Monday and Tuesday, February 5th and 6th - Day 24 and 25 in Hangzhou, China

Ni Hao everyone,

At least I have learned some basic Chinese while I've been here but everyone chuckles at my pronunciation of course. Hello! = Ni Hao!, Good morning! = Zao Shang Hao!, Good evening! = Wan Shang Hao!, Good night! = Wan An! and finally Thank you! = Xie Xie! Hey?!?! I'm trying just like they are trying English so it keeps us all laughing most of the time :-)

For Monday and Tuesday, Tori has been on her normal routine of PT in the morning followed by acupuncture and EMT in the afternoon. She looks and feels good the vast majority of the time and Maria thinks she is more alert and quicker in her response times. I believe she has much more control of her arms and hands. During the medical staff inspection this morning I asked and mimicked for her to demonstrate some of her new movements. Her right thumb to her nose, ear, chin and forehead. Everyone was excited and she giving out 'thumbs' all around!! It's somewhat of a 'high five' I guess as Tori likes to extend her thumb to touch yours. Of course we've also dubbed this movement either 'thumbs' or 'thumbing' :-) James was ranging Tori's right knee during PT today and measured a 65 degree bend in it!! Remember, it was only 7 degrees when we arrived and when Tori is resting in her wheelchair now it can easily rest at a 45 degree angle. Instead of having both legs extended in her wheelchair we are now extending the right one much less than the left. James basically has five days left before the final measurements will be taken and the improvement marked. We want to range Tori again when we return home at the PCMC because they have their measurements prior to us leaving. I know they will be quite impressed with her progress on this front. Now we just have to keep it up when we return home...

We always joke with James because his English is the most limited of the bunch here. We're still trying to bribe him into coming home with us by offering room and board at our home and access to the beautiful American women that are all over town :-) We can certainly make him blush especially when there are others who can translate around because they also enjoy ribbing James as much as possible.

Tori will have only her PT session tomorrow because her fifth and final SCT is scheduled during the afternoon. Then we will be in therapy only cruise mode until Sunday night when our plane leaves the Shanghai airport at 11:25pm. That's only FIVE days away!! :-) We're almost at the end of this journey and that is good because we are very homesick at this point... That also means Maria has only has five Chinese shopping days left!! ;-) We are so lucky because this year we are basically experiencing TWO 'before Christmas like' shopping frenzies!!!... Maria, Wendy and I went into downtown Hangzhou again today and it was quite chaotic and extremely crowded all in preparation for the Chinese New Year next week. We had lunch and basically loaded up on alot of gifts for home. We have also been buying and trying alot of the candy and treats here so we know what to buy and bring home. It's great because if we don't like something we merely take it out to the nurses desk and it's gone within minutes :-) We had a good laugh the other night as we were each trying a new candy. Maria and I opened the outside wrapper at the same time but when I looked over Maria was already chewing it as I was still trying to get the clear, under wrapper off of mine. Of course Maria was puzzled by the extreme 'chewiness' of the candy until I told her about the other wrapper!! :-) hehe

At midnight last night we were awakened by a LOUD, 20 minute long, Fourth of July type fireworks display outside of our window. It truly was a great show from our room and of course everyone within a 5 mile radius had to be woken up. It was so close all of the nearby car alarms were going off as well. It turns out it was the grand opening of a store and it is traditional to open at midnight with a grand display and they certainly achieved that.

Alright, that is the quick update for today and I'll try and do one tomorrow after Tori's final SCT.

Xie Xie everyone!!! :-)

The Schmanski Family