Day Thirty Two – Arival of Chris – 6th Stem cell treatment

Stem cell arrived like clockwork – right on 4pm Jill as well as 7 other patients had stem cell treatment this afternoon. Jill’s treatment, a spinal injection was done by Doctor Yang at 4.45pm and only took about 15 minutes. We have got through the 4 hours and Jill has just sat up to a good meal. We listened to the Melbourne- Richmond game. Jill was barracking for the Demons as usual. So that was much better way of filling the time.

Back to early morning, we slept lightly last night in anticipation of Chris’s arrival. I had arranged for Sunny to take me to the Ferry Terminal to collect Chris and we arrived there about 15minutes before he came through customs. He was not to impressed by the heat but the drive back to Nanshan by taxi kept him quiet. No seat belts in the rear – this was concerning since the driver was wearing one. We arrived back at the hospital and Chris had his first experience with the lifts.

Jill was very excited to see Chris – and his comment that she looked great when down well. We were about to receive a dose of positivatity. We had only arrived back when Doctor Liang arrived with the X-rays from yesterday. He explained the x-rays – which is the same as the x-rays taken in Australia. What he did was offer a couple of treatments. He suggested a course of medicine and to follow this with special massage and electrical impulse treatment. If the pain continues he said they can inject a lubricant type product into the joint. These were positive and we are to commence the tablets this evening.

Because it is Stem Cell treatment day there is no rehab scheduled for today. We decided to do a morning session and show Chris the rehab department on Level 4. Jill demonstrated her walking which really impressed Chris and he said “That’s the best I’ve seen you walk in a long time.” He was quite impressed on the equipment and the set up on level 4. He was keen to see Jill use the equipment – which she does without any trouble. The biggest problem is to stop her adding a few exercises of her own. She is certainly not getting as tired after doing her rehab.

Chris has met most of the other patients and dropped in on Robyn & Wayne. Jill & Chris have been talking for quite some time both this afternoon and this evening. I should let Chris give his impressions about the improvements that he sees in Jill.

Chris’s Turn -

Well it is definitely a culture shock and a climate shock (The humidity hits you like a wet face washer) to the system to arrive in a country, significantly different from our own. With the language barriers that I have encountered in 12 hours in the country I can see that it would be quite evident that a journey like this could take people through a rollercoaster of emotions of frustration, confusion and worry due to miss interpretation. This being said I have also seen this being overshadowed by a friendliness that you could only hope for. I can only think to us living in Australia and making the comment if you visit our country then you should speak our language – well in 12 hours I have to admit that I am quite ashamed. The willingness to try their best to communicate with me in English and some of the biggest smiles that you have seen quite honestly fill you with the confidence that we have come to a place that does want to do their best to help us on this journey.

Even though we are all aware that miracles must not be the only definition of success on this trip, we must be mindful not to let the little things go through un-noticed. In the 12 hours that I have been here I can definitely say that there are things that I have noticed since Mum and Dad leaving nearly a month ago.
1. We have been almost constant conversation between the three of us except for the four hours take out of the day with the stem cell treatment. Not only is this probably an increase of ten times mum’s usual speech load during a day back in Australia in the last three or so years, but I also had to make note to say that I didn’t have to ask her to repeat what she was saying to me. “Not even once” until later in the day after the four hours with the stem cell treatment.
2. I was treated to the test walk that Mum and Dad have been testing themselves with on the hallway that leads into the rehab room and then again on the way back out. This corridor is probably about 15 metres in length and mum has been testing her ability to walk unaided along this room. Both on the way there and the way back this was accomplished quite well with only a couple of small deviations to the left, but this is still a considerably more confident walk than I have seen mum achieve even in the comfort of our house in Wangaratta, let alone in a place that is outside of the comfort zone.

I am sure that with the continued rehab that they are completing that we will gain any of the benefits that are possible for us to achieve (the only problem that we have is that these possibilities are not defined in such an experimental treatment), but rest assured that I am here to make sure that any benefits no matter how small do not go through unnoticed.

We thought this afternoon that the nurses were being extremely attentive when 5 of them arrive at the room after the stem cells had been injected. Only thing was that they didn’t have any questions for mum but they to come in and find out who this new western visitor was. I feel quite like a celebrity for my first day here in China.

Well it looks like I can hand over the scribe’s job to Chris.
We are about to go to bed and Jill has gone to sleep, Chris has set up the inflatable bed that Grace brought in. I hope he has a good sleep.
See you to morrow on the net