Day Forty two – a great night – we are on our way

We have had a big day today and I am writing this at 10pm.and we have almost finished packing.
We started early this morning as usual with all the basic things out of the way. The most basic being my birthday, thanks for all the best wishes. I woke to present from the family a Handy cam DVD camera. This will give us the chance to record the instructions for Jill’s rehab later this afternoon towe waited for Dr Liang to get his final report, including the results of the blood tests etc. He arrived and explained quite a few things in his English. He had a letter written in Chinese explaining the knee injections. We had to get this translated into English by one of the staff here – I hope nothing is lost in the translation. He ordered some tablets for Jill to take for the next month and supplied these. He explained about how to look after her throat which is swollen inside and affecting her speech quite badly. It appears the extra exercise and the extra talking has caused a slight problem. He explained that the throat will settle down over the next week. We thanked him and then he was gone. He is very busy with lots of other patients.
Chris and Hal have just returned from Rainbow with a watch that Allison was going to buy while she was here, also some DVD’s and some beer. The came up the service elevator and banged on the locked door until I heard them. He has been into our room and we have stocked him up with all our leftovers from toilet paper to vegemite. He squeezed the tube onto his finger to taste- his first words were “axle grease???. He says he will be up to see us off at 5 am
The rest of the day up until quite busy organising paper work and getting the MRI copies and knee X-rays. We have had lunch and got organised for the rehab session, then down to level 4 for the last time. Dr Wang and his magic finger do their work for the last time. WE get to talk to Bill before we leave. This is our last physical rehab under the watchful eye of Dr Wang. He goes through all the exercises with Elizabeth translating and Chris videoing using the new handy cam. There were a couple of new balancing exercises and Jill really took of literally copying Dr Wang. He jumped onto the balance board and Jill took this literally and followed suit to every one amazement and shock. She was actually supposed to step on sedately. We now have this on video so she will not be allowed to forget that she must follow instructions not make up her own.
The last exercise is voice on the vocastim machine – and is Jill pleased as it gives her a funny taste in her mouth and little sharp jolts in the throat as it massages the throat muscles. Hal is in there having his hands & arms massaged In his usual way he gets a smile out of Jill and an embarrassed grin out of the therapist.. Chris is whisked away by Elizabeth and a “driver??? (Elizabeth’s Boy friend we think) to go and get the PINK phone for Jill at a very good price. We have our fingers crossed that we will be able to buy a phone card back in Australia and slip it in and hey presto she works..
It’s 5.30pm when we get back to our room and we still have a couple of errands to do. We wanted to give the nurses and the Jon’s girls some flowers as thanks for all their help etc. I went down to the flower shop (open shed) and the girl and I decided on two displays in baskets which she made up in about 20 minutes (50 rmb each $9A each) No English or Chinese passed my lips all sign language and RMBs
We took the first to the office where all the girls were still working and they were delighted with the gift and several cameras were produced and after many photos we said our good-byes and headed back to 1923.
Chris again had arranged a farewell tea with Marion, Kath, Hal, and we three ,on the way down we presented the night staff with the other basket of flowers and again more photos were taken. The meal and laughter made a great evening. Chris & Hal headed to Rainbow while Jill and I headed up to our room to pack – you should see the stuff we have thrown out. Bed time – Jill is asleep and we are not far off it . Need to be up by 4.30am so we can meet the van out the front at 5.30am.
THEN OZ HERE WE COME – BUSISNESS CLASS UPGRADE AND ALL
See you all tomorrow- some on the net some in the flesh