The day after #4

Hello again. It's me Melissa, George had a rough day today. He was pretty sore after yesterday's injection and quite tired from a rough night's sleep. He made it down to therapy only an hour late, which is good considering he had the injection yesterday. He doesn't like to miss it after an injection because the acupuncture often helps the headache or back pain. So he stuck it out. He went with Garry and Rachel for a massage and McDonald's for lunch and then right back down until about 5:00 for more therapy. He had a rough time in physical therapy this afternoon, his balance was bad and he was a little discouraged. But most patients feel that way the day after the injection. Jon from Beike is here and took us out for supper. We went to a Hunan style restaurant which was really neat. You all have your own room for your party to eat in, so it was a private dinner for the staff and some of the patients. The food was delicious- spicier than we are used to but very tasty. He is getting his IV now so I am writing on his behalf. He will be back to you tomorrow- hopefully after having a better day.

Stem Cells # 4

It is Monday at 4:30 pm and it is Melissa here as George is in getting his 4th injection. The stem cells were late today (we were waiting since 3:00pm) which is normally not a big deal but today George was hungry. You cannot eat for 4 hours before or 4 hours after the injection. So he will have to wait for awhile. He had only the morning session of therapy. We are all still recovering from our busy weekend. It is hard to get back into the swing of things on a Monday. Good thing it is a stem cell day and we will just lay low and relax. I got my first real bout of homesickness today....this picture shows the main reason why we miss home (our beautiful daughter Charlotte)... though we miss all our friends and family a lot.

I thought since there is nothing new to report and George is going to be out of commission for the rest of the night and will not be able to write anything I would give you all a look at some of our memories so far.



This picture is a picture of George at Windows of the World where he got to ride a camel just long enough to take a picture. For 10 RMB's you get to ride it for a photo.

This one is a picture of our friends that we have met, they have already left- from left to right, Erica Deering, Lori and Christine.



Here is a group photo of all of us that went on the trip to Windows of the World.

This is a group photo of us with a pizza party the day that Rusty and Julie left.

This is a day George refers to as our "stem cell party"- where he received his stem cells by IV, we had snacks and watched movies to celebrate. But... we seem to have snacks and watch movies every day....hmmmm.

This is a pose I lovingly refer to as "Pinhead" where George has some acupuncture needles in his head- I think these were to get rid of a headache- which by the way works well!

That's it for today- we will update you tomorrow with his progress after this fourth injection.

Sunday, our weekend

Today we went to miniature world, sea world and a Chinese seafood restaurant, that was my favorite part. I must have gained 10 lbs since i"ve been here.
tomorrow i have stem cells again, another lumbar punch not looking forward to the headache that will follow. I really have faith that this treatment will work. There is another MJDer here his name is Ernesto he is from Chile. He is part of the Group maybe Mike or Fernando knows of him. He told me that he never speaks up. He did follow Kim Poor's blog.
My beard is coming in pretty thick im very tempted get rid of it but Im gonna need some professional help now. I let it grow way too long, all i brought with me was a gilette mach 3 razor. I'll go to the local barber for a straight shave.


A picture of a bloke from Australia and I (both of us being real good sports after our wives dressed us up)

A pic of really hungry Japanese koy eating the remnants of Mel's sweetened cobweb sandwich, (Dispite being a texture man I ate mine I was starving.)

TGIF

Check out my chopstick skills!!!

Our friends Rusty and Julie are leaving today they are from the US. Our english speaking clan is getting smaller and smaller. For the last week or so it was Rusty and Julie, Rachel and Gary (Australia) and Melissa and I. We are all sitting around laughing about our short time together (funny that most of the stories start with "when George said this, or said that") I'm not that obnoxious am I? ( I had to explain in detail to the group what TEA BAGGING is!!) It seems as though I may have started a trend with the FAREWELL pizza party hopefully the girls here keep this tradition alive!!
>>Fast Forward just got back from Rusty & Julie's Farewell lunch, Julie begged me to go with them, but of course I declined. It just so happens that the moment was captured on film


This is a picture of Mel and I, Rachel and Garry (the wonders from down under- standing) and Rusty and Julie (sitting). We will miss them a lot.

I had a test today in therapy to map out my progress and it turns out I scored much better in many areas. For the first time I was able to see the progress myself. One example was I had to reach down and pick something up off the ground without holding onto anything and I did it very easily. Another was to spin around in one direction, then stop and go the other direction. Again, no problem. I haven't been able to do that in a LONG time. So that made me feel good. I feel like progress is being made. Tomorrow is another day of therapy, then a day off Sunday and another injection Monday!

It's almost Friday!!!

Another day of therapy, and day 6 of this headache!!! It comes and goes. I had a full morning session of therapy and then Mel and I hit the streets for some more exploring. I bought a nice sweater for myself- guess what I am a size XL here. We tried a new restaurant for lunch and it was delicious. We were able to order by picture and use the reference words Mel keeps in her purse to confirm what kind of meat we were eating. It was so good we ordered seconds. I am sure we will be heading back to that place. Then back for afternoon therapy where I once again topped the charts on the electric collar in Occupational Therapy- I asked them to turn it up only to discover it didn't go any higher and I had maxed it out. There was a little boy there helping me today with some of my tasks for my hands. Oh and Mel's good news we get an english channel on our tv!!! Nothing else new to report. Next injection is Monday.

Dodging the Dog

Just finished by morning session of SHOCK therapy AKA Electro-stimulation. Honestly its not that bad for me and it looks way worse than it feels.>>>Fast Forward Its 9:30pm now and I am just finishing the last of my first IV Stem Cell injection. Man they injected me quite full of fluid the way i figured it, and Kim could confirm it, they put about 1 liter(about a quart) of fluid into my arm. According to Kim and several other patients, I am waiting for this sudden burst of energy. My head has been pounding for over 5 days now and its driving me nuts.
Today was a somber day the Deering Gang, Shannon and Erica, their nurses Faye and Lori, and Tony their dad have all gone home and will be missed. Also, our friends Chris and Van from Vancouver left as well.
In case anyone is curious, the picture of all of the meat in the last blog the 3rd or 4th carcass from the left is Go Roe AKA Dog meat!!


The above is a picture of me posing for the camera shortly after my first IV, dont laugh at my underware I dont feel different. Do I look different?

Melissa's opinion

Hello, I thought I would give my opinion on how George is doing these days. I felt he was a little hard on himself in the last entry where he thought his walking was worse today. As an eyewitness I would like to say that I thought he did really well. We walked to the McDonald's for lunch which is a pretty good walk. I am including a few pictures of how well he is doing in therapy. Remember before we got here he rarely walked without the walker.



The picture above shows how narrow of a path his therapist gives him to walk and he is not holding onto the bars.

This one shows him balancing on the wobble board, and below is a close up of his feet balancing.

So... I think he is doing well. He just felt like it was an off day. But we can all be proud of him.