Chris is incredibly jetlagged - and so are we. He spends a lot of time sleeping during the day but also at night. I think the trip knocked him out completely. On Saturday morning two young doctors came into the room to look at Chris and ask questions. They knew NOTHING about his case so I wonder who read all the medical reports I sent previously. I think the main doctor will come by on Monday only - I just hope he will not asked me how Chris got injured otherwise I will be worried then. The PT also came to evaluate Chris but we did not take any measurements yet. James - the PT - said Chris' tone is very high (actually Chris was sleeping then and was more relaxed than usual), so I told him this was the number 1 problem: tone and spasticity. Tomorrow I believe there will be a schedule in place and we will know when the injections will be given.
 
On the caregiver/ helper issue: I now realize what an amazing man Hwang (our helper in Beijing) was. The first man here (almost Chris' size) refused to work with Chris unless there was another guy hired together. He said Chris was too heavy. I told him that in Beijing we had one guy only (shorter than me) and we always managed perfectly without any problem because there was always a family member along. But he passed and neither I wanted some one with so little goodwill. I spent the first night with Chris and changed him by myself in the middle of the time. I woke up about 7 times due to a mixture of jet lag, noises from the room next door and Chris being up and wanting attention.
 
The next afternoon, the hospital arranged for another man to come from the agency but again they were insisting in having another man... I asked the translator from the hospital to get in touch with the hospital in Beijing, find out where Hwang was because I wanted to fly the man to Hangzhou but I came to reason when I found the costs involved: helper 1 will be on duty 24 hours and it costs US$13 and helper 2 will work 12 hours for US$10 per day, that is a total of US$23/ day for two men. At that point, I just gave in... Hwang was US$21 per day so this would be just US$2 extra. I think this is not bad after all as Chris will get really a lot of care. I plan for them to work with extra stuff on the free time (i.e. body massages, extra range of motion, extra seating balance exercises, stretching his fingers, etc). This will also allow me and later my dad a little bit of freedom and relieve us. As a matter of fact, today  I will go to the zoo in Hangzhou with Gabriel as he has been going bananas between the hotel room and the hospital. Plus, as I knew it, Gabriel adores Chris but is constantly competing for my attention, it's really very exhausting sometimes...
 
So I think we are relatively sorted out. I have already gone through the meds, feeding, cleaning, etc with one of the helpers. I think he will get the hang of it in a couple of days. He is not nearly as interested or pro-active as Hwang but I think I have to deal with what we got in hands. There is none of the novelty about China like last time around. It feels a bit like deja vu - the hospital in Hangzhou is a massive 20-story building but Beike (the stem cell company) only occupies the 20th floor and employs their own staff. The decoration is much nicer which is why I thought it felt so much better than TianTan, but the floor on our room was so filthy I could not believe it. They cleaned it more thoroughly this morning... The food here is a problem and I think it will be a problem. Chris was not really into his dinner last night and I can see him refusing to eat again... I can't blame him because after only 1 day I am already sick of it. Everything is so so oily... The next best option after Chinese food is KFC or McDonald’s. There is a kitchen in the hospital but no stoves in it, I'd need to cook using electric pans. Actually, forget about cooking, I'd be really overwhelmed by it... Well, we shall see how things go...
 
The hotel we are staying is only a large block away from here on top of a large supermarket. It's very convenient. Gabriel likes to catch a "bike-taxi" back and forth - that's the big moment of his day. Yesterday he had the equivalent of the aquarium in the fish section of the supermarket. Most of the seafood for sale was alive (frogs, fishes, shrimps, crabs, eels, etc etc). Gabriel was very excited about all the animals there and our trip to get shampoo took about 1 hour.
 
I think tomorrow the serious stuff will kick in and I will keep everyone informed. The staff here is very attentive and I think things are going well so far...
 
Thanks for praying for Chris!
 
Koo