China Day 16: The changing of the guard--

I am just 15 hours from leaving China – and Dan is already in trouble (with me)! He was supposed to send me a text message to let me know that Nate and Heather had arrived safely. We did not get our flights arranged very well on this first hand-off because I left Beijing at noon, and Nate and Heather were to arrive at 3:00 pm. Now I am in San Francisco waiting for my flight back to Salt Lake City and wondering if Nate & Heather are ok and if Dan is ok. Mothers and wives worry I am sure, but I will feel better when I have heard that all is well in China.

I got up this morning and helped Dan get ready and finished packing my bags. Dr. Xi came in (a favorite of Koo / Chris). I asked her – hey did you take care of Chris when he was here? She asked 'the model?' She must of thought Chris was pretty good looking! ;-) She is a great doctor and we had a good conversation. She checked Dan for any improvements and talked to us about the fact if we see some improvement, even if we only see it once – that is a good sign. If Dan can do something (even once) then there is hope that the stem cells can do their work in repairing that area. She talked to us about how if we work hard on an area, that the body will know that is where to send the new cells and repair. Again – I just love the positive approach and the hope that there is for recovery. Some may question this approach, after all- you may provide a lot of false hope – if the patient doesn't work hard enough to make the improvement needed. But for us, it is refreshing to have hope and to be grateful even for the small improvements! By the way – there is an improvement to be noted – in Dan's speech therapy, his facial muscles are responding better than I have ever seen them. He normally has not been able to move his lips and forming a 'pucker' does not work very well. However, yesterday when he was working on his speech, he was puckering really well! We all noticed an improvement in this ability, and we were excited! (Of course – Dan has always said I need to kiss him more to work on this exercise – probably my fault this hasn't improved as fast as it should have over the years...!)

It is really weird to come back to the USA – it feels like 'back to the future'. I got up – got Dan ready, had a nice morning and then went to the airport. Then the flight was about 10 hours long – in which it was dark outside for part of the time. I tried to get some sleep, but it is a challenge – especially in economy class! We arrived in San Francisco at around 8:00: am (on the same day– and so now I am re-living my morning again... I sit here at the San Francisco airport, and I was able to get logged into the wireless here, and am now listening to the morning session of the LDS General Conference session while I write this update. Isn't technology great?!

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OK- I didn't get this posted earlier as they started to board the plane and I had to go. I got home and called Dan to make sure everything was ok – Nathan and Heather arrived just fine, except that one of their suitcases was lost by the airlines. I had to call the hospital and get through all the Chinese messages to get to them, but we finally made it through as I guessed the room number and entered it in – Nathan answered the telephone in the room, so I was very happy! Dan was working on getting his computer set up with internet and was having some troubles-- this is why he had not been able to email or text message me...

I look forward to getting updates from Nate and Heather and to follow what is going on over there. It feels really strange not being there with Dan, but I know my children will help him. It is good to have the rest of the family be a part of this – it is just hard to come back to reality and have to 'go back to work and make a living...' but that is my other life, and it needs attention too. I am grateful for the way everything has worked out and that I have been allowed this time to take off with to be with Dan. When I return the end of October, I will be gone for three weeks (plus) and I am just grateful that the management team has been so supportive. It really has been a 'team effort' to pull this all together!

Well – it has been a long 28 hour day, and I think I am going to turn in~ (I am looking really forward to my NICE bed and pillow tonight!!)