Hospital Banner, More Treatment, A Miracle

We went to the hospital on Monday.  This was the day planned to give the banner of appreciation to the Respiratory Department for taking good care of us.  We went to talk to Dr. Tricia early because I was still having trouble with my cough.  I had brought what I thought was a good supply of a good decongestant with an expectorant with me to China, but I did not plan on getting this sick.  I had used up most of my supply, and I needed some to get home with.  I have problems with my ears on airplanes, and this is the solution I have found to make airplane flight possible without pain.  We had tried to get something at a pharmacy here, but we can’t communicate to them what we are looking for.  The next solution as to see if Dr. Tricia could help us.

 

Our picture with the department head doctor, Dr Wu, and the hospital staff there were there.

With the Kinghorn's holding the banner.  Dr. Wu was actually Deneice's doctor while she was there for three weeks with pneumonia.  Dr. Tricia is the second from the left.

A close up of the banners.

We gave Dr. Tricia the outer package of the tablets and she looked it up.  She was concerned that I was taking this every night to help me sleep.  She prescribed a Chinese medicine that is made from the inside of the bamboo stem.  It works pretty well, but she also suggested that I come back on Wednesday morning and see Dr. Hu, the one who had treated me before.  

John and Deneince Kinghorn came over to the hospital at four, and we presented our appreciation banners to the department head and the doctors and nurses who had helped to take care of us.  These banners make them look good at evaluation time.  Sometimes people have a banner made and present it to the department.  It is a Chinese way of thanking the hospital.  

When we were finished at the hospital, we crossed the bridge over to the Hanlin Hotel.  Kayce had her daughter-in-law and grandson here for a visit, and wanted to have a dinner with them to introduce us all to them.  We ate at the hotel and had a great time.  We made more friends, laughed a lot, and enjoyed being together.  Kayce's family had to leave for their flight, but the rest of us stayed and visited until we had to catch the bus home.  

 

Kayce is in the red shirt, flanked by two of her former students.

The Kinghorns' and Aaron Tran.

Carol and her daughter, Sophia, are good friends.  We had so much fun talking with Carol.  She a fireball of fun!

We thought that Sophia could pass for one of David's nieces, Madylin.  This picture doesn't do her justice the lighting was bad, but when we showed Sophia a picture of Mady, she gasped because she could immediately see the similarities.

After we had lunch on Tuesday, we had to take some more documents over to the foreign languages department to finish getting our work permits for the next year.  At least, we hope this will finish it.  We had to stop at a copy and print shop to have our pictures taken first, because we didn't have any more of our passport photos left.  That took about fifteen to twenty minutes was all.  Then we got on the bus and headed to the Hongialou Campus.  

We got off the bus at the stop we needed, and headed toward the campus.  When we reached the corner to cross the road, a Chinese man came up to us, and had our work permits in his hand!  We were astounded!  How did he get those, and how had he gotten ahead of us?  David had put our old work permits in his fanny pack.  Somehow, they jumped out of his fanny pack (he had left the zipper unzipped), and the old man had found them.  I guess he convinced the bus driver to let him off at the corner so that he could give them to us.  This would have been very bad news for us if they had been lost.  It truly seemed like a miracle had happened for us to get those work permits back.  It seems like we are being blessed to have angels around us, supporting us.

Wednesday morning, I went to see Dr. Tricia.  She has wanted to talk to me about her father's death and some dreams that she had lately.  After I arrived, she brought Dr. Hu in so that he could check me out.  His diagnosis was PNDS.  Pose Nasal Drip Syndrome.  After severe respiratory infections like I had, you can often have a lingering cough that lasts anywhere from three to eight weeks.  It had already been four weeks since my release from the hospital.  I walked away with some more traditional Chinese medicine, called lou huang guo, an inhaler with an asthma medicine, a nasal spray with a steroid and Claritin for an antihistamine.  I feel some better, but still have a cough sometimes, and my voice doesn't tolerate speaking for long periods.  Not good when you are a teacher.  David still has a little cough, but his lungs are clear.

Wednesday afternoon, David went to see Dr Yang.  He is the head oncology doctor at Qilu hospital.  Since David's cancer is back, he wanted to talk to him.  Dr.Yang had trained at MD Anderson hospital in Texas, one of the leading cancer treatment centers in the US.  David thought it would be a good idea to be in touch with him while he is in China, especially since we plan to come back next year.  He can help with treatment while David is here and be in touch with his doctors back in the US.  

We had an interesting church meeting today.   Our Branch President was released from his calling.  He is getting ready to leave China, his job here helping to build a nuclear plant is finished. He has been in China for about 7 years and has served in the Branch Presidency for 6 years.  We are sad to see him be released, but we know that the new Branch President will competently lead us. 

The rest of our week was taken up with classes, shopping for groceries and a few other things, and correcting papers. We are in the final weeks of classes and will start exams soon.