CHINA 2nd Week - More News

Little bit of a set back yesterday. Amy wants to cut back on Linda's med's a little so she wanted to substitute her sinamet with some of their sinamet. And also cut back on the dose. This morning the first thing I saw was Linda was hunched up again. And she was feeling pretty bad. So I called Amy and she came right down and I showed her Linda was regressing. When you live with a parky you notice any small change right away. And most of the time it is for the worst. So Amy questioned her about how she felt, checked her reflexes and told her to take half of her sinamet along with the hospital med's. A little later Amy along with 6 other doctors including the head of the hospital came to the room and checked on her. This is a small room and there was no room to get around with all the white coats trying to get around the bed. They were satisfied they were on the right track and off they went. And this afternoon Linda was feeling well enough that we went out for a walk around the neighborhood and on the way back bought some fruit at one of the street stands.

A couple of days ago the nurses took a EKG on Linda to make sure she would not die on the table when they were poking around in her brain. They saw something that made them ask questions about chest pains, no, shortness of breath, no, other symptoms of heart problems. By this time Linda was having all the symptoms they were talking about. Amy had to come back and stay for an hour with Linda reassuring her they were just making sure she was ok before the operation. Then they took another EKG last night and sent a cardiologist to look at it and she said just to be sure she is setting up a ultrasound for to look at it. She said this was just a precaution and there was really nothing she could see that Linda was in danger. Amy was telling us last night about her husband working in Washington State working for Bill Gates and making 70 thou a year. She said of that a third went to taxes. I asked her what a doctor makes in China. She is a board certified Nuro and she makes 400.00 US dollars a month. I asked why not leave and go elsewhere. Some of the directors do, but she is a run of the mill doctor and with her limited English she would have a hard time.


ANOTHER TRIP TO WAL-MART: Today was another walmart day to stock up on food supplies. I really want to ride my bike to the store but it has been so cold here and yesterday it snowed a couple of inches so back to the taxi. I have had some white knuckle rides with Steve Rider, but these guys make me shut my eyes. Red lights and stop signs are just suggestions for these guys. So one hand on the horn and two speeds, on and off.

I learned a hard lesson in the walmart today. First you have to know that for every one job in the store, they have 6 people to do it. So many blue vests running around almost as many as shoppers. I had bought a cam video for the computer last time I was there and it didn't work. So I wanted to return it and get another one. As I went into the store the greeter at the door put a red sticky on and checked my recite and wrote up a paper. Than I went shopping and filled my cart with milk and fruit and bread and what else I needed. Than it was time to go to customer service and return the video cam. Finding customer service is a little hard when everything is in Chinese, but I saw a line with people standing so I thought that must be it. Sure enough, when I got to my turn the first guy looked at it and through sign language I got the point across that it didn't work. So this guy looks at the red sticky and the recite and than puts a blue sticky on it. He than passes it to the women next to him who looks at it and the recite, than takes off the blue sticky and the red sticky the guy next to her had just put on. Than they call one of the many workers who are standing around and she takes me down to the department with the cam to find another one. there are a whole roll of them but some do not have the same code numbers on so she has to go thru the whole pile till she finds one with the same date code on it. Than back up to the service counter where the crew up there checks it out again, than they put the red and blue sticker on it, put it thru the anti magnet so it won't set off the alarms, put it a bag and seal the bag and hand it to me. So now I have to check out, so I look for my cart that I left in customer service and damm if they didn't take my cart because they didn't see me so they put everything back on the shelves. I had to go back and refill it and I forgot a few things I had in the first one.

There is always something to see at the walmart. The fish dept has really fresh fish. There are big tanks with the fish swimming around along with turtles and crabs and things I never saw before. As I am watching, a guy is picking out a fish he wants. A clerk gets a big net and scoops out this fish. But the fish had other ideas, so he jumps out of the net and flops along the floor with the girl clerk chasing him and people stepping out of the way. When she catches him the fish is about a foot long, she grabs him like a club and bangs his head on the counter. That takes the fight out of him, than she throws it to a guy with a big cleaver who takes the head off the fish, guts it and skins it before it stops jumping around. I have a nice picture of the fish jumping on the floor.

There are a few pics of Linda here, check out her face, see the mask lifting.

john and linda in China





Linda and Friends

Wal-Mart Fish Market

The One That Got Away

Fish Tanks