Posts filed under 'Uncategorized'
Hello to everyone,
The countdown has definitely begun and we are both thrilled. I cannot say the same for the staff as I think they are wanting Luke to stick around and smile it up for a while longer. I am looking forward to some of the obvious things, seeing Cheryl, Cody, family and friends but also sharing the same language, sitting in my chair, feeling the babies move, simple pleasures. There is no place like home and you really realize it when you are halfway around the world and living in hospital room for past 37days.
Being in China is an experience that I could of never pictured for many reasons, but it is obvious that we are destine to do things that are not obvious at all. I am so thankful to the Chinese people for taking the initiative to help people and explore new medical treatments. I have seen things here that I know would not be possible without their help or stem cell treatments. The Chinese people are a very kind and caring culture that love children and are deeply rooted in tradition. I will always be thankful for this trip and the possibilities that lie ahead.
Since I have been dishing out all the nice talk and thank-yous I again want to thank everyone that helped us get to this point. Without everyone’s help and support we would be in a completely different place financially and emotionally. I feel that the thank you cards sent out do not convey our deepest gratitude and nothing I can write ever will.
On this trip I have learned a lot about Luke and myself and developed a greater appreciation for Cheryl and the awesome job she does at home. I could not have asked for a better wife and mother to Cody, Luke, Tag and Kate. HaHa. Those are not the babies names but I thought some of you may get excited and think I slipped, those are some of Kari’s old pets’ names. I would encourage everyone to save our other blog to your favorites to keep up with Luke’s progress, Cody’s tricks, pictures from our trip, future fundraisers and eventually the babies names.
lifewithluke-picketts.blogspot.com
Thanks again,
Clint(Fights with Trout) and Luke(Smiles a Lot) –we watched Dances with Wolves while we were here, I’ve had my name since my fishing in Colorado but I just gave Luke his, I think it fits.
November 5th, 2008
Luke is now finished with his 5th stem cell treatment and the end is definitely in sight. I don’t have a lot to report about since my last post as Luke and I have not been out to much, just a few walks after therapy. I have been feeling patience getting shorter with all the attention we get when we leave the hospital. I cannot even tell you how many times Luke and I have been stared at just walking down the street. I am a private person and needless to say its getting OLD. I’ve had to get loud with a couple of people that have been pushing the personal space and touching boundary, not that they know what I am saying but they understood my tone.
I do like the Chinese people and culture they are very kind and sincere people, but have I mentioned we are looking forward to coming home. I am planning to hire the caregiver again this week and go to the waterfront of the Yellow Sea and do some sightseeing. Sorry not much to report but we have been kind of laying low.
Luke is still as sweet as ever, I have never been around anyone that their first reaction is to smile regardless of the situation. As soon as he wakes up in the morning, smile. Right after he throws up on the back of a mans pants on an escalador at the market because he was trying to poop, smile. And when a nurse wakes him up after only sleeping 20 minutes to give his IV he smiles before and after, I know he doesn’t get that from me.
Since Luke and I have been laying low around here I have been doing more looking at the computer than I ever thought I would. In doing so I came across a young girls essay about her brother, Cheryl may have sent it to some of you before if she did its worth watching again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO911lWVGpQ
Thanks again to everyone for everything,
Clint and Luke
October 27th, 2008
Hello to everyone,
As you can see from the title we are halfway done with our China adventure. Luke had his fourth stem cell treatment, 3rd spinal today and is know confined to the bed for next 4 hours. The first two have been spent watching Baby Einstein andLuke flirting with all the nurses that keep checking on him. He is doing well with his daily grind of therapy and continues to get stronger everyday. He seems to enjoy his standing therapy the most, there is a flat table that he is strapped into and then raises straight up. I think he likes the different perspective until his little legs get so tried that they make his poutty lip come out. When he is finished with his morning therapy he is truly exhausted. This was the only stem cell treatment for this week only therapy Thursday and Friday andthen a free weekend.
Yesterday I hired a caregiver to watch Luke for the day and friend I have meet here from Canada decided to Tidaong Square in downtown Qingdoa. It was quite an adventure and reaffirmed to me that I will not be taking Luke on that long of a taxi ride, about 45 min one way. I have never seen driving like it is done here and I doubt you will anywhere in the United States. Street lanes are completely disregarded, if they can get their taxi between the delivery truck and the minivan, even if only by a couple of inches they will try it and be honking the horn the entire way. I think the first thing people check in the morning is if there horn is working before they take to the streets.
Downtown Qingdoa is such a busy place, I have been to a few big cities in the states and they are not even close to the same, people everywhere. In the Tidaong Square it is a pedestrian mall with thousands of shops selling just about anything you can think of, except donkey sandwiches. I went into one in the basement of a cell phone store, when you walked in you were hit with a cloud of cigarette smoke and could not even see the back of the shop. Do you know what was for sale, CELL PHONES as far as you could see. There was also a tattoo parlor.
Couple of things I saw yesterday worth mentioning: 1st) I saw a man herding 5 full size goats down the shoulder of a 8 lane highway. 2nd) I saw 4 people riding on one small Honda motorcycle in the rain, I am not sure if they did but it looked like they were going to pull on the same 8 lane highway. I didn’t see this but another family at the hospital saw a person riding a bicycle with a customized milk crate attached to the back with a small child riding in it down a busy street.
Thanks for everyone’s emails, comments, prayers and support. Luke and I are both looking forward to seeing some familiar faces in a couple of weeks.
Clint and Luke
October 22nd, 2008
Hello to everyone. Luke and I are back in the room after is 3rd stem cell treatment today, 2nd spinal injection. He is doing well and just lying on his side watching me as I type. We were separated for about 40 minutes the longest time yet since we left St. Louis on October 2nd.
Luke seems more relaxed after this treatment and looks like he is thinking about something, I know he is missing his mother and big bro. When I was waiting for Luke to come out of the procedure room they put us VIP parents, thats what they call the stem cell floors, in a room of our own. I was comfortably alone for 30 minutes thinking about family and friends that have made this trip possible and the potential that it could have on Luke’s life. THANKYOU ALL!!!
Being alone also gave me a chance to think about my sons, wife and soon to be another son and daughter I love them completely and constatly. They are reason I go to work in the morning and come home as soon as I can in the evening. Luke andI have had a chance to bond more closely since we have been here and I have learned a couple of things. 1) You cannot make a 18 month old eat no matter how badly you want them too. 2) Luke has the temper of his father and the smile of his mother. 3) Do not standup with Luke to quickly after drinking 7oz bottle of strawberry Pedisure or you will be cleaning puke of his cloths and yours in the bathroom sink.
Looking forward to seeing everyone,
Clint and Luke
October 17th, 2008
It is about 4:30 here on Monday, we just got back from Lukes 1st spinal injection. I seems to be doing well he smiled at me and the nurses right before he fell asleep. The procedure took 40 minutes and I was so happy to see him, he gave me another half drunk smile when I saw him, he was pretty out of it. It is a scary thing to have your child sedated and taken away from you in foreign county, but they gave him back and he is doing fine.
Luke now has to lie flat for next six hours and has not eaten since 8:00 this morning, it could be a rough night ahead. Since Luke has been unable to eat I decided I would try to do the same until we could eat together. It lasted until about 11:30, I did seek into the bathroom to eat some beef jerky so he wouldn’t see me.
Luke and I had a nice weekend we walked to a park about twenty minutes away there was a big lake and water gardens very pretty and hard to describe. There were also 5 or 6 wedding parties there with brides and grooms walking all over the place getting their pictures takes. One bride and groom looked like they had already hit a rough patch, I could tell b/c the groom was walking about 15 ft ahead of his bride and nobody with them looked like they had smiled all day, I thought good luck. Luke was the star there no matter hom many brides were around, he got his picture taken by compete strangers 5 -6 times.
We are looking forward to getting back home everyday. Thanks for everyones comments and we will write again soon.
Take care,
Clint
October 13th, 2008
Luke and I have finally adjusted to the time change it was a little easier for me. I have found that all you have to do is stay awake for about 26 to 28 hours and you will be right on scheule. Luke started thearpy yesterday and he is exhausted, he will be having physical/standing therapy and acupuncture/electric stimulation 5 days a week about two to three hours per day. Poor little fella is so tried after physical therapy that he cannot even eat lunch just a bottle and he is usually asleep while drinking.
Luke is going for his first IV stem cell treatment in about 1 hour, I was not nervous at all until I had to sign the relase form. I know he will do well and the staff and Dr.’s here are great, I can hardly keep the nurses away, they just love his smile. I think Luke is working on his own type of smile therapy for everyone here, the kid must smile at least 150 times per day I know it makes us all feel better. I have met some amazing people here, all with common goal to help our loved ones have the best quality that we can.
Luke and I finally got out of the hospital yesterday after therapy, we walked to People’s Square of Qingdoa………………….I had to stop writing for a bit to get Luke back to sleep for his nap, He thought he needed to wakeup and smile at me, he’s jsut working on his therapy. The square is beautiful a least couple full blocks of granite walkways, thouands of trees and flowers and dozen or so of water features. One of the water features is a silver sphere about the size of small house with pool at the bottom and circular seating all the way around. Luke missed most of is b/c he was sleeping after tough day of therapy.
I am already looking forward to seeing everyone when we get home, thankyou all so much for your support. Luke and myself miss Cheryl and Cody very much and I am wanting to feel those babies kick again and see if one can knock a quarter off of Cheryl’s belly.
Thanks for keeping Luke in your prayers, I know he can feel it. Its probably why he smiles so much.
Clint
P.S. Grammar has never been my strong suit so if you could overlook the fragmented or run-on sentences I would appreciate it. There are probable a few misspelled words also, that’s just how I operate.
October 8th, 2008
Hello to everyone
Luke and I have made it to China safely after a very long plane trip and are beginning to get settled in. Qingdao is a crazy place!!! All the staff, translators and other patients on this floor are very nice. There are 15 families here now for stem cell therapy from all over the world; Ireland, South Africa, Australia, Canada and a majority from US. Luke starts his therapy and acupuncture Monday and I get a schedule of when his 1st stem cell treatment will be. All the Chinese nurses call Luke, Lukeee and one calls his funny boy because his 1st instinct is to smile at them.
We went to the Chinese market. It is the busiest place I have ever been it is the size of 2 Walmarts stacked on top of each other and filled with enough people to make a small city. They have food there that would make some people throw up just to smell it. Tanks full of live fish, turtles in bowls and the insides of animals that I didn’t even know people could eat without getting very ill. I have been on two taxi rides and the only time they stop is to let us out, lots of honking and getting as close to other vehicles as they can. There are no carseats, I just hold on to Luke tight. I saw a man, woman and child, about Codys age riding on a motorcycle, it looked like fun I am going to see if Cheryl and Cody want to try it when i get home, I’m sure Cody will.
Thanks to everyone that has made this trip possible for Lukeee, we cannot express to everyone how much we love and appreciate our family and friends.
Clint
October 6th, 2008
Clint’s computer isn’t set up yet, so just wanted to let everyone know that he and Luke made it safely to China yesterday. Sounds like they’re doing great, just a little tired. Take care
Cheryl
October 5th, 2008
Hi everyone, well, here we are one week out from Luke and Clint’s big trip! We are very excited, but of course a little nervous that all the travel and such goes smoothly. Clint will be posting on this blog while in China and I will try to keep updates on our original blog as well. Thank you all sooo much for making this trip possible, we couldn’t have done it without the love and support of our family and friends! Please keep Clint and Luke in your prayers for a safe trip. Take care
Cheryl
September 25th, 2008
