Angela’s Brain Stem Injury Blog

checked out of tiantan puhua on june 30, 2007

July 3rd, 2007

hi there, i kept trying to do my blog while in my room at the hospital but i was having trouble with the LOW/WEAK internet connection despite the new modems bought in both the north and south(my) wards. sigh. so i just gave up doing my detailed blogs. now that i’m out of the hospital and in my beijing apartment, i can do my blogs and fill you in on everything.

first of all, i had my last stem cell injection on june 22nd. i was very upset because at 8:30, 30 minutes before my 4th stem cell injection was scheduled to take place, i was informed that it would NOT be dr. han who was doing my injection. NOOOO!!! it would be dr. xu and dr. xi, my junior doctors; again, the term “junior” is my own choice and termology. the reason i say that is because they are not the head doctors of my case, the “directors” as they are called–dr. wang and dr. wu. so i was very very VERY upset to hear about this change before my LAST injection!!! i was used to dr. han doing it and plus he knows how much anasthetic to use, etc.

so william (hubby) was with me that morning and we were both shocked and taken aback to hear this change so close to my 9am scheduled injection!!!! we were told by xi that morning when the junior doctors came by to see me; again, all the junior doctors come by every morning to check on all the patients. what i didn’t get was why xi waited until the DAY OF MY LAST STEM CELL INJECTION to tell me that she and xu were scheduled to do the injection!!! talk about complete utter shock on mine and hubby’s part!!!

i asked xi when she knew about this change and she said a week earlier!!! talk about more shock! so i was worried and was not feeling like doing it under xu, one of the male “junior” doctors. well, so it turns out that dr. sherwood, the vice president of tiantan puhua hospital, came to talk with us and reassure us that dr. xu has been doing the injections for months and that everything would be fine. dr. han had other surgeries that day so he was not available to do my injection. SIGH! :-{

hubby and i discussed and i didn’t want to put off my injection any longer because that would mean more time at the hospital. also we were told that at other stem cell hospitals (i think nanshan), even nurses are allowed to do the stem cell injections! i think that is way too much responsibility for nurses to be doing that. that’s why if that was the situation at tiantan puhua hospital, i don’t think i would want to get the injections done then.

i ended up going to OR with this OR nurse and xu was actually quite good. he doesn’t speak english well but it was ok because xi was also in the OR and thank goodness she was kind enough to hold my hands. i did some SERIOUS SQUEEZING of her hands. hehe actually i was kind of crying before xu started because i was freaked out that it would be xu doing the injection so i had to really try to calm myself down. DEEP BREATHS….LOTS OF PRAYING….sigh. talk about stressful!

i was sooo thankful that i had no problems getting my 4th stem cell injection. i actually looked at the clock in the OR and i got in there around 9:46, xu did the injection at 9:50 and i was out at 10. i think i said on the video. you can see the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCgAYOVuch8

i was taken back to my room and i found out that the reason my head was hurting so much after my 3rd injection was because i turned on my sides. i had been told by someone before that it was ok to turn on my sides. BUT NOOOO!!!! don’t do that! that was the reason i had such terrible terrible headaches and pains after my 3rd injection! the 6 hours spent FLAT ON MY BACK after my 4th injection were hard but not difficult when i thought about all the head pain i had after my 3rd injection because i had turned on my sides during the 6 hours after the injection.

so well worth it NOT to have head pain by lying flat on your back!!!

ok, that’s an update. i will update later with pictures because that makes it much more fun, doesn’t it?
wan an(=good night)! it’s nice to be back in our beijing apartment instead of the hospital but you know what? i miss the nurses in the south ward! so HELLO TO ALL YOU NURSES IN THE SOUTH WARD!
**p.s. i also copied everything onto a different site because everyone kept telling me how hard it is to open this site. try this URL and let me know if it is quicker to load than this one, ok?
http://uk.360.yahoo.com/mbinim

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