Now we are starting day one of Linda's recovery. They did the operation yesterday morning in about 2 hrs. That all went well and they brought her back to the room with instructions to lay flat on her back for 6 hrs. 3 hrs into the flat back thing they wanted to do another CT scan to see if any internal bleeding was going on, so they loaded Linda into a gurney and took her down to the CT room. Everything looked fine and they wheeled her back to the room. But the trip down and back riding looking up at the ceiling spinning back and forth caused a little hurling. But that passed and the rest of the day went well. When they set her up in our room the hooked her up to a monitor to record body functions. About one in the morning I awoke to see Linda standing by the bed looking all shook up. I asked what was going on and she said she couldn't answer that thing. Well a lead had come off the monitor and it was beeping. I said that's not a telephone, and she kept saying she couldn't answer it. I thought, man is she loosing it, did they stir her brain up somehow. But once I figured out what she was trying to tell me I understood. She was trying to turn off the beeping so as not to wake me and couldn't figure out how to. So the nurse came in and said she didn't need the monitor any more and took it away. After that nothing more happened.
This morning she looks just fine. No other person is inside her head and she answers to her own name. So now we are on the road to recovery.
john and linda in china
Friday, January 25, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Operation Over
Linda has had the procedure and is back in the room. She feels pretty good she says. On her end it wasn't a big deal, but on the other side she said it was a big deal. There were 6 doctors and 4 nurses in the operating room and each was involved she said. I wanted to go watch but they said no and Linda said there would not have been any room anyway for me because it was pretty crowded. For now all the excitement leading up to this point is over and now the excitement from this point forward starts.
John and Linda in China
John and Linda in China
Interesting Guy
Yesterday another patient came to the hospital. A 40 year old man from Brazil checked in. He is a famous race car driver there and some how he got a brain parasite. He was operated on at home and now he is half paralyzed and in a wheel chair. His doctor came here with him to make sure, what I don't know because if they could have fixed him at home he would not be here. So where ever he goes, there is a group of other guys from Brazil with him. Be interesting to see what they can do. I asked Kotan what they could do and she says they are going to try to grow new brain cells. I will be interested in that one for sure.
In two hours now they are coming for Linda. The first step is to put her head into a frame to keep it still, than do a CT on her, mix that with the MRI they did yesterday and plot where to insert the stem cells. I hope they find that spot a little easer than trying to agree on where to shave her head. There were 4 doctors, 4 nurses, and 2 administers all arguing about where to shave. I videoed the whole thing, and thought it was pretty funny.
Linda is feeling really good this morning and is pretty eager to get this done. As the day goes on I will keep everyone informed.
john and linda in China
In two hours now they are coming for Linda. The first step is to put her head into a frame to keep it still, than do a CT on her, mix that with the MRI they did yesterday and plot where to insert the stem cells. I hope they find that spot a little easer than trying to agree on where to shave her head. There were 4 doctors, 4 nurses, and 2 administers all arguing about where to shave. I videoed the whole thing, and thought it was pretty funny.
Linda is feeling really good this morning and is pretty eager to get this done. As the day goes on I will keep everyone informed.
john and linda in China
MRI this morning
This morning we went to another hospital for Linda's MRI. This hospital was in another part of the city and took about half an hour to get there. This time we went in a big black car with a driver and the doctor and a computer guy. They did the procedure and back we came. To get to this hospital we went all thru the new part of the city and the buildings and building going on were fantastic. Every where you looked there were cranes putting up new buildings, and Peter, you will like this, the scaffolding was all wood poles held together with bailing wire. Some a couple hundred feet high. Guys hanging off them like monkeys. I guess OCSA hasn't put their nose in here yet. I though we were going to the hospital next door like yesterday so I didn't take my camera, but I will go back for sure.
The people here have a 6 th sense about where they are. Cars fly by, bicycles turn in front of cars, people are walking in the street between cars and bikes we even saw 3 Chinese dogs running thru all this. On the high rise buildings I was shocked to see the windows with out screens open to the air. No one here gives the next guy any slack. If you are waiting for a car to give you a break to enter traffic, they will find your skeleton behind the wheel when the next building is built on that spot. Everyone is responsible for themselves here. If a guy stubs his toe on a broken sidewalk, he doesn't sue someone, they just think he is stupid. I tried to tell Amy about how the old lady spilled hot coffee on herself than sued Mac Donalds, I could not get the point across what suing was all about. If you don't get out of the way of a car, it's your fault for not watching and the car guy gets mad at you for getting in front of him. And for some reason nobody gets hit by cars, or stubs their toe and for sure if they spill hot coffee in their lap they keep their mouth shut so they don't appear stupid. After watching how things work around here, I really believe that if you were able to transplant a city of 100,000 people from home into the middle of Beijing and they had to fend for themselves within a month 3/4 of them would be dead. They would fall out of open windows, get hit by cars, fall off bridges into the river or any number of things. We are so taken care of at home that here we would be like sheep dropped into a wolf pack. And no lawyer jumping up to sue someone. I don't know if the people here would do any better at home, but it seems that whenever a container full of illegal's sneak in, we never hear from them again. They learn our system very fast. That's my take on the whole thing.
Amy came to chat with Linda and when I stood next to her, she looked up and told me I was very tall. I told her no, she was just very short. So she gave me a belt. I took our picture, now you tell me.
Sometime later they are going to come in to shave a spot on Linda's head. I will take pics of that. In the morning they are going to do what we came all this way for.
By the way, Randy is in Germany right now getting his treatment. Go to our web site, Parkinsonsrebels.org and see how Randy is doing. All the parkies out there can see if any of this works before trying it for themselves.
linda and john in China
The people here have a 6 th sense about where they are. Cars fly by, bicycles turn in front of cars, people are walking in the street between cars and bikes we even saw 3 Chinese dogs running thru all this. On the high rise buildings I was shocked to see the windows with out screens open to the air. No one here gives the next guy any slack. If you are waiting for a car to give you a break to enter traffic, they will find your skeleton behind the wheel when the next building is built on that spot. Everyone is responsible for themselves here. If a guy stubs his toe on a broken sidewalk, he doesn't sue someone, they just think he is stupid. I tried to tell Amy about how the old lady spilled hot coffee on herself than sued Mac Donalds, I could not get the point across what suing was all about. If you don't get out of the way of a car, it's your fault for not watching and the car guy gets mad at you for getting in front of him. And for some reason nobody gets hit by cars, or stubs their toe and for sure if they spill hot coffee in their lap they keep their mouth shut so they don't appear stupid. After watching how things work around here, I really believe that if you were able to transplant a city of 100,000 people from home into the middle of Beijing and they had to fend for themselves within a month 3/4 of them would be dead. They would fall out of open windows, get hit by cars, fall off bridges into the river or any number of things. We are so taken care of at home that here we would be like sheep dropped into a wolf pack. And no lawyer jumping up to sue someone. I don't know if the people here would do any better at home, but it seems that whenever a container full of illegal's sneak in, we never hear from them again. They learn our system very fast. That's my take on the whole thing.
Amy came to chat with Linda and when I stood next to her, she looked up and told me I was very tall. I told her no, she was just very short. So she gave me a belt. I took our picture, now you tell me.
Sometime later they are going to come in to shave a spot on Linda's head. I will take pics of that. In the morning they are going to do what we came all this way for.
By the way, Randy is in Germany right now getting his treatment. Go to our web site, Parkinsonsrebels.org and see how Randy is doing. All the parkies out there can see if any of this works before trying it for themselves.
linda and john in China
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Meeting
Linda and I were just called to a meeting to discuss the operation Fri morning. Dr. I think his name is Jung, spent a great deal of time telling us of the risks involved. He will do the procedure along with a team. He told us the dangers Linda would face and that it may not work at all. No guarantee. I asked him how many operations he did, he said about 300 a year. I than asked how many had serious problems, he thought for a while and said two. I told him that in baseball you have to know a hitters batting average and his was pretty good. So we are going to go for it. Now that it is getting close it is a little scary, but again if we do nothing that is even scarier. Tomorrow morning Linda will get another MRI and a CT scan. Than that data will be fed into a computer and used to direct the doctor to the target spot. So there it is.
john and linda in China
john and linda in China
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Tomorrow is the day--Not
If all goes well Linda will get her operation tomorrow morning. If the operation goes as well as the IV's have been we will be very happy. Hold the phone, Amy just came in. Linda had her ultrasound yesterday at the main hospital, more on that later. Amy says the ultrasound was normal for a woman her age. No cause for concern. But there a few more tests to check before the operation. So maybe Fri. rats. Now we want to get the show on the road and get this over.
Yesterday Linda had her ultrasound at the main hospital. So to escort us over they sent over the sister of Yao Ming, the Chinese basketball player. This was the tallest gal I have ever seen. And I soon found out why. We walked to the main hospital from our section of the hospital and once we got into the main hospital what a difference. Ever heard the term Chinese Fire Drill. Well that is orderly compared to what we walked into. Wall to wall people everywhere all pushing and shoving to get where they wanted to go. And thru all this like a huge ice breaker plowed our guide. We tried to stay as close to her as we could because if the slightest space opened between us it filled up with fast. The main hospital must cover a few square miles. We went down hallways, up elevators, down more hallways down more elevators till we got to the ultrasound section. Now about the elevators. You are going to love this Scott. When it was time to ride another elevator our escort pulled us to the door so we would be first on than she would push us to the rear of the car. Than this huge mob would get on. An on And on. There is no such thing as personal space in China and soon we were pressed into this box like a large trash compactor. And still they came in. I thought there could be no more space and still they pushed in. When it got to where you had to catch a breath when the guy next to you exhaled, that's when the door would close. Than we would get to our floor and the big lady would push her way thru the mob pulling us along in her wake. Than down another mile long hallway full of people. When we got to the ultrasound section there were a bunch of people sitting in a row of chairs waiting for their turn. Watching the going on's, the time pass quick. When it was Linda's turn, she went into the room and it was like an assembly line. Get on this table. Hook up the leads. Scan. OK, get out. Next. they didn't even remove the leads from Linda. As we were walking down the hall she was pulling leads off her hands and arms. Back in our room she was still finding sticky's under her shirt. So what I see is the Chinese people get good care, just fast.
The night before last Linda was feeling pretty good so I took her out of the hospital grounds and to the walmart. This was the first time Linda did a taxi ride here and good thing she had her panty liners on that I had got for her because the taxi ride made her wet her pants. I've talked about the taxi's before so just check back a few letters to review.
Linda is taking some treatments right now at the TCM guys and she likes that. She is looking so good now that if she was home you would be amazed It can only get better.
john and linda in China
Yesterday Linda had her ultrasound at the main hospital. So to escort us over they sent over the sister of Yao Ming, the Chinese basketball player. This was the tallest gal I have ever seen. And I soon found out why. We walked to the main hospital from our section of the hospital and once we got into the main hospital what a difference. Ever heard the term Chinese Fire Drill. Well that is orderly compared to what we walked into. Wall to wall people everywhere all pushing and shoving to get where they wanted to go. And thru all this like a huge ice breaker plowed our guide. We tried to stay as close to her as we could because if the slightest space opened between us it filled up with fast. The main hospital must cover a few square miles. We went down hallways, up elevators, down more hallways down more elevators till we got to the ultrasound section. Now about the elevators. You are going to love this Scott. When it was time to ride another elevator our escort pulled us to the door so we would be first on than she would push us to the rear of the car. Than this huge mob would get on. An on And on. There is no such thing as personal space in China and soon we were pressed into this box like a large trash compactor. And still they came in. I thought there could be no more space and still they pushed in. When it got to where you had to catch a breath when the guy next to you exhaled, that's when the door would close. Than we would get to our floor and the big lady would push her way thru the mob pulling us along in her wake. Than down another mile long hallway full of people. When we got to the ultrasound section there were a bunch of people sitting in a row of chairs waiting for their turn. Watching the going on's, the time pass quick. When it was Linda's turn, she went into the room and it was like an assembly line. Get on this table. Hook up the leads. Scan. OK, get out. Next. they didn't even remove the leads from Linda. As we were walking down the hall she was pulling leads off her hands and arms. Back in our room she was still finding sticky's under her shirt. So what I see is the Chinese people get good care, just fast.
The night before last Linda was feeling pretty good so I took her out of the hospital grounds and to the walmart. This was the first time Linda did a taxi ride here and good thing she had her panty liners on that I had got for her because the taxi ride made her wet her pants. I've talked about the taxi's before so just check back a few letters to review.
Linda is taking some treatments right now at the TCM guys and she likes that. She is looking so good now that if she was home you would be amazed It can only get better.
john and linda in China
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Clean Air. NOT! - Second Week
Sunday morning and we just got up. The cleaning lady is moping the room and cleaning up, they come in twice a day. Linda tells me she is feeling good, but a little stiff and her balance is off. Yesterday we walked again and I think we are going to have to walk everyday. Linda was laying down for almost 2 weeks and she shows it. So out again today.
Problem is the air around here. The air is so dirty you can taste it. You can feel the grit on your teeth. You can see the gray everywhere. Looking up the Sun looks like you are on a foreign planet. There are no clouds in the sky but the sun is so faint it looks twice as far away. And dim. Clouds of pollution. So dismal. And cold. People walk all huddled up and wear masks to filter out the large partials. I wonder how they can clean up the air by summer when the games begin. I can't even think how bad it would be trying to run a marathon wearing a mask. Steve if you brought one of your air quality monitors here it would peg it and you would not get any readings. So I think I made my point, the air is dirty here.
But the good news. All the email we have been getting from our friends praying for Linda. Our Jewish friends, our born again friends, our Catholic friends, even our agnostic friends. I wrote to another friend that if prayers were stepping stones, Linda would be half way to heaven by now. Sounds like the name of a song. But really, we can feel the warmth and love come thru from way off yonder. Prayers come in all forms, from the formal to the best wishes and Linda feels them all. When I read the next one to her I can see her sprit raise a little more. So thank you all.
Being the firefighter in me, I was wondering how the fire dept would respond to a fire around here. The alleys are so narrow a truck could never get thru. Maybe a small pumper might. So than I put my fire prevention hat on and did an inspection of the hospital. This Don, you won't believe. No sprinklers any where in the hospital. And Ross, no standpipe or outside hook up. Than to make things worse, I went outside to find the nearest hydrant and could not find one. So than I checked the room for escape routes. Lucky the windows open, so I gave Linda instructions on what to do if we smell smoke. Open the window and slide out to the ground and than get away from the building. So now as long as we are here I am my own smoke detector and am on constant alert.
As I write this I know Randy is in the air going to Germany for a different type of treatment. Being hooked up with the Parkinson's support group and living with Parkinson's for the last 10 years have changed my thinking. When I say living with Parkinson's even though I am not the one with it and my wife is, every care giver out there will know we both are living with it. So I find myself thinking about Randy and all the other parkys out there and hoping for the best.
john and linda in China
Slideshow Follows:
Problem is the air around here. The air is so dirty you can taste it. You can feel the grit on your teeth. You can see the gray everywhere. Looking up the Sun looks like you are on a foreign planet. There are no clouds in the sky but the sun is so faint it looks twice as far away. And dim. Clouds of pollution. So dismal. And cold. People walk all huddled up and wear masks to filter out the large partials. I wonder how they can clean up the air by summer when the games begin. I can't even think how bad it would be trying to run a marathon wearing a mask. Steve if you brought one of your air quality monitors here it would peg it and you would not get any readings. So I think I made my point, the air is dirty here.
But the good news. All the email we have been getting from our friends praying for Linda. Our Jewish friends, our born again friends, our Catholic friends, even our agnostic friends. I wrote to another friend that if prayers were stepping stones, Linda would be half way to heaven by now. Sounds like the name of a song. But really, we can feel the warmth and love come thru from way off yonder. Prayers come in all forms, from the formal to the best wishes and Linda feels them all. When I read the next one to her I can see her sprit raise a little more. So thank you all.
Being the firefighter in me, I was wondering how the fire dept would respond to a fire around here. The alleys are so narrow a truck could never get thru. Maybe a small pumper might. So than I put my fire prevention hat on and did an inspection of the hospital. This Don, you won't believe. No sprinklers any where in the hospital. And Ross, no standpipe or outside hook up. Than to make things worse, I went outside to find the nearest hydrant and could not find one. So than I checked the room for escape routes. Lucky the windows open, so I gave Linda instructions on what to do if we smell smoke. Open the window and slide out to the ground and than get away from the building. So now as long as we are here I am my own smoke detector and am on constant alert.
As I write this I know Randy is in the air going to Germany for a different type of treatment. Being hooked up with the Parkinson's support group and living with Parkinson's for the last 10 years have changed my thinking. When I say living with Parkinson's even though I am not the one with it and my wife is, every care giver out there will know we both are living with it. So I find myself thinking about Randy and all the other parkys out there and hoping for the best.
john and linda in China
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