This morning we got a chance to meet the Administrator of the hospital. She was coming around with a camera crew to talk with some of the patients for a commercial they are making about the hospital. She was very nice and her English was excellent. She said she spent some time in Missouri.
Aministrator of the Hospital
.The rest of the day was a normal day of therapy. Dillon didn’t run a fever today so that is good. Tonight Mom made an excellent soup with beef broth, onions, celery, potatoes, carrots, and green beans (which by the way are about 18 inches long here!). Then we ordered some dessert from in the hospital to see what it is like. I ordered Friend Bananas, but they didn’t have that or the fried apples so we had to go with fried watermelon…. I have never heard of fried watermelon before!
Fried watermelon.
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watermelon
It was pretty good but very sweet. The best way to describe it is a tiny piece of watermelon in a breading that is fried and has a candy apple style carmized sugar on it and then has a few sesame seeds on it. They are WAY to sweet for how many it comes with so we shared with some other people on our floor.
Dillon and Grandma - notice the Chinese Diaper!
I bought more diapers the other day and did not know there was different kinds of diapers! I got some that don’t have any tabs or anything but they stick to the inside of this cloth that comes with it and ties around the baby. They did not work at all for Jay – he soaked his whole bed! But they work ok for Dillon. We are going to try to get some other kind tomorrow. Just for a better look at the diaper…
:-)
August 18th, 2009
Hello Everyone,
Sorry I didn’t post yesterday, it was just one of those days. Dillon did have his second spinal yesterday. We have another Spinal on Friday and then an IV next week. His spinal went very good, they only had to suction him one time! That was a blessing! He did start to run a fever though. They said the fever isn’t uncommon as the body now has these new cells in it. It doesn’t mean that his body won’t get any of the stem cells so that is good!
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Going for the spinal
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It was raining so they held umbrellas over Dillon
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This is as far as I get to go before they take him to the OR.
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This is the common area - we don't really sit there though
This is the little kitchen where we do our cooking
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This the the dining room - we don't eat there it is mostly used for food prep.
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Coming back from the OR after the spinal
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China - Jason took Mom to a bookstore to buy fans
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Our living room
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Living room from the other side
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Bedroom
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Bedroom from the other side - Dillon has the biggest bed all to himself!
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Shower - it is different looking but it works great! I kind of like this showering on to the floor - it is easy to bath the boys when you aren't worried about them splashing water out
I will update from today on another post, thank you for praying for Dillon’s spinal. The medicine they are trying for Dillon’s g-tube seems to be working. It is a lot less red than it had been.
August 18th, 2009
Since we decided not to take the boys to the shopping center, Michelle went with a lady from Ireland and I. Let me just say right away, we could NOT have done it without Michelle! She was able to tell us the prices and get people to lower the prices for us. She was able to show us where to go, how to get a taxi, and help us walk on the streets without being killed! I didn’t take pictures until the very end because I was overwhelmed at all there was to see and all the people! We did most of our shopping at the cheap stores out side this mall, but we walked through it as we were leaving so I got a few pictures.
Shopping Center
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It is so tall! 7 stories. The pictures don't capture the beauty of it!
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Thank you Michelle!
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My little Chinese men!
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Jason and Chinese-Jay
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Chinese-Dillon
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Isn't he cute?!?.I just love these clothes!
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Jay is helping Dillon to sit up right.
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Awww - so handsome
JayDonn kissing his big brother
Dillon has a spinal tomorrow. We were able to watch a church service online and we plan to watch another one tomorrow since after the spinal he has to be flat for 6 hours. Mom would like to go to one store, but other than we will be around our room all day. I just remembered that I didn’t put any pictures of our room on here yet so I will try to do that tomorrow….try….
August 16th, 2009
We decided that I (Donna) would take a scouting trip to the shopping mall in preparation for taking the boys the next day. I decided I would walk there and take a taxi back. I walked for 50 minutes and reached the first store we wanted to go to. I decided I would go to the second store and then backtrack before checking out the store. 35 minutes later after asking several people if they spoke English (none did) I stopped at a hotel and the girl was able to point out where I was on the map I had with me. I had bypassed the store I intended to go to. So I walked back to the first store again and never saw the store I wanted to find. The walk was very hot and very interesting. I think I saw more people on my 2 hour walk in China that I have seen in my entire life. There was a lot of construction on the sidewalks and buildings going on so I had to walk in the bike and scooter lane part of the way. Along the way I saw a good number of workers taking a break by laying on the sidewalk. It appears that they work long hours here. To cross the busy street I had to go through an underpass where there was sort of like a flea market. One fellow wanted me to sit on a stool beside him. I couldn’t figure out why and kept walking (faster). Later I discovered he was probably a fortune teller. On my way back to the shopping center I stopped along the street to look at what the street vendors had to offer. The watermelon on sticks looked interesting but I passed on any food. I did purchase a few things. They say you can negotiate a price but it was all I could do to try to figure out a first price. While there some guy offered me money. I had no clue why and decided to just leave and walk faster (again). The shopping center was 7 stories high and rather expensive. They had a lot of beautiful things though. I bought a Chinese dress and after much gesturing figured out what to pay for it. The girl said (in English) 100 dollars so I pulled out the 100 yuan and gestered “this”. They took the 100 yuan and gave me the dress in a bag with no receipt. I had never seen any store so crowded in my life. I then went back outside on a side street where there was like another flea market. It was all very interesting. I caught a taxi back to the hospital. They all honk their horns here and weave in and out of traffic. Many of the vehicles are taxis. I decided that taking Dillon in the wheelchair and Jay on our back was totally out of the question. We decided that Tiffany would go tomorrow with another patient’s family member and the translator and I would stay and watch the boys. Enough excitement for one day. All in all, I did enjoy seeing Shijiazhuang, China, by foot and was very thankful to get back to our room.
Workers Sleeping in construction zone
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Street sign
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Going into the underpass
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water fountain in front of shopping mall
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Notice the watermelon on a stick
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A bike parking lot
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A typical crowded street
August 16th, 2009
Doesn’t that title just make you sit on the edge of your seat? I bet you are dying to read this update! hahaha
Let’s see, can you guess how we started our day today? Yup! With acupuncture! Dillon did not cry today but he was pulling away from the needles pretty strong. Which is a good thing because he doesn’t always pull away from pain.
Then we went down for the PT and he did great. He was sleeping so he didn’t cough until the very end and he was relaxed so they could move his muscles all around.
In the afternoon I took a little rest. Grandma and I have this joke that we are in a “coma”. If we rest in the afternoon or after we get very little sleep at night we wake up feeling as though we are in a coma and can’t move. So I was in my coma. I walked with Jay to get a coke which helped. I am surprised I am not having major caffinee withdrawls since I have more coffee at home. Dillon’s nurse and some of the volunteers bring us ice coffee sometimes. I miss Dunkin!!!! I even had a dream that they have dunkin here and I went and got my picture with them just to show Dillon’s nurse!
Then we went to OT and again he did pretty good. He was actually awake – which means more coughing. But it is good for him to be more alert during therapy. We put him on a ball and he did a little bit of holding his own head up. They also put the ice sticks in his mouth for the first time today, but I forgot my camera.
After therapy JayDonn was playing with stickers and decided to put them ON Dillon. Boy boy can’t defend himself against his little brother!
Jay thinks Dillon is her personal sticker book!
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I guess it is one way for Dillon and Jay to play together...
So now it is night time and I am feeding Dillon and praying he will have a good night’s rest. I am also praying that God would protect JayDonn from the nightmares he is having almost every night. He kicks and moves all around and yells NO. I think he is just having trouble with all the changes and missing home but I know in my heart it is better than what he would have been feeling if I would have left him at home and came without him!
Also, please do pray for my mom. She is in the hospital right now and the doctors aren’t sure what is making her sick. I know she would appreciate your prayers too.
Tomorrow (Saturday) is like any other day for us. But I will try to take my camera with me and get some pictures of differnt things. I keep forgetting to take it with me… Have a great day everyone and thank you for caring, loving, and praying for us!
August 14th, 2009
Yesterday was another normal day, acupuncture, PT, OT, Jay and Grandma walking to the food market, and I walked to the super market. I don’t know what to write so Mom is going to write for me. The photos in this post are all ones Mom took…
Hello from China. Wow, it’s hard to believe that we have been here 16 days already. Dillon is half done his treatments. God has answered numerous prayers.
There are 13 beds on this unit (the international unit) so we have met quite a few people from different countries which has been interesting. Several that we met at the beginnning have gone home already and several others have arrived recently. For three of the patients this is there second time to get stem cells as they had good results from the first time of getting stem cells. Other than this unit, this is not an international city so few people speak English. We are very thankful for the translators. They have been a great help. They are trying to teach us some Chinese and how to get our tones right (quite a feat). Our goal is to learn a hundred words before we go home.
Dillon gets acupuncture therapy in the room four or five days a week. Most days Jay and I go down with Tiffany and Dillon to Physical Therapy. They work very hard with Dillon and the other patients. Jay loves to ride on their little stools and watch some and then we usually take a walk or a potty break. Yesterday was the first time that I have seen one complete session at occupational therapy. I took Dillon down while Tiffany stayed with Jay and made supper. Basically occupational therapy for Dillon is an hour long massage. They do an excellent job and explain what they are doing and why. They gave Tiffany a little book (Chinese/English) on pediatric massage. The doctors come most days and are very concerned about Dillon. We have gotten to know most of the nurses somewhat as most of them speak some English which is helpful. They are very helpful about any special needs Dillon has. Presently they are trying some new treatment for the skin around Dillon’s G-tube that is red and irritated.
Our days and nights are quite busy here as we are Dillon’s caregivers and he needs fed through the G-tube every three hours and after eating usually needs a lot of suctioning. We are SO thankful for the night nurses and for Robin the day nurse and the helpers back home. Besides Dillon’s care we are also doing a good portion of the laundry by hand in the baby tub and hanging it out on the bushes to dry. For those of you who know Dillon, know that he goes through an amazing amount of laundry. Yesterday I got stung by a bee as I invaded his territory by hanging our laundry on a bush. Praise the Lord, it was the one time I did not have Jay with me. By the time I got back to the room my thumb was red and starting to swell. We put some oil of oreganol P73 on it for lack of knowing what else to do and praise the Lord, in about 2 hours I couldn’t even tell that I had been stung. Usually I swell up pretty good from bee stings. It itched later in the evening. I put more oil on it and it was fine.
We can order food here (the hospital has a restaurant-all Chinese food and we can order out Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza) but are now trying to go the market (a five minute walk) most days and cook at least one of our meals.
To keep things fun and exciting we have Jay. Yesterday Jay and I took a “two year old walk” to the market. A “Grandma walk” means your goal is to get to the market, get your food, and get back. No so with Jay. We leisurely look at the ants and birds along the way. We admire the dragonflies. We stop at the little playground for a swing and to climb on some kind of climbing toy. Then we go to the outdoor market and look over all the food and pick some out for supper. Jay walked the entire way there and back helping to carry his apple and holding his monkey-which is strapped to his back (while Grandma held the monkey’s tail). He didn’t even have to go potty once. Grandma is getting smart and limiting drinks before she goes out with Jay. We’ve had too many shopping trips where we can not figure out where a restroom is. (Tiffany adding: It is a good thing – so he won’t have to pee in any more trash cans!! hahaha)
Everyone here at the hospital and on our outings admires Jay and wants to talk to him and pick him up. At first he was happy to have the attention, then he didn’t like it, now he seems to be adjusting more and will sit or stand quietly and look at the people and sometimes say hello or bye bye.
Overall we are enjoying our trip to China. Dillon is getting good care. I’m getting to spend time with Tiffany and the boys. We have Skype to be able to communicate with our husbands and anyone else who has Skype. We have the internet in our room and are able to watch church services from my son Daniel’s church back in the U.S. The downside is that we are quite short on sleep.
We greatly appreciate everyone’s prayers on our behalf. We know that our mighty, omnipotent, omniscient God has a purpose for us coming half way around the world.
Playing at the playground near the food market
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A little boy Jay and Grandma met at the playground
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Food market - actually I think they call it the Food Zone
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Swing!
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Fruit Tree
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Anyone know what kind of fruit it is? We don't know...
August 14th, 2009
We are half way done with the stem cells. Dillon got his second IV of stem cells today which makes a total of 3. We have two spinals and one IV left. The next spinal is on Monday.
Second IV stem cells
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Here they go!
Some pictures of JayDonn being a silly boy…
Instead of saying "cheese" Jay says "China!"
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Awww isn't he sweet
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Being silly
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- Daddy was making funny faces on the web cam, so Jay was making some for me later on…
Mom had a fun time with him at the store today. He kept having to go potty and she was in the store with him alone. So he was saying he needed to go during the check out and these ladies kept stopping to see him and coo at him and then would go in front of mom in the line. I guess it is normal over here to cut in front of someone in line, it is not considered rude at all. So Mom had to be a little pushy to get through the line and by then Jay had a little accident. But she said he did hold it for a long time. Mom said Jay was a pretty good boy in the store over all so that is good. He had a good day today for the most part, I think he slept better last night which helps.
Well it is 3:36am for me as I write this, I am feeding Dillon and would like to get to sleep as soon as I am done so I will not write any more. Until tomorrow…
August 13th, 2009
Today was another normal day. Dillon had acupuncture, and did not cry with it. Then he went to therapy and they did their normal things with him. In the afternoon Grandma took a little nap (last night I was so tired I was sleeping through his oxygen alarm so I had to wake Grandma to take over at 3am instead of 6am like we have been doing). So I got to sleep from 3-8 and that was one of the longest periods of sleep I have had since I have been here. But that means that Grandma was more tired today. So I went on a walk with JayDonn to the market to buy bananas and onions. Then Jay and I rested in the afternoon too;Jay slept, I couldn’t. I took Dillon to his other therapy and Grandma made us a wonderful dinner. Mashed potatoes with carrots and fried onions, garlic, zucchini, and green peppers. It was wonderful! Jay had a great time playing with Jason and Sid, they were kicking the ball around the hallways. They are teaching him some Chinese words for kick the ball and that type of stuff.
Then we have been playing with Jay and cleaning around here like we normally do every night. Like I said, just a normal day.
We didn’t take pictures much today, but I will show you the moon Mom took a picture of last night and the same sky was actually blue today! This is the first time we have seen a blue sky since we have been here. Normally it is a slate gray, but today it was a beautiful blue with some white clouds! It was a hot, dry day which seems unusual too (at least to us it seems it is usually humid…)
Moon outside our window
Same shot as above, but a beautiful BLUE sky!
Isn't it WONDERFUL?!
Dillon will have his second IV stem cells tomorrow. They tried to keep the IV in from Friday, but it had to be taken out today. Please pray they can get a vein on him tomorrow. They should be here around 10 or so to try. Last time it took 3 tries before they got a vein, he is a vey hard stick. We will try to give him extra fluids before and I think they are having a nurse from the peds floor come to do it. But please just pray that Dillon won’t have to go through any more sticks then necessary.
Thank you! And thank you to everyone who has sent us a little email of encouragement! It really helps! Oh another major blessing is our notes from home. Dad wrote Mom a letter to open everyday and ladies in my church wrote me a letter to open everyday. Mom and I look forward to opening those SO much! Mom opens her’s right after midnight – or as soon as she wakes up normally. I open mine in the morning after I am up for the day. We have been so blessed and encouraged by our notes. Thank you to everyone who took the time to write those, and to Molly for setting it up – it has been a HUGE blessing to us! We have taped all our notes up along our room so we can see them all day long and be encouraged every time we look at them!
August 11th, 2009
This morning when Mom woke me up she told me some exciting news! Dillon had rolled from his back to his belly. He was completely flat when he did it and had CPAP on. He did not get his one arm out from underneath him, but even still! This is great news! Let’s pray he will continue to do these things!
We had our normal therapy today, Dillon cried during the acupuncture again. I feel so bad for him, but I know it is working!
Therapy again
Of course Jay always has to go potty while we are down at therapy and this is the rest room, yes Mom took a picture of it. Since neither her nor I have ever been to another country we had never seen restrooms like this before. So here you go, for anyone else who has never traveled abroad….
restrooms - it is flat on the floor
.Since laundry is so expensive we are doing it ourselves. So after Mom bleached the towels to get all Dillon’s formula and secretions out she put them out to dry on the bushes. No, we aren’t crazy we see lots of people putting their laundry out too. So we are just doing what others do….When in Rome, do as the Romans do….
We are in the third building and there is at least one more behind us so these bushes are behind our building. mom tried to put it in a spot that isn’t too obvious!
Laundry - drying on the bushes
Grandma and Jay walk to the little market close by almost everyday to get bananas, apples and peaches. Here is Jay at the market…
Jay at the market
We had to keep Dillon’s band aid over the area where they did the spinal for three days. So today we were able to take it off and give him a bath. He loves getting a nice warm bath. He looks so cute in the tub full of bubbles that I had t get a picture to share with you.
Bath time
Over all things are going great. I can’t believe it has been almost two weeks! I miss my dear sweet husby a lot though. I am looking forward to seeing him again in about 19 days. I miss you Honey!
Oh I wanted to correct one thing I had wrote about before. When Dillon got the spinal done and then the IV afterwards I told you it was nerve growth factor and that wasn’t quite right. It is kind of like plasma. I am not sure what all it is or how it works exactly, the translator gave me some stuff to read about it, but I haven’t had time yet tonight. But I did want to let you know that it is not nerve growth factor but more like a syrup of some sort. Anyways – it is what they need to inject even after the spinal!
August 10th, 2009
Last night Dillon slept great again! I went to bed a little before 12 and Mom fed Dillon. I woke up to him making some noise around 2:55 so I stayed up for the 3am feed. I kept feeling his body to see if he felt warm and he did not. So around 4 I went back to sleep. I woke up around 7 and he felt very warm. We took his temp rectally and it was 102.9! So we gave medicine and used luke warm wash clothes on his body to bring it down. It did come down eventually.
Cooling Dillon down
We figured out how to get Grandma to do sit ups with me…Have Jay sit on her feet and she can kiss Jay every time she comes up!
Grandma doing sit ups
But then Jay decided to jump on Grandma when she comes up!
Laughing together doing sit ups
This afternoon I walked to the supermarket by myself while Jay was sleeping. It was the first time I have gone out by myself. I was quite scared, I don’t know why. It is very hard when you know there is no one who can understand you! As I was walking some people said Hello to me, but that was it. I did my shopping, bought a few things and then checked out. In America I do not like to shop at all! Anyone who knows me, knows I don’t like spending money and hate to go shopping. I LOVE to shop here! Everything is so cheap! It is FUN to shop when you are paying less than a dollar for things! Nothing important happened during my shopping trip, it was just a feeling of accomplishment to have been able to do it without anyone else there. As I walked home some more people said hello to me. Of course I still had people staring at me, but it wasn’t as bad as when Dillon is with me.
Later in the evening we watched another sermon online and JayDonn did very well with sitting still and quiet for it. The message was called “Why do you pray?” It was given from a different point of view, that we pray FOR God. That we are not to pray for the purpose of asking for all our wants and desires, but to fellowship with God. He also pointed out that God already knows everything we need, so we don’t need to pray to tell Him our needs. We pray so our Father can from us.
Mom was taking pictures of people with their pots. It seems people carry around pots that they take to the restaurants to fill with food and carry back to their offices.
People with their pots
At home, JayDonn loves Cheerios, but here he doesn’t like them. That is because we only had almond milk (milk made from almonds). It is sweet, but doesn’t taste the same. The American man who helped us before gave us some of the milk he had left over. So Mom finally tried to boil it and put it in the fridge. All milk, cheese, butter, etc is not pasteurized here in China. We weren’t sure if Jay would like it or not, but he ate about 4 little cup fulls of Cheerios this morning and three more tonight before bed.
JayDonn eating Cheerios
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He does LOVE his "highos"
I want to thank everyone for praying for Dillon. We increased his oil of orangol drops (antibiotics, anti fungal, anti viral) from 3 drops twice a day to three drops at every meal (every three hours). He has been good all day today. The highest his fever has gone since this morning was 99.2. We think he may still get feverish around 5am again since his body thinks it is 5pm and most people get fevers in the evening. So we are going to watch him very close. Please keep praying, we aren’t sure he is out of the woods yet. I know of several Pastors who are asking their church to pray for Dillon as I type this, so thank you! Thank you for praying!
One other good thingI want to share with you is about Dillon standing (with support of course). I was sitting on the edge of the bed and let Dillon stand in between my legs. Normally when he stands he goes into full extension and tightens very muscle and pushes back into me so hard. This time he stood there relaxed. His knees were even bending some and about 5 times after it would bend he would straighten it again! I don’t think I have seen Dillon do this before. Mom thought I was supporting his weight because he was so relaxed and even sleeping but I wasn’t he was fully supporting it himself. I was just balancing him. Maybe I am just looking with hope, but I really think there have been some small improvements – such as this. Only time will tell if these are improvements that will last of if it is a one time thing.
Keep praying, we sure do appreciate it and need it! We can’t thank you enough for lifting our family up in prayers.
August 9th, 2009
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