Jim’s MSA Blog

Our second outing

July 28th, 2007

Jim has been having a great day today. Energy is up and he’s done a great job in physical therapy including executing a perfect, unassisted turn on the parallel bars. This is a major accomplishment for someone who has spent the better part of the past year in a wheel chair.

In fact he felt so well that we accepted an invitation to go out to dinner with a supplier and friend of Jim’s, Liu Shu Qing. After a two hour flight from Tianjin, Shu Qing arrived at the hospital with a beautiful bouquet of white lilies and red roses. Besides bringing a beautiful scent to our room the flowers had anothr positive impact on us. While getting water for the vase I discovered that the valves are backwards in our shower: red is cold and blue is hot! Tomorrow we will have our first hot shower since arriving on the 20th floor. No more bracing and shouting “refreshing” as we step into the cold water!

Shu Qing has a very engaging personality, and within a few minutes she had instructed all the doctors and nurses within earshot to “take especially good care of Mr. Jim”.

The restaurant we dined at was an interesting mix of cultures. Movie posters and a fake red carpet (a la Hard Rock Cafe) led you to the elevators, flaked by two beautiful young “greeters” dressed in cobalt blue evening gowns. We stepped out of the elevators to the screeches and howls of a herd of young children chasing each other through a brightly colored plastic playground (a la McDonald’s). Apparently this is to allow their parents to have a peaceful dinner in the adjacent room. The restaurant was elegant, with gilded walls and huge mural copies of the Italian masters, but with a Mel Brooks twist: the angels were spitting water on Venus. And then there was a gigantic glittering disco ball….

We had a nice dinner with Shu Qing and then went staight back to the hospital. A slight touch of “Chairman Mao’s Revenge” visited us the next morning…nothing serious but we were really careful about what we ate for the rest of the day.

Nothing is wasted here in China. When people leave the hospital after their 30 or 45 day stay, they leave their unused supplies in the small kitchen room. Yesterday I scored a half a can of Chinese Pringles and a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese. Imagine how homesick you have to be to be excited about boxed Mac and Cheese! But it was comforting to have something “Yank” to eat when your stomach is lurching and turning.

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