Tuesday, November 13, 2007

China Days 52-53: Therapy, shopping and more stem cells...

Monday was a busy day – Dan spent the day in therapy and LaNae went exploring with some friends to a few of the shopping malls in China. The thinking is – get your Christmas shopping done in China where it is 1/7 the cost! We had a good time, but I still need to get better at bargaining.... that is the shopping way of the Chinese. “How much will you pay, Lady... Lady, I will give it to you for this price... really good price... come on Lady!” That is what you hear all day long when you try to shop! Not much opportunity to just browse and select because if you stop – you get sucked in....

In the evening we went out to a great restaurant – Grandma's Kitchen. It is REAL American food with hamburgers, french fries, milkshakes, pancakes and apple pie ala mode. It was really good.

Today Dan went to therapy and I went out to Wal-mart with some new people that just arrived from Australia. (Nicole and Maria) We had a good time, and I picked up some groceries that we needed. It is always good to have someone to ride with in the cab and it was great to get to know Nicole and Maria. They are here with Nichole's husband who has MS.

Tomorrow is the BIG #3 stem cell treatment for Dan! This will be the last treatment before we return home next Tuesday. They are starting to make the winding up preparations for us here – today they came with a list of medications that they want Dan to take after he returns home... so the preparations are beginning to happen for our return! Day 60 is the big return home day – and so as you can see the countdown has begun. It is amazing to me that we are about ready to come home – in so many ways – we would like to stay longer – the therapy, the people, the country – it has been an amazing experience!

Our wonderful nurses! (L to R) Shirleen, Irene, Tina and Jingjing


Dan is surrounded by all of this great nurses.... aren't they beautiful?!
(L to R) Tina, Sunny, Ester, Dan, Jingjing, Caca, Linda and Irene


Saying "Good-bye" to some great new friends... wishing you the best on your recoveries!
Judy (Australia) left on Monday and Carlos and Elsa (Argentina) are leaving tomorrow. It is so neat to get to know all of these great people!

This is Diana, Judy, Lorraine and Judy's caregiver. Wishing Judy the best - she is a great lady!


Dan with Carlos from Argentina - Carlos has ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease)


LaNae and Dan with Carlos and Elsa


We had a birthday get together for three of our friends here at the hospital - Metin from Turkey, Gary from Pennsylvania and Stephen from Florida.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dan & LaNae,
Everyone missed you at the funeral, but expressed their excitement for this amazing experience for you! There was some people that I didn't even know that were asking about you..."We just love Danny" they'd say! We gave your blog to some of them so they could check up on you.
OK..So, we decided (I think I was talking with Aunt Kathy and her family) that Grandma is now with Mom, in China, with POMPOMS..haha..cheering for you! And if Grandma didn't fully understand what you were doing in China..she does now..because Mom filled her in! : )
You have the most amazing children and grandchildren, and it was so great to have them representing both of you at the funeral!
Thank you both, for your examples of faith and love. We love you both so very much!
XOXO!
Slade, Christi, Keyanee, Cody & Ashlee Faught

LaNae B. Maughan said...

Thanks Christi - we were very sad that we couldn't be with the family on Grandma's special day - please know we were there in our hearts and in our spirits! We will all miss Grandma so much because she was an amazing, loving woman, but we too, are happy that she is with Grandpa and Mama Jan. I am sure they are both cheering for Dan- just like they did when they were alive. What great examples of encouragement they both were!