Day Thirty Nine -Jill has a new look

Early morning –no it’s 8am- I think we slept in and will be behind all day Chris & I had some problems with the internet and the Diary was very late in being posted. Consequently we had a late night.
Normal things have happened, Mary cleaning, nurses changing rounds, tablets delivered and Doctors rounds. Jill has had a good night and is sparkling this morning in her new top.
Even thought she might have a hair cut. So Chris pounced on this positive step and organised the wheel chair again. So around 12.30 pm Elizabeth escorted us down to The Lida Salon which is about 200met from the front of the hospital. Another experience and we have a new range of things Michael can do in his salon in Melbourne. The Salon has probably about 15-20 on staff. We entered and after Elizabeth spoke to the staff Jill and I were ushered into a room with about 8 massage tables set up. They remove the head cushion which revealed a wash basin. We were told to lie down and the two staff began to wash our hair and massage our heads. They continued to do this for about 20 minutes. I actually think they must have thought my head was very dirty as they wash it about 3-4 times. Finally Jill disappeared with Chris and one of the staff and then I was taken out into the main salon and a young Chinese bloke cut and blow waved my meagre hair. I could not see Chris or Jill during this process. Finally he had finished and I was then able to see Jill being worked on. It wasn’t a Chinese version of Michael. Every time Michael cuts Jill’s hair she is constantly telling him what to do. This is not possible except every now and then Jill says something to Chris who with sign language passes on the request.
The result was fantastic and Jill was very happy. Even let Chris take some photos. The whole process took about an hour and we were heading back to 1923 at Nanshan Hospital.
As we went through the entrance we decided to get lunch (Chinese again) within a few minutes back in our room the meal had arrived.
An hours rest and then rehab, Massage with Doctor Wang and his magic fingers. We then did more walking and stretching exercises followed by voice exercises. While we were in rehab we talked to Marion & Kath. Chris suggested we get a couple of wheel chairs and go for dinner at the restaurant at Rainbow and have a look at the different levels.
It’s 6.30pm and we are about to leave for our meal.
We are back from Rainbow after a great meal with some great new friends. The only access into Rainbow for wheel chair is via a service lift at the side, down an alley. The smell is quite strong from the rubbish and something else I will tell you about later. The service elevators are large and we went up with containers etc. We went to the clothing department and took a tour round the whole area. There were lots of people and clothes to suite everyone. We then proceeded down to level 2 and went to the Restaurant and had a nice meal. Back down to street level, by now it was getting dark and as I moved the Wheel Chair the front wheel got caught in a grate and the rubber tyre came off. Further down the alley we could see large hoses across the path when we got there we were able to get round them , there was several blokes digging up the footpath and it smelt like sewerage – the smell still lingers in my nostrils some two hours later.
Back in our room we have had a beer and I am finishing of the diary entry. A new patient from the US has just arrived (Hal) he is in a wheel Chair and is a spinal injury sufferer- his cases are still sitting in US so no clothes
Jon has just dropped and invited Chris to go out for a beer over the road at the Sign Bar. We were told not to wait up.
We have just downloaded our emails and we see there is an article on: Jill & Stem cells in the Wangaratta Chronicle ( Friday 21st)
I think we may also hit the bed –see you tomorrow on the net.

Front Page Wangaratta Chronicle (pdf)
Second Page Wangaratta Chronicle(pdf)