First Week Back

This week was tiring for me, only partly because of my recovery process. Grades were due and narratives were due this week because status reports were going home. I knocked it out all in pretty much 2 days, but it wasn't much fun. By the end of the week, I had pretty much caught up with everything and was back into the full swing of things.

I am excited for this weekend. I'll go into work to grade some papers and plan for next week, but overall I feel pretty good. I had one bad evening where I had pain and it was only on a 4 level. Apparently, I still have some internal scabs that are passing through me.

I still have to fly back to Bangkok next weekend for my check up. Have yet to book the flight and hoping insurance will cover it. We'll see.

Just wanted to update some people. Hope all is well everyone else's way.

Back in China Finally

Jamie and I arrived back in Shekou at 7:15 on Friday night. Checking out of the hospital on Thursday was literally an all day affair. Doctor cleared me at 9:00 am or so, but we didn't leave until 6:00 pm. Last thing they did was take my IV off of me.

We checked into a hotel in Bangkok near the hospital for Thursday evening and even made it down to Hard Rock Cafe for a great meal. We both deserved it. We had to figure out our flight the next day through the insurance, and it was finally finalized around midnight.

We slept a decent night's sleep but had to wake at 5:00 am to eat breakfast and then take a cab to Bangkok airport. Bangkok is really only about a 2 hour flight into Shenzhen, but the insurance booked a flight for us to go to Taiwan first (4 hour flight) then back to Shenzhen (2 hour flight) after an hour and a half layover in Taiwan. Frustrating, but we made it.

Today has been a day of resting and getting the apartment back in order, including getting our open VPN set up so I can write and post on the blog as well as keep up with everyone via Facebook. I can now post pictures in China too.

With that said, I'll be writing a bit more on the blog. I have a doctor's appointment in Bangkok again in 2 weeks (Nov. 1), so I'll be flying on that Sunday to Bangkok for a 2 hour appointment with 2 doctors. Kind of a hassle, but I guess it'll be worth it to know I'm in good health.

My new diet has taken effect. No chocolate, nuts, black tea, and soy sauce. We've had to adjust some of our eating habits, but I'll manage. We put white chocolate chips in our oatmeal cookies this evening.

Thanks again to everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and get well wishes.

Bustin Out!

It is now Thursday morning, October 15. I have been in this hospital in Bangkok going on 12 days, 13 counting the 1 day in Hanoi. They tell me I will be checking out of here today though. I am delighted. I have been pain free for 4 days and fever free for 5. My last ultrasound on Tuesday showed that the swelling in my kidney had gone down, but was not 100%. The dietitian came by yesterday and told me that she wants me on a low oxalate diet. That is no surprise. We had been reading up on it, so we knew what to expect.

The surgeon wants me to jog 20 minutes per day. The kidney doctor wants me to drink 2 cups of water as soon as I wake up in the morning, 2 right before I go to bed, and 2 liters during the day. I have to eliminate chocolate and peanuts from my diet as well as cut back on some other things that I normally eat. Except for the chocolate and peanuts, none of it are too life changing. I need to eat more fruit, which is fine because they are available in China all the time and are quite good.

We are quite fortunate to have some amazing insurance to cover the costs of this whole ordeal. I'm not sure we'll ever see the total bill, but maybe someone can take a stab at what 12 days in a private hospital in the the United States would run plus a private airplane transport and a commercial flight home would run as well as surgery, 2 CT scans, 3 sonograms, and enough morphine and medicine to knock out a herd of elephants.

I won't make some of you cry by telling you how much Jamie and I are out of pocket for this.

We should be leaving Bangkok either this afternoon (Thursday) or tomorrow. It depends on the insurance company and when they book our flight.

I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal. Looking forward to starting my new diet, not looking forward to running 20 minutes a day, but I'm looking forward to dragging Griffey along for the run. He certainly needs to run.

I would like to again thank all of my co-workers and friends in Shekou who have looked after Griffey while we've been away as well as subbed for me and taken care of my classes. We certainly didn't plan to be out for 2 full weeks, but it is nice to know we have such wonderful and caring people to help us out in our time of need. We would like to think that we'd be equally wonderful if the shoe were on the other foot.

This has been the worse experience of my life to date, and I hope I never repeat it. Sure, I'm sure I'll be in the hospital for something again eventually, but let's hope I can take care of myself and delay it, at least for something like kidney stones.

Still Here

Tuesday night and I've been in this hospital for 10 days. Again, it is an excellent hospital, but I'm getting a little stir crazy. Had another sonogram this evening and I hope that my kidney is back to normal. No fever or pain for 2 days.

Here is a picture of Ronald at the McDonald's downstairs in the hospital. Decent food court down there. Jamie has eaten about all her options down there over the last 10 days. I have been eating the hospital food. Some good and some bad. I've chosen western meals and stayed with the chicken for the most part. The pork goulash was particularly tasty for lunch today. The always have some sort of juice, but my favorite is the apple.

As you can tell, no news here. Same bed, same couch, same TV with same stations. I've about finished my book. I take naps and play solitaire just to pass the time. Jamie and I roam the hallways to get out and stretch our legs. They actually brought a wheelchair for me today to take me down to my sonogram, but I just walked behind it. The nurse put my folder, which is now 2 inches thick, in the wheelchair instead. Nurses are insanely nice here. Their English is pretty good, but sometimes they just smile and repeat themselves when I ask a question.

I hope to get of here tomorrow. The insurance lady from Aetna (the nicest person we have ever spoken to from a major corporation) called tonight to check in on us and tell us the steps for getting home. Aetna has been simply amazing, but I'm sure it is costing our employer a pretty penny. We certainly couldn't afford worldwide insurance back in the states. In fact, I don't know anyone who has it back in the states.

I'll keep everyone updated as best I can...

Kidney Smidney

Still in hospital recovering. Kidney doctor told me today that the infection where the stone was lodged is not getting much better which is affecting my kidney. My days are getting monotonous. I have not been outside in 1 week. I feel as though I am typing this from some prison room or a prison camp. I have the same pain in my side where the infection is about once per day and have to ask for some pain killers because the pain is unbearable. I was hoping to go home tomorrow; but instead, it'll be more sonograms, antibiotics, billions of liters of water, and crappy hospital food.

I wish Jamie would get out some, and not because I don't want her here, but because I feel she needs to get out. Maybe she'll heed my advice and get out some tomorrow. She has been wonderful during the whole process. There is really not much she can do when I'm in so much pain, but she stands next to me the whole time holding my hand or rubbing my back. Really is a good wifey.

I'll post some more when I know more, but as of now, we are here for several more days. We made our lesson plans for all week. I have never been out of work for so long due to an illness, never been in the hospital overnight much less 8 nights, and have never had this much cabin fever.

On a good note, as soon as I recover, I can begin research for my dissertation. Still hoping to knock out the research before winter break, but we'll see.

Feel free to drop me a comment on here or on Facebook. I appreciate all who have already done so. Keep both of us in your thoughts please.

Quick Update

It is now Friday night and I'm still in my lime green hospital PJs hooked to an IV pumping me full of antibiotics. The surgery gave me an infection (of course), I have to go a couple of days longer without a temperature or sharp (curl up in a little ball and scream) pain.

I'm moving around more and staying awake most of the day. I have learned that anywhere are 37 degrees Celsius is a normal body temperature. There are some English channels here in our room (42" LCD) that shows HBO, Cinamax, and Star Movies, as well as CNN, ESPN (Asia), AXN, and Star World. I have watched Star World the most because it has the best shows. Just finished watching Boston Legal.

Still drinking water which I'm getting sick of. My temperature goes up and down, so I sweat from head to toe sometimes when I sleep. When I get up to use the restroom, I come back to a cold, wet bed. Once, in my morphined pain-induced state a few days ago, I asked Jamie to check to see if I had urinated on myself because I was so wet. It was just sweat.

The nurses are very nice and all weigh about 75 pounds. I have my blood pressure and temperature taken about every hour. It is amazing how much your blood pressure fluctuates. Is that even normal?

Jamie has been awesome, but I know she is bored out of her mind. She says she dread the time when I will curl up in my ball and begin screaming because of the pain. Luckily, it hasn't happened in 24 hours. Pain free for 24 hours, sounds like a T Shirt.

I'm rambling, but wanted to post something lighter than surgery procedures or doomsday material.

Update on Surgery

I'm going to be candid and little detailed here, so if you have a squishy stomach or do not want to hear the details of my horrible experience, you might not want to read ahead. I'm writing to detail my account as best as I can experience it.

It is now Thursday morning (Wednesday night for most of you). My surgery went well. They removed the stone that was lodged in the opening of my bladder from the uterer. The stone was about 2.2 by 4.7 mm. Not huge, but because it was lodged, it was causing some kidney swelling.

After the surgery, the placed a catheter in me. Along with the catheter was a wire that ran through my penis, up the urethra, into the bladder, up the uterer, and into the kidney. You can see the wire above, look closely toward the bottom of the picture. Might be a strange thing to keep, but that wire was not stabilized, so it was constantly moving inside my body irritating it with a pain that was much worse than the stone itself.

When they removed the catheter on Wednesday morning, I began feeling better, but had some constipation problems due to all of the morphine and other pain killers. Also, my urination burned because it was half urine and half blood. This only lasted a few hours though. My back also had severe pain because of the wire that had been inserted had irritated a path all the way to the kidney. About 2:00, they finally gave me some more morphine after I had my first bowel movement in 4 days. I slept for about 2.5 hours which was the longest I had continuously slept in 4 days.

After I awoke, I felt normal for the first time since Friday night. Since then, I have been recovering and have just had some overall body pains and trying to regulate my stomach issues by eating more regularly.

I would like to thank everyone who has emailed or FB me with best wishes and get well comments. It is nice to know you have people thinking about you when you are sick, much less being 8000 miles from home. Luckily, our hospital has been very good and the doctors and nurses have been very helpful.

We are hoping to leave the hospital today or tomorrow and fly back to Shenzhen over the weekend. Our insurance flies us back home, so we have to wait for them to finalize arrangements after hearing from the hospital.