Day Thirty Eight – Rehab here we come

We have come through the last stem cell treatment in a great condition. Jill woke this morning with no headache or ache anywhere and ready to get up. I had promised to get Macca’s for breakfast. I went down the road and got breakfast, so as to be in the good books. We had our normal visit from Mary and the nurses. Then the Doctors rounds – 7 doctors’ turned up at the door. Dr Yang and Dr Liang as well as 5 others. Dr Yang went through a series of questions and coordination tests which Jill had no problem with. Following this Jill was asked to walk down the passage. This, the second time in two days and with all the doctors following Jill walked to the nurse’s station turned and came back to our room through the door and then sat down (Video below). Dr Yang was very encouraging and talked in Chinese to the others and then turned to Jill and said “very good” “now you must do lots more walking”

We decided to go down to rehab, but should have realised that the walk for the doctors had been such a great effort, that it had tired Jill. We came back to 1923 and had a rest while Chris & I walked around the block to KFC and collected lunch. When we arrived back Marion was talking to Jill and Jill asked about a top that Marion had been wearing. Marion brought it down for Jill to try as for size. When we came back from Rehab Marion brought in a top she had brought this afternoon for Jill. Jill is wrapped and loves the top which is only 50RMB about $8A.

Jill has been to massage and rehab with Chris while I made a visit to The Bank of China to get some more spending money. I got back in time to do voice exercise. Our friend Jac was there and we learnt that today was his last rehab as he was leaving tomorrow to go home. We found out the he was an Administration Manager. He certainly had a good sense of humor and as he left he gave us a bag of walnuts.

Grace came in and asked whether we would like to go out for Dinner. It was arranged for 6pm which didn’t give us a lot of time after rehab. We were picked up and taken to the Laurel Restaurant which is on the edge of a lake and is a magnificent building and is part of a resort. We arrived and Grace took us in and then left us to our own. We ordered the meal from an illustrated menu in both English & Chinese. The meal was great and the place was filled with stacks of people, so it is obvious how busy it is. We were picked up at 9pm by our driver and delivered back to the hospital. I think every one is a bit tired and Jill the most, she is in bed already.

Yesterday I read an email that Chris had sent to Jon about Jill and her treatment. I was so impressed and proud of what he said that I want to share it with everyone.

Jon,

I look forward to your return to Shenzhen so that I can put a face to the many emails that we have shared. Your question to me was whether I have noticed any changes in my mum since she has made the journey to Shenzhen, and I would have to say that there is not only one change but quite a range of improvements.

As I sit here and type this email my mum is sitting on the couch writing down a shopping list as my dad calls out the items from over at the bar fridge. This may not seem like a great deal, but for someone who has only written her name down as a signature on a passport application and at times that were absolutely necessary to do so, this is a great deal. As a test we have had my mum sign her name over the duration of her stay. The change from two weeks ago has not only shown a much clearer and identifiable signature, but it has given her the confidence to keep persisting and trying to write.

The biggest improvement has been in the ability of her to walk unassisted. When arriving in Shenzhen my mums walking world revolved around walking from object to object for stability assistance. This meant that the distances were usually limited to gaps of about 3 – 4 metres. Although we still need to work on her confidence greatly, she was prompted yesterday by one of the doctors to get up from the couch and stand. This was then followed with a directive to cross the room and shortly followed with please follow me. Without the support of my dad or myself being beside her arm, not wanting to look silly she followed and proceeded to walk through the door and turning to the right and up to the nurses station a distance of about 30 metres. With more confidence she could have gone further, but this is something that I am hoping that will be boosted in time. They then got mum to turn and walk the full distance back to the room.

I know that my mum would greatly love for the biggest improvement to come from her speech, but she feels that this has not happened as of yet. I feel that the speech is greatly effected by how tired she is and that whilst being here she is in close contact with my dad 24/7 and talking all of the time, combined with the daily stint on the vocastim machine drains her vocal muscles greater than we realise. I would like to see how she is after not having the rehab on her throat for the next month and allow her highly exercised throat muscles a chance to rest and grow stronger.

I know that while we are here, we are mindful not to waste any time. But we need to be careful to allow the body to rest and have a chance to grow back stronger than it was before. This is a big part of the rehabilitation process (maybe we can do something about the hard beds next time). I told dad that with the price of things round here, that surely he could have ordered two mattresses and donated them to the hospital after they left.

All of this being said I think that that the biggest thing that can be offered from our journey to Shenzhen is the ability to regain hope. To hope that tomorrow can be a better day than the day before. Before coming there was no hope offered, no alternative to the current situation. With this approach there is almost no point in even living when all hope has been removed. This is the biggest problem with western medicine, that they are not able to look past the text book and heal the person from their real problems of how to deal with the situation they are in and to not give up hope. In fact the biggest problems have actually been caused by them and the willingness that they had to remove all hope.

Hopefully this is not too late, as to be surrounded by all these other families that have arrived here at Shenzhen is an inspiration. They have to be some of the most positive people from around all corners of the globe. It is funny that the people that believe that miracles just happen are sitting at home on the couch waiting for it to happen. While the people that are prepared to make the miracle happen are getting off that couch and and coming to Shenzhen.

Do I know that the stem cells are going to make a difference? My simple answer is yes. Everyday we now have a hope and a chance that each and every one of the 10,000,000 stem cells from each injection is getting to its location and doing what it was meant to do. What does this mean? It means that there are no set outcomes for how my mum will feel tomorrow. Chances are that she will be feeling better than she did the day before. If this is not the case, then being the ultimate optimist “a bad day makes it much easier to have a better day the next day”.

I look forward to catching up with you later today or later in the week and hope that this has answered some of your questions.

Chris

Chris’s Contribution – For those of you with patience or broadband connections –
(You can also right click on the links and select “save as??? to save down to your local machine)

Jill’s Walking Test – Video Download (950 kb)