DAY 33 - FARE WELL HANGZHOU

I had another good night and didn’t even have any pain medication until early this morning and it was only extra strength Tylenol at that. Because I wasn’t in pain before I went to bed last night the nurse wasn’t instructed to give me the new medication the doctor had talked about earlier that morning. I still have pain but only when I move the wrong way or depending on how and what I’m sitting on. Regardless of what pain I’m still subject to, things were looking very positive that I’d be gone today. We were already packed up because we had to move rooms the previous night because a new patient was scheduled to come into room 9 that evening so they made us move 2 rooms down to number 7. I still don’t understand why they wouldn’t just move the new patient into this room but it didn’t really matter because we had to pack up anyway. Doctor Jack still hadn’t talked with me by 10 am so we asked Luca if he could get the results because we were planning to leave by 11 o’clock. This put him into a bit of a panic since he didn’t expect us to be gone so fast.
He scrambled and pulled everything together within half an hour. I sat down with Luca and Dr. Jack to go over my MRI which they had prepared on an x-ray type of film along with the diagnostic report. I’m still impressed with how fast they got all of this done so Dr. Jack began explaining in detail referring to my MRI scan where he saw the problem originating from. I had a slightly herniated disc at L5 – S1. That is lower on my spine and the doctor believed this to be from a pre existing condition due to my abnormal posture and gate. He showed me on the scan that none of my lumbar punctures were even close to this area and the reason it was now causing me problems is that this disc was pushed in restricting the free flow of the stem cells causing inflammation and pain. He did give a more technical analysis of the situation but in layman terms this is what was happening. Since my pain had subsided the medication they were giving was successful in reducing the swelling and over the next few days the natural course of self healing should take control and I shouldn’t need further medication. I was very relieved to hear this explanation and excited to be hitting the road to Shanghai.
We spent the next little while saying good bye to the staff who we had adopted as family over the last month and the other patients. We had prepared a nice gift basket for the staff consisting mainly of different kinds of teas and various snacks. This was an original idea for them and they were very appreciative. I had also written up a personal thank you incorporating a picture of TK and I that we had printed and mounted in a nice picture frame. I was really quite pleased with the originality of our parting gifts as the usual gifts and thank you offerings are very repetitive. I was so happy to be leaving yet sad to say farewell to all of our new friends. I truly think the world of the staff that took such exceptional care of us all for thirty days!
It was now 11:30 am and time to hit the road, unfortunately in the pouring rain again! The CTV camera man was back at the hospital for one last shot as we were packing up our luggage and heading out. We made it to Shanghai in 2 hours but once in the city it took us just as long to get through traffic and find our hotel! I thought Hangzhou was big but it was nothing compared to this enormous metropolis! We actually didn’t run out of urban sprawl the entire drive to Shanghai. I suppose with over 1.3 billion people there’s not a lot of open and unoccupied space. The crazy driving didn’t change at all; in fact it is worse in this city especially with the amount of traffic! We are staying in the Bund district and after checking into our hotel we travelled to the Bund fabric market where you can get suits, shirts, dresses and pretty much anything made in the fabric and style of your choice for extremely reasonable prices. TK got a dress, 2 shirts, a coat and I got a shirt which we will return to pick up on Sunday. Three day turnaround time for custom tailoring is pretty amazing! We’ll hit some more markets and do more shopping tomorrow; I just hope it stops raining! It feels so good to be out of the hospital and feeling better, I can start enjoying myself again! Stay tuned for more exciting adventures coming your way from China!
LC