Day Forty- We are counting the days

Saturday – I think we must all be counting down the days until we are at home. Allison has promised bacon & eggs for breakfast on Wednesday. We were up early – no Chris this morning, he could not get back into the ward as they lock the access to the elevators at 12.05pm. He had been for a drink with Jon. We had an email to say he was spending the night on Jon’s couch.
Jill and I had just started breakfast when a couple of nurses arrived to take some blood. I had forgotten, we had been told last evening, not to eat until after the blood was taken. Fortunately she had only eaten a grape seconds before.
We have been down to do rehab this morning , Jill completed a full set of exercises but no massage or voice and once back in 1923 she was very tired and has gone to sleep on the couch. Another message from Chris and he is on his way back.
Chris has just arrived back full of things that happened last night, where he had been and who he had been with. I will let him explain in his own words tomorrow; I don’t know what time he got to bed last night but both Chris and Jill are now sound asleep, so I will go for a walk.

I have been around the block past dozens of small restaurants and shops selling clothes, shoes, mobile phones, phone cards and CDs. Also another large supermarket where I went into the ground floor and had a look around, it was packed , seemed to be like K Mart. Directly in front was group of tents set up – mauve in colour with female attendants dressed in immaculate white suits and large photo albums. My guess they were selling wedding photo shoots. Further along I passed lots of vendors selling fruit, games, toys and the usual cheap DVDs. I couldn’t help my self Allison – I brought “Pirates of the Caribbean???, “Cars??? and “Superman??? the only one that does not work is Superman – works but only in Chinese I will leave it along with the copy of The DaVinci Code in the office DVD collection. During the walk several times a voice would say “hello- welcome to China “or something similar. Shenzhen is not a tourist city and the only westerners in this area will be the patients at Nanshan. The walk took about an hour and Amy had just called in and woken them up as I arrived back. She asked Chris to go down to talk to Hal as he is on his own. I had been to McDonald’s on the way back so we had dinner before he headed off.

Jill and I have just been for a walk around the corridors. She is doing really well as long as we don’t meet somebody coming the other way – which disturbs her concentration. There is no rehab this afternoon or tomorrow so she has just decided to try a walk on her own – this is fantastic and it takes a lot of courage on her behalf. She has walked to the doorway and has looked either way. She then moved of up the passage where she ran into Chris & Hal.
Hal has this ability to make you smile while he offers encouragement. His enthusiasm is infectious and I’m certain it will be good for Jill to be around him. He is to have an operation and have the stem cells surgically implanted as well as having spinal injections. Chris & Hal seem to have hit it probable the two most positive people I know at this time. He is stoked (his word) to be the 10th US citizen to be treated here in Shenzhen and he said to Jill it must feel marvellous to know that you are one of the first 6 Australians to have stem cells and to be the first in the world to be treated with stem cells for MSA. Just think what you will be able to tell them back home. He also said think of the enjoyment you will get when you walk into the neurologist’s office and tell him you have hade stem cell treatment – and just watch his face. How’s that for a positive thought.

Several of the other patients have taken the opportunity to go for a tour through the city and off to the beach – they left at 10am and will not be back until 5pm.It will be interesting to hear their tales when they get back. We felt that it was a long time and Jill still gets very tired quickly. There is also the problem of Chinese toilets.

We are going to get some takeaway from the Mien Tein Coffelanguage Restaurant for dinner this evening – we will try another variety. Chris has gone to ask Hal if he would like to order with us. Jill has just told me its 6 pm – obviously she is hungry. I’m on my way

See you tomorrow on the net – not many more entries – I have been contemplating doing a weekly upgrade on Jill’s progress once we get home. She has been advised to have a very good rest when she gets back to OZ. No exercise for the first week, just rest. I’ll probably have to hog tie her