Today was our first day in Changsha! We woke up after a great night's sleep ready to get to work. We loaded up all our toys/equipment and headed to the clinic. We first got a tour...and WOW! Dr. Lin has created an incredible place for clinical assessments. There is a huge waiting room, that we were all a little in awe of, a room for weight/measurements to be taken, a physician assessment room, several therapy rooms, an evaluation room with a two-way mirror, and a large treatment/training area. There is even a standard toilet, just for us (ha), whoo hoo! We assessed two children today. The first kiddo we assessed was a precious 6.5 year old boy that came in with expressive language concerns and after Sophie & Melissa spent 2 hours with him, determined he had sensory processing issues, social deficits, and would be an excellent candidate for PECS. They were both able to educate parents and will recommend therapy options for future interventions. Other than the dreaded "w-sitting" there were no gross motor concerns. The second child we assessed was a 2.5 year old, who was coming back for a follow-up to determine his speech abilities. He has made tremendous progress since his last visit and was determined that he is progressing appropriately. Again, no gross motor concerns...so Amber became our secretary and photographer!
We had a wonderful lunch at the hospital's cafeteria with a dish that we have talked about ALL DAY. CARROTS! The best carrots any of us have ever eaten. It sounds stupid...but if you had them you would understand. In the afternoon we gave presentations to hospital staff/physicians as well as parents of children in the community. Melissa's presentation focused on Improving Behavior in Autistic Children through sensory interventions. She demonstrated cheap, "at-home" interventions. Her presentation was so great that we got 3 new patients. Sophie presented on PECS using videos and demonstration. This seems to be a technique that the hospital staff is extremely interested in performing in the future. Amber did not present...so she retained her title as TEAM photographer.
For the evening, Dr. Lin took us to the east side of the city to see the biggest mall any of us had ever seen, with 50 restaurants on the top floor! We sat on comfy couches while we ate and tried some (very) spicy food! We were able to talk to some friends/family briefly with wifi. On the ride back to our condo we all crashed for naps.
Tomorrow we have at least 4 more kids on the schedule in the morning and Amber & Melissa will present in the afternoon. We are hoping for more CARROTS tomorrow and ready to continue our work!
Pictures below
We have arrived!! All of our luggage made it with us and they even waived the fee for our extra bag in Shanghai! While waiting for our final flight Sophie and Melissa sampled their very first authentic Chinese food: beef and noodle soup! Getting used to chop sticks with soup took a bit of a learning curve but they were successful, with only minimal splash zone. Amber opted for the comforts of home and ordered some strawberry ice cream instead (thank you Hagan Daaz)! After 24 hours of travel we are all a little worse for the wear and ready to stretch out for a full nights sleep. Tomorrow will be our first day at the hospital assessing and treating some precious kiddos! In the afternoon we will be educating staff/ caregivers on basic assessment and treatment techniques. We are all so excited to hit the ground running!
We are unable to send any pictures yet because we are not in a wifi zone, but many pictures to come as soon as possible. Please keep us all in your prayers as we start working with the wonderful hospital staff tomorrow!
Well it wouldn't be a TEAMworks trip if things didn't go a little wrong. Our lovely check-in ladies woke up on the wrong side of the bed (thank you daylight saving time), and our bags could not be even a pound over. We did some fancy shuffling and all 4 bags are exactly 50 pounds! Phew. We got to security and as our luck would have it, Victoria Lee was checked in instead of Amber Lee. She ran downstairs and found out her bag was headed for Salt Lake...eek! :/ We are about to board our international flight in Dallas, and are preparing for our massive spring forward for a total of 14 lost hours! We are so excited to see what God has in store for us and how he will use us to help the children of China! We are hoping everything arrives in Asia instead of Utah!
A little TEAMWorks China announcement!
TEAMWorks is excited to assist local neonatologist, Dr. Bo Lin, a native of China, as he opens a clinic for children with special needs in China. TEAMWorks will assist Dr. Lin in providing education to staff and therapy to families attending his clinic over the next years. We feel that providing support and resources for families raising children with special needs is an important step to keeping children out of orphanages.
Amber Lee, physical therapist, Melissa Foster, Occupational Therapist and Sophie Wentz, Speech-Language Pathologist leave this weekend on the first trip with Dr. Lin. As they begin their travels, please keep our gals and Dr. Lin in your prayers and check out the TEAMWorks Blog for updates from their trip!
More culture fun! Did you know that Tibetans have a tendency to stick out their tongue when they're embarrassed, when they're excited, or when they're nervous? Well, we now do. While evaluating a sweet Tibetan grandpa, Amanda might have had to tell Cheri that his tongue sticking-out issues were cultural and not a disorder. In fact, it meant he liked us very much. Perhaps being evaluated by 3 American women was the fulfillment of a lifetime dream. But we'll never know, not only because his stroke had made him a little mumbly, but also because he could mostly only speak Tibetan, which Amanda does not.
When introducing how to use a Big Mack switch, Carmen first explained how to record a spoken message. She explained that the message often is used to gain a person's attention; for example, "Come here please." Amanda then prompted one of her male therapists to think of a message so they could practice recording using the switch. Amanda hit the button to turn on the recording, he spoke the message, and everyone but Cheri and Carmen were falling on the floor laughing. When we finally got a translation, we found that his message was very attention-gaining. "I think you're hot... Is it ok that I pursue you?" Later that afternoon, it came back around, when during our final teaching session, he was asked to go help a young quadriplegic girl transfer from her bed to her wheelchair. He asked Amanda if he could quickly leave the class, and she said, "Sure, no problem. Would you like to take the switch with you?" At first he was puzzled and asked, "Why would I need that?" To which she replied, "Just in case you needed to ask the girl out on a date.... You could get permission to pursue her."
The week ended with a flurried picture-taking session after the staff gave us beautiful gifts of Pashmina scarves and Tibetan hand-painted wall hangings. Hugs all around, and a bittersweet last walk from the hospital.
Get ready for it.... Are you ready? Amanda's OT/PT (and now ST) staff were taught the Hog Call! Yes, one little corner of China is now calling the hogs - Chinese style... "Woo pig soey, Wazough-back!" And yes, we have a video!
Stay tuned! A surprise guest blogger will be joining us tomorrow.
Today was filled with more patients and teaching. The highlight of the day was implementing behavior modification with a little 3 year old boy. For a full hour, Carmen wrestled him, enticing him with fun toys but not rewarding the crying. He literally cried the whole time, reaching toward the door because his parents had left the room. This little guy knows how to work the "system". Just picture a little guy barely able to walk, picking up his sucker, drink, and dad's iPad, and trying to get to the door. "I'm getting outta here - this American lady is calling my bluff - NOT cool!" Oh my goodness! This little guy is a smart cookie! It was a good lesson for the staff on calm persistence.
The staff has totally taken the new concept of speech-language therapy and RUN with it. Today they did an evaluation on an adult stroke patient after just learning the techniques yesterday. Behavior modification was introduced just yesterday, and one of the staff members explained some techniques very thoroughly with the parent of the 3 year old cryer today. They are amazing rock stars!