China trip Date : 27.08.06 - days 12-13
Day 12 – Annette & Graham's last day at 463 hospital :: Previous | Next
9.30 am – Acupuncture – once again a few tears. I sing “the wheels on the bus’ to Sacha to calm her down. The Chinese people in the room tell Rose that I am a ‘good mother’
10.00 Nerve Growth Factor.
Sacha has two soft boiled eggs for breakfast which she eats heartily. Good. Her appetite seems ok today.
Graham and I present the doctors and nurses with a huge red and gold banner thanking them for Sacha’s care. Doctor Wang is very appreciative. We also buy a huge bunch of flowers for the Physio Department which Doctor Shu likes very much. He puts them on the windowsill, for all the patients to enjoy straight away. Rose and Sunny get earrings.
Sacha has a bowl of mashed banana which also goes down well. I am very happy. Isn’t it amazing what floats my boat these days? Of course the odd bottle of red wine still doesn’t go amiss from time to time!
I decide to try and get Sacha to walk down the 10th floor hallway as her legs have not been working properly since she had her first stem cell injection. I don’t know if it’s anything to do with the injection or her new, mainly sedentary, lifestyle. I have to stand behind her, hold her under her left arm and hold her right hand to support most of her weight. At first she just stands still with both of her legs shaking like crazy. She reminds me of Bambi when his mother is teaching him how to stand up and walk for the first time! I push her left foot forward with my left foot and then her right foot with my right foot. Left, right, left right down the corridor. The mother of one of the patients comes out to help and starts moving Sacha’s feet one in front of the other. Eventually she starts moving hr left foot by herself although her right one drags along the floor. It’s almost as if it’s too heavy for her to left by herself. We will obviously have to work hard on this as Sacha could walk with assistance very strongly before we came out here and I would hate to think that she has lost this skill due to having stem cell injections.
3pm Physio – Sacha is much stronger today and is lifting her arms to pick up the big soft ball. She has eaten a good lunch and is quite happy. She’s like a different child compared to yesterday. I know it’s early days but I found that two days after the injection she is quite listless and under the weather although she doesn’t have a fever. Three days after the injection she is back to her usual chirpy self and remains like that until the next injection.
I didn’t come here looking for miracles or immediate results. I came to try and give Sacha the best quality of life that I can. I have been in contact with many people all over the world and no-one has had a bad word to say about the results they gained after stem cell treatment. Some people have been able to move in much better, pain-free ways, some have learned to walk again after injury or illness. I don’t know what will happen with Sacha.
This is my last blog entry until Sacha returns to the UK on September 9th when I will continue to let you know about her progress. Her father arrives with his partner tonight and they will be taking over her care in Shenyang for the next two weeks and I look forward to reading what they have to report.
My eternal thanks to all the doctors, nurses, Jon, Sunny, Rose, physiotherapists, lift attendants, cleaners and the people of Shenyang. To everyone who came up and asked about Sacha or wished her good health, to those who tried to make her smile, helped her to walk or wiped up her drool – many, many thanks.
Day 13
Rebecca and myself were greeted by Sunny on Friday around 12am. We all took a taxi ride to the hospital and were then taken up to the 10th floor to meet Jon, Annette and Graham. Unfortunatley we were too late to see Sacha awake at this time but she looked more than comfortable in her deep sleep. Annette gave us the iternery and informed us of all we needed to know…shortly after this we were asleep, it had been a long day of travelling.
On Saturday morning we were awoken from our slumber at 9:30 to meet Dr Wang, he explained what to expect over our stay, shortly after this we were taken down to the second floor for Sacha’s acupuncture session, where the needles were jabbed into her legs, arms and head, which is is said to be good for stimulating speach and to help relax muscle tone in her limbs. Sacha didnt cry at all, looked pretty painful to me!.
The day progressed nicely, we then joined Sacha in her physiotherapy session, this was good to sit in on and learn what is expected of us when we take her home in two weeks. I was quite surprised how much her back had arched over the two week period that I hadnt seen her, this is because she has been unable to stand and walk for a while.
We needed to buy various foods and vegetables for Sacha so Lilly took us to Wallmart, Annette was right Sacha was surely the centre of all attention!. We had a good look around the store, settled up then took a taxi ride back to the hospital, we werent back for long until we invited out again by Rose, Lilly and Luther (son of Luther who is also a patient here) to the Dongshu restaurant where we ate a substantial amount of food including a black fish, which we all saw flapping about in a bucket before we ate it!. We then moved on to the Hot Pub where I enjoyed a nice pint of lager, we couldnt stay long as Sacha was due her medication, this worked out well for me as sooner or later I would’ve got dragged into doing some Karoake!.
Soon after the taxi ride and Sacha’s medication back at the hospital we were all pretty tired and felt that it was time for bed. This was certainly a full day and Sacha had seemed the happiest ive seen her for a long time.
So many people have offered time and energy to support Sacha we have made a 'big' thank you page. Do tell us if we have missed you off the list!