Saturday morning we met the staff at the hospital and began unloading all the goodies we brought for them since this would be Macey and Julie's last day at the hospital. They were beyond excited to see and learn about each item and immediately got to playing, examining, and organizing them!
Soon after, our first patient arrived and the staff got to witness Macey working her casting magic. They were thrilled, the kid, not so much... We therapists were searching for snacks and iPads to take the child's attention off casting, but apparently this is not how they do it in China. We also saw a few other kiddos from earlier in the week and introduced them to fitting a child to a wheelchair. Once again the staff was enthralled, the kid, not so much. The male staff was mesmerized by the tools. We may just have to ship them some allen wrenches when we get home.
We had one last lunch with our new friends complete with 20+ dishes. Someone even went to another restaurant on the way, and brought us dumplings to the restaurant! We presented them with their gifts and said some kind words about each of them. They are each very special to us!
After lunch we regrouped for a trip to the countryside for a home health visit. We were to see a child who hadn't been out of bed in 10 years due to multiple fractures in both femurs and tibias, that were repaired via placement of intrameddullary nails. We weren't sure what to expect, but were amazed by this child and his family. After one visit to the hospital for an OT/PT evaluation where he stood for the first time and was given a home program, he was walking up to 25 feet with a home-made walker. His family had also constructed push up bars and a bolster from items found within their community. We were welcomed with a full meal and 2 treasure tea which was all delicious! The mother informed us that she is known for her cooking and her children only eat food she makes! We all left feeling very inspired by this family and their dedication to this wonderful little boy.
We were spent at the end of the day. Amanda's friend, who is from Texas, made us an American dinner of bar-b-que with homemade chocolate chip cookies. What a wonderful way to end the day!!!!
Looking back on everything we did today, we feel a mixture of amazement and exhaustion. We started the day by meeting with one of the hospital directors who welcomed us repeatedly and wanted to know if we liked the hospital cafeteria food. Ha! (We actually really like the hospital cafeteria food - it's much more like the "Chinese" food we're used to at home than the more authentic food in restaurants here.)
After that meeting, we headed to the neurology department of the hospital, where we saw inpatient and outpatient adults. Cheri and Carmen made the rounds doing swallowing/speech evals while Julie and Macey worked their magic in the PT/OT area. Next came Macey's teaching on AFO's. 5 or 6 outpatients were seen in the therapy clinic with a "triage-like" atmosphere, AKA minimally controlled chaos. Following lunch, more AFO and kinesiotaping were demonstrated/practiced. The male staff members were a bit apprehensive about removing shirts for demonstrating/practicing taping techniques, but after much encouragement, they complied with lots of giggling all around. Another triage clinic of chaos followed taping fun, and we then ended the day with Macey teaching NICU and infant massage. Yesterday was Julie's marathon teaching day, and today was Macey's marathon.
Amanda's staff of therapists are not currently being utilized in the NICU; however, it just happened to work out that our translator is the chief midwife in the hospital and has access to the NICU. She was very excited about the information that Macey presented and can't wait to set up a meeting to discuss involving therapy staff in NICU operations.
We had dinner with Amanda and her staff of therapists at a local hu-hot-style restaurant. Macey and Carmen might have gotten dishes that set their mouths on fire, finding out AFTER tasting that one of the spices used in the dish was nicknamed 9-volt because biting into it would be the equivalent of licking a 9-volt battery. Relationships with the staff were strengthened, and many laughs were had about cultural differences in everything from work settings to personal relationships to life ideals.
We hit the ground running this morning and didn't look up until 6:30 pm this evening! Several of the kiddos we were supposed to have seen earlier in the week came today, plus the ones already planned for. Between patients, Julie and Macey educated the awesome, awesome staff on constraint induced treatment, kinesotaping, and assessments.
The staff here is young and hungry for knowledge. They caught on so fast and had great insight and questions! They had fun trying out the techniques on each other. During the afternoon appointments several staff members utilized treatment strategies learned earlier in the day and were impressed with the results they saw with the children!
We ended the day with dinner with Amanda. She is such an inspiration doing this work day in and day out in a foreign land!
Now to bed, so we will have the energy for day 2! Enjoy the pictures!
We made it to Beijing!!!! Unfortanately, not in time to make the 6:40AM flight. Boo! We did, however, make it through check-in with out being charged for our extra baggage with some help from a friend we made hanging out in Houston. Soooo, what are we going to do for the next 24 hours?! Sightsee of course! Our newest best friend, Huey, was our guide to Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City. We had a great time, but we are spent! Just boarded our flight to get to our friend Amanda, our final destination and a BED!!!
*Since receiving this update the ladies have made it to their destination and are safe and sound at their apartment! Thanks for all the prayers.
After a delay Sunday night, that turned into a 9:00pm flight on Monday, which turned into a 11:00pm flight Monday, which turned into a 2:00am flight on Tuesday, they are off to China. Please continue to pray that they would feel encouraged and peaceful as they finish out their journey to China and begin the important work before them. Some words from our gals:
Thank you so much for your prayers over the last 24 hours!!! It's 1:51 a.m. and we are on the plane (again) and are super pumped to be on our way to China! We know God has a plan for this trip and we now ask for prayers for us to carry out His will!