Woeful Wednesday

Odette:

Whoops off to a rough start today all round. Laurinda woke with the Flu (we're hoping it's not Swine) and then got caught in her nightie and had to ask the professor (a.k.a God) to wait a minute while she put something decent on. He wasn't amused.

It seems that is common to suffer from Sciatica pain after/between Lumbar Punctures. It happened a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn't too bad. This morning it started at about 6.00am and I was literally in tears of pain by about 7.00. It was excruciating. I was poked and prodded and questioned by all the staff including the professor. A pain plan was put together and administered. Chinese see pain medications very differently than we do in Western cultures, they would rather fix the source of the pain than administer strong pain medication. Considering I had already had Tramal and panadine forte and I was still dying I was happy to go along with any plan they had. I received electrowave therapy, IV form of anti-inflammatory and 1/2 a tablet of mild pain relief. They also told me to put a towel on my left bum but it is a bit hard with no hot water. It seemed like a lot of things happening at once, but they got it right and within 45 minutes the pain was gone. They sure know their stuff around here. We have been monitored quite closely today- any more pain and there would be NO stem cells tonight! Time is precious, our flights home are booked and we don't want any delays now. I really don't want IVs instead of Lumbar Punctures either, but with 2 hours to go things are looking good.

I got quite excited when another lady arrived with MS a few days ago. We had a big chat and she is in a very similar situation to myself regarding the progression of disease; limited mobility, cognitive difficulties - all the way down to our "Tourettes" as we call it. Unfortunately it has been too cold here to leave the room so I haven't been able to catch up with her and find out if the treatment has been as helpful for her. I hope so. There have been no other MS patients.

Thank the Lord that we both have a sense of humour. Today has pushed us in every way and we are still in good spirits. Once the pain was under control we realised it was to be another day without a hot shower (5 days now...) A solar system was installed a month ago without regard for the freezing Winter that kicked in about a week ago. We are almost at the pulling-out-our-hair stage. The bathroom door handle fell off, there is no heating or extra blankets for our concrete futons and our laptop died. Laurinda is becoming very angry at the poor man that never leaves the computer that has Skype on it, so she can have her daily dose of her babes. I am beginning to fear for both of them.

On no! Now there is not only no hot water- there is NO water at all! Help- send the helicopter for us. Please. They're coming to wheel me upstairs for my stem cells any minute and all I can hear are fireworks. What planet are we on? How can I be receiving cutting edge technology and there is NO hot water? How does the doctor scrub up with NO water? The Chinese honeymoon period is over! Well at least we're still laughing :)