Archive for August 6th, 2008
Today’s stem cell went MUCH better !!! He was taken down about 2:30 & was back upstairs at 3:30 & was awake & not to cranky. They came in about 20 minutes later & gave her some valium & he was very calm, not out of it just calmer..he still wanted to get up though little stinker but he didnt scream & fight me like before. There was a different person that did the spinals today also & the older 2 that had them said they didnt have any pain from them, so that could be helping Tyler as well. He fell asleep at about 6:30 & is sleeping peacefully at the moment. He is able to get up at 7:30 but probably will sleep a while then he can eat when he gets up, he did have juice though at 5:30 so with his fluids I think he is fine. I think i will get him an icecream for a treat tonight once he wakes up !!!
One of the other girls is heading to the RT so she is going to pick up milk & bread that I am out of so I will not leave the room today !! That is usually how stem cell day goes though !!! Just wanted to let everyone know that this one went fine and I think his last 2 will be a breeze !! lets hope so anyway …good morning to most of you & good night to us !! thanks for your prayers they worked !
Tami & Tyler
August 6th, 2008
Today is our 3rd treament !!! & another spinal !!! He is scheduled for 2:15ish and has his IV in & getting fluids now & asleep again. Please pray that he handles this one better than last week, that was hard on both of us !!! Not much to report so far here, on treatment days its very quite, the halls are full of doctors & nurses but most of the patients are tucked away in their rooms just waiting…& waiting & waiting !!! Im going to go walk for a sec while i can ..after treatment Im int he bed with tyler to make him stay still until his 6 hrs are up !!! talk about a job !!! he is a hand full !!! will report back later tonight after he is out of treament to let you guys know how its going !!! prayers for us to finish with great reuslts & come home soon !!!
Tami & Tyler 
August 6th, 2008
We had another day of outings !!! On the day none of the kids are getting stem cell treatment everyone tries to get out because the day of treatment & several days after you really shouldnt leave the hospital. So today we went with Shel & Macie who leave next week & had to pick up a few last minute things. We took a driver again & had about 12 of us in total. we dropped off some at the zoo and for us that had already gone we went to the beach for an hr. I had the stroller again so couldnt really take it on the beach. Melissa & I walked around & took pics of the thousands of people crowded onto the beach. The sand is much darker than what we see at a Florida beach. the water is so far off the beach you walk way way out to even get to it..then all you see are people standing elbow to elbow in ankle deep water ???????? It also had the familar stench of a sewage plant ?????? After the beach we went to the Jemo again…Shel had a few things to pick up, the Jemo is the place that everyone goes to barter for goods. Anything you can think of from usual souvenir things to jewlrey housewares & clothes. It has about 5 or 6 floors to it & reeks of urine also…parts of it are underground & damp & musty on top of urine smell. I assume since these people have grown up in that they dont even smell it like we do. I thought about it the other night & may have already said this , but it reminds me of what i imagine a litter box unchanged after a year would smell like !!
Although its nasty & smells the people here are very nice, very nice I will have to add….always smiling alot too !! After that we went to jesco or I think we did that first..oh well it all runs together !!! jesco is a mall type store, although you go in & when you find items they take them & give you a ticket & a tag off the clothes then you take that to a central cashier & she rings it all up you pay & then go back to the area you found items & they get them back for you..seems like an awful lot of trouble to me !!! They are so conservative here to you dont get bags, you can buy them ..im talking about like a kroger plastic bag…they dont like trash or waste. They recycle everything ..from food to cans bottles glass….some staying here with family that have a hotel room said every morning they dump alll the room trash on a huge patio & sift through & seperate it all out to recycle !!! We have watched the cleaning people here do that too..wondering if the food we have leftover they take home & eat ? some said yes but I dont know !!
Another full day of being out & it was much hotter today too…so everyone is exhausted again & ready to go back to our home away from home !!!
We get back all wanting a shower, guess what ?? day 3 of no hot water here !!! this happens very often im told too !!! I still think that they cut it off every so many days as a conservation thing..now many others think the same thing !!! because we have hot water in out kitchen just not in anyones bathrooms ???? I took a cold shower because i couldnt sleep knowing how hot it had been the past 2 days & out roaming in the nasty zoo !!!
were off to bed !!! tonight we tyler ate some chicken pasta & he ate real well, I had pizza since most ordered it after being gone all day…i dont like it so i think 3 tries is enough for me…i can eat what i brought from now on !!! tomorrow is stem cell day so we wont leave the hospital for a few days !!! security is also getting tighter with the Olympics approaching !!! we now have guards at the entrance to our hall & we have to check in & out when we leave !!! we dont feel unsafe here at all though..in fact a couple of days ago when tyler was up at 5(his usual) i fed him & took him to the park by myself and it was a nice walk & cool that early in the morning. we got the stare down but that is normal !!!!
August 6th, 2008
Sorry Ive gotten behind !!! Our time here stays so full that it seems hard to get on here & catch everyone up !!!
The past few days we have not had any treatment so we have had a driver take many of the group out to sight see. We had a day trip to the zoo in Qingdao, you had to walk very very far from the road to the main gate & it is mostly cobblestone paths which wasnt easy with Tylers stroller. We made it up there though !!! NOTHING here is very handicap or stroller friendly though, even on most streets there are steps everywhere & very uneven pavement. Tyler & I stayed in a small park while the rest of our group toured some of the zoo, it was very shady & cool but the trees were full of what sounded like a zillion locust. They were so loud at times Tyler would cover his ears up !!! we were sitting on a bench built around a large tree just watching people for a change although we were the main attraction !!! As I sat there i felt a tap on my shoulder & turned to see a maybe 20ish yr old chinese guy, he said LARGE ..and I thought wait a minute he is going to call me fat..since every chinese female here is the size of a teensy fly..lol…then i shook m y head as not understanding..he said again LARGE…INSECT..im like ok..large insect…then he pointed to my back..OMG one of those 12 inch locust was on my shirt…he picked it off and moved to another bench. He spoke about 10 words in english but thank god 2 of them were large insect !!
After a day at the zoo we went to the american store, it is very small but has many foods we are familar with. Our kind of cereal, a few progresso soups, kraft mac & cheese, regular block cheese, spaghetti sauce & lots of pasta…canned vegetables & fruits..tons of chips..doritos fritos lays…i never looked at the prices and just got what i thought will hold me over til I leave, tylers food supply is holding up pretty good so far. The american store is way more higher priced that then other markets here but no one cares for the most part to get a taste of home !!! Just an idea…a smal box of frosted flakes (smaller than any size we have at home) is about 6.00 here. But if you bought themin another market here in chinese they woudl be maybe .35 cents !!!
One of our US dollars is about 7.00 in RMB’s which is their currency, so things sound high when you pay & they ask for 300.00 it would be in US about 42.oo. A lot of people have a hard time figuring out the money! I printed out charts small enough to put in my wallet that have conversions so i can take that with me to know what im spending…but im so conservative like that it wouldnt surpise anyone who knows me !!!
We all came home & put our food away & crashe, it was a long day ….the city is about 45 minutes each way so it takes all day to do anything. Everyone is always so excited after going to that store though because for a few days they have REAL food !!! That night after tyler went to bed we sat out in the commons area & chatted & a few drank a cold beer I had my fantastic diet coke & we ate an entire bag of Frito’s !!! it was wonderful !!!!
August 6th, 2008
