells helping her. We are so grateful to everyone from home, all over the U.S and from China our hearts are filled with joy. We also want to thank our families and husbands for putting up with the long distance relationships for so long. It was hard on everyone and we can’t wait to run to our loved ones arms on Monday!
We will continue our blog from home so everyone can have periodical updates on London’s progress. It won’t be daily, perhaps a monthly update if their are any changes.
One last time from Qingdao; Ruby, Jessie and our little trooper London Ruby Call
January 17th, 2010
Hello Everyone;
Today was a good day especially for London, no one poking her or prodding at her body. Tomorrow she has a EKG and that will do it for her treatments here. We still have some final blood work we need to get done when we get home. They didn’t want to poke her anymore so we have some blood tests to send back to China after we return.
London woke up at 3 AM this morning after her final lumbar treatment. Our patient representative Turner (who is from Lake Placid originally) made it to China yesterday and he came to visit us this morning and that was really great. He is actually the International Marketing Manager but they let him be our patient rep because we were all from the same location and he really helped us get everything all worked out for our treatments and trip to China. We would have been lost without his help. So thank you Turner Gutmann for all your wonderful help.
After Turner left we had lunch and laid down for a nap when London crashed and slept for about 4 wonderful hours. We could have kept sleeping but we needed to get up and go out to dinner with everyone who is here. Some of us are leaving and it’s always nice to go out together before someone leaves. Our friends from Australia Claire and Jenny will be leaving tomorrow morning and we will miss them dearly. They have been the go to people for just about everyone in our ward as it is their second trip to China for Claire and they are the best. We wish them a speedy safe trip home.
After dinner we came in and started organizing our things and cleaning up the room a bit. It’s amazing how much stuff you brought that you didn’t really need so the packing and cleaning began and we will finish up tomorrow. One of Jessie’s luggage’s had a blow out when we tried to zip it so we will need to go pick up another over at the Lotte Mart tomorrow. They also have a boat ride over at the Lotte Mart along with a whole roller coaster, bumper cars and other stuff. We think we will take London on the little boat ride no bumper cars for her with all the lumbar’s she has had. It will be a nice way to end our journey here and before we board the planes for 23 hours. Yugg how we dread the flight, but this time we are also looking forward to it since we will be home soon.
Tonight’s photo is all of us over at the Pizza Hut here in Qingdao, but the Pizza Hut here is more like fine dining and the menu is amazing. I actually had a steak tonight and it was wonderful to have a “western” style meal.
Until tomorrow we leave you with many blessings; Ruby, Jessie and London
January 16th, 2010
WE ARE DONE!
This morning started off with the entire team of Doctors visiting London and doing a final assessment. They are happy with her progress so far and believe she will catch up with other children her age if we continue the therapy and she should live a normal life. That alone is worth a million bucks. In the early afternoon we met with the media people and they interviewed us for the Stem Cells China website.
After the early morning and early afternoon things were done the rest of the afternoon was a hard one for little London, her veins are pretty much gone by now and they could not find a good one for her IV. After about 3 hours of trying to find a vein in her hands, arms, feet and even shaving part of her head the decided not to do the pre IV. London missed dinner because it took so many hours of trying to find a vein that time had run out for her to eat.
They came in just before 8PM and gave her the hydrochloride to put her to sleep and it only took 4 minutes and she was passed out. Dr. Apple had been called by the nurses earlier because they couldn’t find the vein and she said to go ahead with the procedure without the pre and post IV (glucose) so she had the stem cell transfer without it this time. The lumbar went off without a hitch she slept through it all and she is done being stuck with needles. We were suppose to get post blood work done but they don’t want to put her through anymore needle sticking and we will have it done when we get home and send the results back to the team of doctors here in China.
Our emotions were at a high tonight and we are just happy all the transfers are done and we can begin the process of growing these cells for the next year and working on London’s therapy. The Dr.s also discussed with us the possibly bringing her back for another round of stem cells in a year or so. We will wait to see what kind of results we get from the 90 million stem cells that she has received so far.
For now we are done and we are so happy and grateful for everyone who helped us to better London’s quality of life. No words we can type will convey the appreciation we have in our hearts for every one of you. Thank you for your love, your support, your donations and your prayers. Without you this would never have happened and from the bottom of our hearts we THANK YOU. We would also like to thank the Adirondack Daily Enterprise for all of the fundraising ads that were donated on behalf of London and for letting Grandma Ruby take a long vacation to help Jessie and London survive this experience.
The next couple days we are off and we will head back to the states on Monday morning. We will miss the wonderful Doctors, nurses, translators and hospital staff as well as the beautiful families we have become so close to. Tonight’s photo is of the team of Doctors that we are so grateful for.
Until tomorrow from Qingdao; London, Jessie and Ruby
January 15th, 2010
- London happy and silly tonight
Hello Everyone;
Wow what a night, as you know London has had a cold for a couple days now and yesterday she fell asleep early and woke up at midnight. Needless to say it was a night without sleep. She was energetic when she woke at midnight and ready to play. (her nose has dried up thank goodness) We watched 4 movies and stayed up all night. Dr. Apple was in early and looked at London’s eyes again and they are responding to light and we will wait for the stem cells to grow. Then came PT and she did better than expected since she was up all night. She only fussed a little bit and the herbs Dr. Apple gave her are helping she is on the mend. After PT she fell asleep for about 4 hours so we took advantage of it and got a little nap but we really were not ready to get up when she was. OH well.
Tomorrow (Friday in China) we have our 9th and final stem cell transfer and we trust it will go as well as the one she had on Monday. Friday evening will mark 90 million stem cell solders running through her little body and by the Grace of God she will see more by the end of the year. Saturday they will take a final blood sample and test all the normal things and her kidneys to make sure all is well before we leave.
Since London has been under the weather we have not been out of the hospital since last Saturday. Not even out in front of the hospital for a bit of fresh air because we want her to be healthy for the final lumbar treatment. We are so proud of London for all that she has endured these weeks in China and we are grateful she has remained healthy and in good spirits (when she isn’t being poked by needles) all these weeks. This has been quite the experience and as I said before an emotional roller coaster. It’s so hard to see your little baby going through so much and try to justify why we are here and why we are doing all this. At times I have to be honest we were wondering if we did the right thing, and if this would help London. Now we can honestly say although it’s been hard anything London may get out of this is a blessing and we are grateful.
As we long for home and are getting so close we want to thank everyone for their support and love through this time. Tonight’s photo is of London playing and happy this evening. How we love this little girl!
Until tomorrow from Qingdao; London, Jessie and Ruby
January 14th, 2010
- It’s been a long journey, a little rest time.
Hello everyone;
London has a cold but no fever, Dr. Apple came in this morning as usual along with a specialist to check London out because she hasn’t felt very well the last couple days. She has no temperature and her lungs are clear, but she has a bit of a runny nose and the throat is pink so they gave us a herb called Taurine Granules 3 times a day to help her get over her cold. Hopefully she will feel better before her final stem cell treatment on Friday. At physical therapy today she didn’t want to do anything and that is likely because of the cold she is fighting off and she hasn’t slept well for the last few nights. Tomorrow we have our usual therapy so hopefully she will be feeling a little better.
London woke us up at 2:30AM so there was plenty of time to see the sun rise above the mountain range this morning. After it lightly snowed yesterday the sky cleared out and the temperature dropped it was really cold this morning and the wind always seems to blow in Qingdao making the wind chill a big factor in the temperatures here. It’s not as cold as it is at home, but that wind just goes right through you.
We also had to call the airline to confirm our flight from Qingdao to Beijing because when we arrived here in December they had our flight number wrong and it took 3 hours to get it straitened out. (that was a nightmare especially when hardly anyone spoke English) We don’t want to go through that again so after 2 phone calls by us and 2 by the translators we got it figured out and It was the wrong flight number again so I’m glad we called and saved ourselves aggravation on Monday when we leave. They had us on a waiting list for a flight we didn’t even have on our itinerary so they changed us to another flight that is an hour earlier so I’m just trusting that all will work out on our return home. This week seems to be going slower than the rest of the time we have been here and I’m sure it’s because we are aching to get home and back into our normal routine. We are really blessed to have been able to bring London over for these treatments but we are also ready to come home.
Today’s photo is of my beautiful girls this morning, London still awake and Jessie still crashed and worn out.
Have a wonderful day and we will talk to you tomorrow, with Light and Love;
Ruby, London and Jessie
January 13th, 2010
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