Beginning Week Two In China With Lane:

Since we arrived in Qingdao, I have been paying close attention to Lane’s pupils when we are in the therapy room. Every morning and afternoon we have therapy in a room thats back wall is all windows. It’s neat because we are on the 8th floor of the hospital and you can see out over China. The room is always very bright because of all the sunlight shining in (as shown below). We started therapy last Tuesday and I observed that Lane’s pupils remained very large throughout his session. On Wednesday morning I observed the same thing. Lane’s pupils were large (trying to let light in) and me and Tim’s pupils were small because our eyes could see plenty of light. Wednesday afternoon was Lane’s 1st (long anticipated) stem cell treatment and so we didn’t have therapy that afternoon. The following day, Thursday, I observed that his pupils were slightly smaller and they stayed that way during our morning and afternoon sessions. Friday was the same. Slightly smaller than they were on Tuesday and Wednesday while me and Tim’s pupils were very small. Over the weekend we did not have therapy because those are our days off. Today, while in therapy this morning, I noticed that Lane’s pupils were very small, just like me and Tim’s! I told the doctor what I had observed and he said that this was a good sign. So, I am happy to report that with only one stem cell packet, Lane has made some progress with the dilation of his eyes.

This morning after acupuncture and electric wave therapy, the nurses came into our room and prepped Lane’s foot for his 2nd IV treatment today. They will leave the port in his foot for 24 hours just in case they need to give him medicine for any reason. Today, Lane received 2 stem cell packets, around 100 million stem cells! Go baby go, work baby work!

There are many other families here from around the world also receiveing adult stem cell treatment. Let me share a few positive stories with you that I have seen while we have been here. There is a little girl named Avah here with Spina Bifida and she is 2 or 3 years old. She couldn’t feel her legs upon arrival. She would get around by dragging her little legs behind her. During her acupunture therapy, her parents and the therapist distract her with a drawing board while they put the acupuncture needles in her legs to increase the blood flow. Last week, while she couldn’t see what was being done to her legs, she started to cry and grabbed her leg during the procedure! The doctor believes that it is nerve regeneration and that is what is causing her to have feeling in them! Amazing, right!? This gave me the goose bumps to hear! Also, there is a woman here from France who became blind after she had Meningitis nine years ago. She is completely blind and lost feeling in two of her fingers. She has had only one treatment and now she can feel her two fingers! She jokingly laughed when we spoke about the feeling in her fingers because although she is happy about feeling her fingers again, she would much rather have her vision back! She still has many adult stem cell treatments left to go so we are hopeful that the stem cells are working on her optic nerves as well!

Over the weekend we did some sight seeing and shopping downtown. We went to Jimmo Rd. (a large flea market) and bought a few souveniers to take home. You can buy practically anything there for dirt cheap and you get to haggle with them for a great price! They have everything from real Rolex watches to Louis Vuitton purses! We got to see The Yellow Sea and also visited The Zhanshan Temple, where we saw monks and people praying to Buda. It was beautiful there! Saturday night, we went to a Karoake place with other families from the VIP ward and we all hung out. It was fun to kick back and have a good time with the other families. Pretty sure our singing wasn’t too great since the music was so loud but who cares, we had a good time cutting loose. On Sunday, we took it easy and went to the RT Mart to get some more food since Tropical Storm Muifa is headed our way. Last night we made it a movie night and played Gin Rummy til we passed out. This week will be just like last week only Lane gets his 3rd treatment on Friday afternoon. Today, I posted a few pictures of Lane on the bulletin board full of patients who have made the journey in hopes of a better quality of life. We have made our mark, Lane has been here! Since our little Mackenzie could not make the trip with us, Buzz and Lotszo took her place and as you can see from the photo below, they say hi! I will try my best to keep everyone posted!
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