Archive for May, 2008
West Lake is a beautiful spot in Hangzhou. Unfortunately it’s so big that we didn’t get to see all the sites of West Lake such as the willow trees, the main garden, the fish pond and more. But we did see lots of statues, flowers and gazebos.
To our surprise, while we were walking around the lake taking pictures, people kept stopping us to take pictures of Justin. Everyone stopped to look at him, we couldn’t walk a few meters without someone cooing at Justin…..who would have thought that Justin would be the main attraction of West Lake….lol ! Two girls also wanted to take a picture with us, like we’re from Mars or something….lol ! It was nice though, everyone was friendly, smiling and even saying “hello” . Near the end of our walk, Jonathan told me ” don’t slow down or stop when people look at Justin anymore” because we were stopped so much and didn’t want to be late for the driver, but no matter how hard I tried to keep walking, walls of people would stop us to go “coochie coochie coo “ lol !!!
It was a great outing and it did us all some good to get out of the hospital. I would recommend seeing West Lake to anyone travelling to Hangzhou , China.
May 31st, 2008
Well, on the 10th day of our trip, we experienced something magical … Justin slept a full 8 hours… in the night! Yes, after 9 days and nights of sleeping 2-3 hour blocs, we finally got a full night sleep. Boy does it ever feel good.
Here’s a funny story… our first night in Shanghai, Karen and David Chow (which by the way welcomed us into their home and made our first night in China very comfortable… Thanks again!) wished us luck with Justin’s jet lag. Even a neighbour that we met on our “after supper” walk laughed at the thought of traveling with a baby… So back to the house we went, put baby in the playpen and pouf, he was out like a light. Sure enough the next morning, there I was bragging about how easy it is to travel with a baby as good as Justin… “I think we’re over the jet lag” I said… Man should I have kept my big pie hole shut! For the next 8 days, Justin tried pretty much every time zone in the world… sleeping his night from 8am to 4pm, then 11am to 7pm, and for the last couple of days, 4pm to midnight. If you asked us, here’s what we would say: “Thank god for coffee and energy drinks!!!”
Now, we are getting ready for our little trip to Hangzhou and West Lake. We are pretty excited about it. The weather is nice again today, 27-29 degrees. It should be a very enjoyable day.
We’ll take lots of pics (and for those who know Tatiana… that means LOTS of pics !.!.!.) that we’ll share with you all soon.
See you later and talk to you soon!
Only one more thing to say… “Bye Bye jet lag, we’ll see you in 2 weeks!”
Cheers!
May 30th, 2008
Justin’s first spinal puncture went very well. He fell asleep right after just as we hoped, so there were no side effects. Justin woke up in a very good mood as he usually does. He truly is a brave little boy and we are very proud of him. The next stem cell transplant will be next week.
The weather cooled down a little bit after the storm and it’s supposed to stay cool through the weekend so we are probably going to see West Lake on Friday if Justin is feeling up to it.
May 29th, 2008
May 28th, 2008
Well, last night we witnessed our first thunderstorm in China and it was quite the light show. What a storm it was !
About one hour from now, Justin will be getting his first spinal puncture, which is just like getting an epidural. We are confident that it will go well, but still a little nervous.
Justin has been getting electric muscle stimulation almost every day and that seems to help his strength a tiny bit.
We’re sending you all love and will give some more news soon.
May 28th, 2008
May 27th, 2008
Justin got his first stem cells transplant today and it was a piece of cake. We were brought to a room with two lazy boys where we sat our bums down for half an hour with Justin in my lap. Justin fell asleep while receiving the stem cells and so far there has been no side effects.
So next will be the stem cell transplant via lumbar puncture on wednesday. That will be a little harder because Justin will have to stay flat on his back or on his side for 6 hours after the transplant to minimize the side effects. The side effects are headaches and nausia. We were told that if Justin stays in one of those postions he should not have any side effects which shouldn’t be a problem because he can’t move but he will most likely be pretty cranky. We’re hoping that he will fall asleep once again after and have a nice long nap.
Thank you all for your comments, thoughts and wishes. We will continue to update the blog.
May 27th, 2008
After a very long flight, we finally arrived in China. The weather is very warm but luckily for us we have air conditioning in our room. So far it has been an enjoyable experience for us here at the Hangzhou hospital. Everyone is very friendly, always smiling and extremely helpful. There are translators to translate between ourselves and the doctors, they travel with us when we need to go somewhere and they even order food for us.
Justin has been a very good boy, he’s been smiling at everyone but he is being wary of anyone wearing a medical mask. He has had his first physio therapy session with standing therapy and it went very well. Monday will be his first stem cell transplant and we are very excited to see how it goes.
May 25th, 2008
West Lake is a beautiful spot in Hangzhou. Unfortunately it’s so big that we didn’t get to see all the sites of West Lake such as the willow trees, the main garden, the fish pond and more. But we did see lots of statues, flowers and gazebos. 
