Archive for June, 2007
Hi to all! I’m so exhausted! Mom and I went back to Lou Hu and shopped till we dropped (or in other words out of money!). I bought a giant hard sided suitcase for Doug and I and mom and I preceeded to fill it up! Got a bottle of wine from downstairs quickie mart and i’m fixin to drink dinner! Hee Hee!
No, seriously we can’t believe this is our 2nd to last night here! Tomorrow we’re going to downtown Shenzhen to pick up some goodies that we ordered Friday (and possibly do some more shopping?). I’m not sure if we’ll make it through customs at this point!
We are planning to cook and have a get together with all of our friends here tomorrow night. I’ll take lots of pictures. I should have time to post more on yahoo tonight and i will email all of you (please forward to others; i don’t have all email addresses here). Mom and i plan to leave early Tuesday morning, check our luggage in at Hong Kong airport and take on Hong Kong! Of course we will just be sight seeing because no one can afford to shop in Hong Kong (not even those who live there!). We’re going to see the biggest Budda in Asia! We haven’t mapped out the day yet, but our plane doesn’t leave until midnight!
OK, sorry so short but i’ve got to go eat! Will post more later and send pics!
Love to all in the grand ole USA! can’t wait to get home!
Veronica
June 10th, 2007
It’s taken me a little while to post again because I had trouble with my login on my blog. But, we’re ok now.
I still feel wonderful!!!!!! I have no double vision. My focus is so much better it’s amazing to me. I still can feel all of the right side if my body; especially my face, eye, etc. I think that was what was bothering me the most. I couldn’t focus and I really felt like I was in a fog. You don’t realize HOW BAD you actually feel until you feel so much better. Now, Shouhua will communicate with the doctors to see how we can continue to make my body receptive to the stem cells so they’ll continue to grow. Dr. Lee said my balance, walking and stamina is much improved. I just have to continue when I get home. I am so pleased with my experience here — it has been such a miraculous occurrence for me. The doctors, nurses, and Beike staff have been so wonderful — and are so much fun. We are experts at charades now and we teach each other English & Chinese. My main doctor for rehab (Dr.Lee) follows me at therapy with an English dictionary and asks me what words mean. It’s so cute. He says I’m his English teacher. I’m planning on sending a couple of English to Chinese books here when I get home. Veronica found a really good one that has phonetics so it will be easy for them to pronounce. They are so thrilled that we are willing to do this. It’s amazing to me what a gentle people the Chinese are. They are so good and willing to do anything to help you - except, of course, elevators, cars, or lines in grocery stores. I will never forget that.
We had a very fun shopping day yesterday. Camilla (Beike employee) took us downtown and we ate at a wonderful Chinese cafe. Camilla ordered for us so we had spicy beef and vegetables. I think they were jalapeno peppers. They roast or grill them and since the seeds are out, they are not too hot to eat. It was very good. Then we actually found a Dollar Tree store!!!!!!! Talk about nirvana. We had a ball in that store. Then we went to a big store (several floors) that’s similar to a gigantic flea market. They have everything you can imagine. And, the good thing is Camilla was with us and she is an expert so we knew what we were getting and Camilla is also a very sharp negotiator so we got bargains. We were hysterical crossing all of the streets — Camilla was holding someone’s hand and we all held on to each other like a chain. It was like we were in kindegarten again. Today, we’re buying pearls and we’ll have our last trip to Luo Hu on Monday. That will be our last shopping day. On Tuesday, Veronica and I are playing in Hong Kong and doing a little sightseeing because our flight doesn’t leave until midnight. Then it’s back home. We’ll be in L.A. late Tuesday and are going to sleep all day at the airport hotel and then fly home. We’ll arrive home at midnight on Wednesday.
Love to everyone,
Betty
June 9th, 2007
HI everyone, it’s Veronica writing at 1:48 am on Saturday. It’s a ritual for me, getting up at 12:30 am over here. Haven’t been able to break it (regardless of how much wine I drink 
I can’t believe Mom and I are leaving in 3 days. At this point, I feel like we are here for the other patients. Mom has had her last stem cell injection (Wednesday) and she’s going to accupuncture and physical therapy twice a day still. She has off on Sunday. She has had such miraculous results, her double vision is completely gone and her eyes are not “tracking” like they used to (her right eye was mostly). Looks like her neurologist back home is going to have some work ahead of him (he told mom if the stem cell treatment could do anything for her vision, he’d fill this place up). Her balance is awesome, she can go up steps without having anything to hold on to (which makes Shou hua happy since we’re not supposed to touch anything when we are outside
We are going shopping for 4 hours at a time and mom is just keeping up, not even getting tired (unless the humidity is horrible outside, then she gets overheated and has to rest). She couldn’t even walk to the corner of our street at home and her leg would start going numb. It’s truly amazing. Like I said, she has had such miraculous results, I feel like at this point we are here for the other patients and Beike to help spread the word and try and get people over here who need it but can’t afford it.
We went shopping downtown yesterday with our neighbor Marty (her brother is here from Oregon) and our hospital friend Camilla. Camilla works for the hospital and gets us great bargins (she can spot onyx that’s trying to be passed off as Jade and she knows where the good food is! We were so exhausted when we got home we figured that it was time to go back and visit the Red Hair Salon (you know the one where you can go get your hair shampooed and your head, neck, and shoulders massaged for and hour for 3 dollars and fifty cents!). We ran into our new American neighbors from Illinois on the way down, and we kidnapped Deb (her husband is here for treatment) for her first “red hair” experience.
We had a little communication problem (imagine that) and I think we all got the “ritz carlton” package with an extra egg white milk facial and some kind of cow bone tool massage, but in the end it still only costs 6 dollars instead of 3.50! (2 1/2 hours later). They really do a great job with cleaning your face. YOur laying down and they use the washcloth over your eyes to fountain the water over your nose…the girl i had before was so good at it. Last night as i’m thinking “how in the world do they do this….” i’m drowning in Shenzhen tap water up my nose! So naturally the OCD kicks in and i’m laying there wondering what kind of “microbes” are now floating in my NOT foreign diesease resistant body! Looks like I picked the wrong time to get off my meds! AFter about 20 minutes i was able to think of something else and enjoy the remainder of my “massage time”. Jessie, i’m afraid you wouldn’t last a day and we’d have to put you on a plane! I love my little sister, she makes me look not so “neurotic”. What is it with those Gulley boys?
This place is really a trip. If any of you have even been downtown New Orleans and experienced Charity hospital and it’s surroundings, that’s pretty much where we are. Two exceptions, theres 7 million people here in the same space and there’s no crime. It’s really counterintuitive to us “Americans”. We’re in a huge downtown area and we can safely walk the streets at 10 o’clock at night.
I finally got my luggage and it was a real treat to put on clothes that were washed at home. No dryers here, and nothing smells good (you know when you leave your laundry in the dryer overnight - not a word Doug Gulley) that’s what the clothes smell like when they come back from the laundry. Nothing dries here! I’ve taken lots of pictures of the apartment complexes, because out on every balcony is everyone’s laundry! Doesn’t matter if it’s the old ones that look like they should be torn down, or the skyscraper ones right behind them, laundry everywhere!).
We also found out that you don’t tip over here. It’s actually an insult if you can believe it. Although Jason and I found out that you can tip bartenders by buying them drinks to drink with you OUr friends at the Sign Bar “educated” us. The people here are wonderful. They are so nice and genuinely just want to please (if they can figure out what you’re asking for!). The hospital staff is absolutely wonderful. Mom and I are going to send them an English - Chinese phonetic dictionary. This would be very helpful (mine came in the day i left, thank you amazon).
OK, promise more pictures tomorrow, my neighbor Marty has the download on her computer so i’ll spend time with her tomorrow getting pics from the last few days. We miss home so much but obviously wouldn’t trade this experience for the world! I have my mom back! Can’t wait for ya’ll to see her. She’s like a giddy school girl, or a 5 year old on Christmas morning. Hope is a beautiful thing.
Love to all,
Veronica
June 9th, 2007
I will have my last stem cell injection this afternoon around 4:00. Then it’s back to lying flat for 6 hours. The waiting is my hardest thing.
Yesterday was a VERY FULL day. We got up at 5:00 am and went around the block to get those wonderful little sesame balls. Then we walked down the block and went to the bakery. They have such wonderful things at the bakery. We bought several things and brought them home. Then, we went to Walmart to get things for Veronica to cook. What can I say? That was the most unbelievable experience. It was like being a trader on the floor of the NY Stock Exchange. There seemed to be a million Chinese in the store when we were there. Whenever you get produce, etc. you have to go to register in the department to get a sticker put on the bag. They don’t check everything out at the register like they do at home. So there are several lines to wait in. Veronica’s luggage still hasn’t arrived, so we have had to try to find clothes here. That’s a whole lot easier said than done. We are huge, fat giants compared to these people. An 8-10 in the US translates to a 2XL here. And, that’s still tight. No larger sizes than that. Veronica’s even had a problem trying to get shoes large enough for her feet. The petite Chinese girls look at us and gesture “BIG”. They are so funny, they actually think they’re FAT. There are NO fat people in China.
Veronica cooked a shrimp etoufee last night and it was really good. Our next door neighbors (from Oregon) are so much fun; we really had a good dinner. Marty is the sister and her brother, Art, has ataxia. He is just getting here and a little skeptical (he’s a microbiologist) and so I can’t wait to see his results. The ataxia patients seem to respond so quickly to treatment. It seems that the ataxia & MS patients respond quickly, the spinal cord injuries (especially the quadraplegic ones) take much longer. It seems if the spinal cord injury is not the entire spinal cord - only a section like lower, etc. the results are a little faster. But, the results are amazing just the same. There are miracles daily here.
I’m going to acupuncture and physical therapy now and I’ll post tomorrow after my last stem cell injection. It’s around 7:00 or so in the morning here - night at home.
Love you all,
Betty
June 4th, 2007
It’s early in the morning here but we went to sleep so early last night we are both up already.
Yesterday we went shopping at Luo Hu Shopping Center. It’s a 3-story shopping center with so many shops it’s unbelieveable. The shops are 5×8′ each and are one next to the other. There are probably thousands of shops. They have all of the designer knockoffs. Veronica got a spring style Coach purse for 25.00 US. We also got Jason Dolce & Gabana & Prada dress belts for about $25.00 for both. We were so proud of ourselves. We did GOOD. I saw a Dolce & Gabanna big leather purse that I want and we’re planning on going back probably Tuesday. There are so many things to see, we didn’t even touch the surface. MP4 players for $12.00 - got to get some for gifts. Beautiful clothes, linens, oh my. And, Jimmy Choo shoes. They have Louis Vuitton, Chloe, Dolce & Gabanna, Prada, Coach, Gucci, Jimmy Choo. All the shoes, purses, clothes, electronics you can imagine. Veronica & I were in heaven.
This is SO unusual for me. I was able to walk, shop, for over 5 hours and I was invigorated. No backache, my leg & knee didn’t give out. I was almost like a normal person. In the not so distant past, after 30 minutes - an hour, I was miserable with a backache, coulddn’t walk, was in a fog and really couldn’t see or focus. I was so excited yesterday. I was able to do what I wanted and we still went to dinner went we got back to the hospital. I even walked down several flights of steps. I am feeling SO much better. My double vision is almost completely gone now. And my right side just keep feeling better and better. I have one more stem cell injection Monday. Then, it’s doing whatever I can do to help my body be a good environment for the stem cells to keep growing. Shouhua is going to talk with the doctors to see how we can best achieve this. I know that the acupuncture & physical therapy has helped tremendously too. I will have had 60 sessions of acupuncture & physical therapy in the month I’ve been here. The Chinese are really task masters.
I have had numerous visits from several doctors from other countries that are very interested in the stem cell therapy and my experiences with it. They have been hearing good things and are very curious. I also had a visit from Dr. Hu, who is the President/CEO of Beike. They are the bio company that has developed the stem cells for the patients in the therapy. I think that this is so new that everyone is just now hearing about it and there is so much interest. It is just amazing that there are so many people from so many different countries here who are questioning just like me and we all found out about this through research on the Internet. It’s really a miracle what the Internet can accomplish. Liri, who left last week, is a director and writer and he is planning on doing a documentary on this experience. I think we all want to get involved somehow in getting the word out and possibly organizing a non-profit organization that could help raise funds for people who need to come here. It is so mind-boggling what I’ve seen people be able to accomplish while they’re here undergoing treatment.
Love to all - Veronica and I are going around the block to get my favorite sesame balls and also checking out the bakery across the street.
I post as soon as I can. Email me when you get a chance.
Love,
Betty
June 3rd, 2007
Today, (Friday), I had my 4th stem cell injection. It went well and I feel really good today. I’ll write more about the results in the next couple of days.
Veronica’s luggage got lost - she has nothing except what she had on the plane. So, we’re going shopping today - oh, what a shame.
Jason had a snafu when he left yesterday. They wouldn’t get on the ferry to the airport because he was 10 minutes late and they didn’t feel he could catch his flight. Since no one could speak English and he couldn’t speak Chinese, he was very upset - he told Veronica he was lucky he wasn’n in Chinese prison because he was yelling & cussing. The ferry authorities called his airline (Cathey) and they could speak English so they told the ferry authorities to let him on and he would be on the next flight. So, after all of the commotion, he is back in L.A. right now. It could only happen to Jason, He thinks he knows everything and times everything just right so he won’t have to wait, but he forgets, he’s in CHINA! Oh well, he back home safe and we had a lot of fun. He has a lot of stories to tell.
We’re off to Luo Hu Shopping Center and then Walmart. Luo Hu is a 3-story shopping center with all knockoffs of designer jewelry, purses, luggage, clothes, electronics, etc. We have our orders from several people in the states. They are very aggressive here when you shop, and they bargain. Jason hated it the short time he was there. I think Veronica & I will have a ball. At Walmart, we going to buy produce. Veronica is making her famous squash bisque. There are people here from Oregon, Connecticut, Louisiana, Italy (she was cooking roasted eggplant and pasta) - we’re going to have to help her and get recipes. I’ll get to practice my Italian. Post later.
Love,
Betty
June 2nd, 2007
