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Week 6: April 6 - April 13
April 06, 2008
Sunday- Weekend is boring unless you’re hanging with your "mates" from across the hall! I was very lazy this Sunday. I had plans to go to the mall with Julie and Elaine, but the dudes across the hall were going to eat, and cruise the markets, so I joined them. We all piled into the big rig, with the driver, that they had called for four hours this afternoon. We went to a building that had a lift that did not reach the restaurant, no problem though, because we can be carried.
After lunch we all walked (and rolled) around the markets, there was one that was underground. It was very busy and very hot down there, but also very interesting. (An underground flea market.) The guy who drove us to Jaipur was there shopping and stopped me to say hello, SMALL WORLD! I NEVER thought we would see anyone we have met here ever again, this place is HUGE! There were a lot of children begging on the streets today, nothing unusual, it really bothers me though, and I feel terrible. One guy was carrying a baby, and the little one had sore’s all over his legs. The baby was drooling and was completely unconscious. I went to McDonalds and wanted to get the baby a milkshake, but the line was way too long and I didn’t want the rest of the group to have to wait. It breaks my heart to see that. On our way back to the hospital, we were stopped at an intersection and some of the beggar’s were surrounding the vehicle asking for some rupees, all of a sudden someone in the backseat noticed one of the young girls on the side of the street was asking for rupees as she sat on the ground waving her broken leg in the air. It was the saddest thing I had seen, I feel so badly and wish that I could help them all, but I have been told that most of them are doing it for a business, and they get the sad looking children for the suckers-like me!
Jacque and I decided to have the driver drop us off at another market. We had given the boys my cell phone number, and had, also told them that if we were not home by dark to come looking for us. Well, we were so into the market and all of the action that as soon as it was dark we realized we had better head back (though, it was dark, there was still no phone call from the boys!). So on our way out, we stopped to look at some more bangles, and even after 65, that Jaq had purchased on the inside, she still decided to buy two more, as did I, they were a great bargain, so why the heck now. 50 cents for two, good deal! We did not want to pay too much for the ride home so we piled into a Tuc-Tuc! The yellow and green three wheeler, which has a cab on it! Very Tight squeeze for two people, not to mention we had to add the wheelchair. VERY INTERESTING. We took the wheels off, and set the chair on our laps. The driver also had to lean forward a little. It was a great adventure, and when we arrived at the hospital the security guard was laughing and shaking his head in disbelief. (He seriously does not know what to think of me, anything they think cannot be done by someone in a wheelchair, he see’s from me! Well, and Amanda, they all think she is absolutely amazing, and she is, but she shocked them with her wheelchair skills!)
Back onto the residential floor, and we are wondering why the boys were not more worried about us, without an answer, we had to show Elaine and Julie all of the bangles that Jaq had purchased. We sat and chatted with them a while, then off to our own rooms!
With all of the running around that I did I thought I had worn myself out, but still no sleep. I did not fall asleep until 2am. I laid there tossing and turning, usually I can play on the internet, but with that being on and off in my room, it really leaves me with nothing to do!
April 07, 2008
This morning I woke up very late, and very exhausted, too little sleep. I rush into the shower, and down to PT. I even ditched the sister’s, and their attempt to take my BP. However, I did have to wait on the elevator, (it is getting slower and slower daily), and Mr. Lalalin to take my lunch order. VEG or NON-VEG!
PT was fun, I have gotten so much stronger in my balancing exercises, and also the knee standing. I am happy with my improvements with these exercises, because I can see the changes, they are very obvious.
"Humble" came in today with a new bad word for me! Dang her, those are the bad words are the easy one’s for me to remember! And, no one will tell me the meaning, I asked Geeta (one of the sister’s) and she blushed, slapped my hand and asked who told me that! She would not tell me. I am happy to be able to entertain the PT group, they all laugh at me when I learn these silly words and they explain them to me in Hindi sentences, dumb blonde trying to figure that out-yea, pretty much impossible! Shivani, had noticed through my performance, that I was exhausted so she sent me to my room to take a nap, so that I was 100% for taking steps in the afternoon.
I got to my room about 11, and had just laid down for my nap, and there was a knock on the door. I ignored it! Then there was a phone call, which I also ignored, (it was Elaine). Three more times there were more knocks on my door, with two more phone calls. Do they know what a nap is? I disconnected the phone, so there were three phone calls on my personal cell phone. OK-NOW WE NEED SOME BOUNDARIES! Finally, after an hour of all of this going on, I climbed out of bed, with my hair in my face, and the "I just woke up" look, I opened the door and asked the sister’s, "CAN I HELP YOU?" They looked at me like I was not supposed to be sleeping. They were rambling off something that they wanted to know, but I was only half way listening! I shut the door and climbed back onto my bed, two minutes later, another knock on my door. It was lunch! My nap time was officially over, and absolutely unsuccessful! I ventured on down to Elaine’s room to vent to them about my unsuccessful nap. She did tell me that one of the knocks was her, but that the sisters had told her I was sleeping and to knock louder, and to turn the door knob. Jaq also had knocked and they told her the same thing.
I went to PT early, so that Shivani and I could work on steps and side steps! When I got down there Shivani had informed me that I had a procedure on the 9th, which kind of confused me because Dr. Shroff had told me that I would not be having a procedure. I needed to have a meeting with her! To kill two birds with one stone, (walking, and my meeting with the Doctor) Shivani and I decided to take the walker upstairs into the lobby. We climbed into the elevator; I am so used to pushing the number 2 button to go to my room, so I pushed it. Shivani was freaking out, telling me noo; we need to go to number 1. When actually after we pushed number 1 we remembered we need to go to 0. OOOPS! So onto the 2nd floor, and to the 1st floor, and then to the floor 0! Both Shivani and I were laughing so hard by the time we got to the right floor, that people were waiting for us to get off of the elevator to see what was so funny!
I got onto my feet with the walker, and started toward Dr. Shroff’s office, she just happened to be out in the hall, and very confused as to why I was upstairs in the walker. Shivani told her that I was insisting that I speak with her regarding my procedure. Talking 90 miles per hour, I told her that I felt I was able to be alone and receive my procedures and that Shivani was my reference. She interrupted, telling me that, yes indeed I was getting my procedure; it is a smaller procedure but that I will be getting it this Wednesday. Satisfied, I told her our meeting was over! She laughed at me, it was the shortest meeting ever!
It was very confusing to everyone, as to why I was walking in the reception area, so I told them. Deepak said that I reminded him of the movie "Legally Blonde" because I can talk 90mph, and I believe EVERYTHING he tells me! DUH! Dr. Ashish, laughed at me for my reason of being up there, he said I am always asking about my procedures; how many will I get, and when will I get them! I laughed and told him I will vacation in India later, for now I want as many procedures as he will give me. He just laughs at me! I love him, he is the best!
After PT, Elaine, Julie and I went to the mall. It is not fun to try on pants! We found out that the sizes are all wrong. I had what I thought would be my size, tried them on, um...no! They were so small, so I grab the next size up, um...no! WAY TOO BIG! WHAT THE??? After hours of shopping (ok, like 30 minutes), I am on a demand for sugar. Right across the way we found a Sweet Shoppe! YAY, GUMMI BEARS! (Sonia, you no longer have to send me some!) SUGAR OVERLOAD! And now, satisfied, off to shop for Elaine some jeans..HA good luck!
Enough shopping??? NO, we went to a market, because Elaine wanted to find some yarn! It was 9pm, and most of the shops in the market place were closing, but we were able to find an open shop with yarn. Half of the price than what she would spend in the US.
I wanted to show her a shop that Sonia and I really liked, so we travelled all over the market, up and down a couple steps, and across the busy street. To the shop we had to go up six more steps, so to do that I asked three young guys to lift me up them, so they did without any problems. The store was closed so we had to find some more guys to help me down the six steps. I grabbed the three guys closest to me, they were skinny young guys. On the way down the steps, (one on each side of me and one behind), the wheel goes flying off. Laughing hysterically, Julie and Elaine are so worried that I was hurt, and the guys were holding me in mid air trying to put the wheel back on. Language barrier- yea! Dark, and an interesting trip down the stairs, we decided that it was time for us to head back.
We shared our treats from the Sweet Shoppe with some of the residents, and thankfully exhausted ourselves to have a great night sleep!
April, 08,2008
I slept well, FINALLY! I think all of the running around helped to wear me down, to have a great night! I woke up with enough time to have breakfast and get ready for PT. As I went out to the traffic jam, they informed me that the elevator was broken, and that it should be fixed around 10am, and that PT will be in the room. I had to rush back into my room to clean it, I had left enough time for me to get ready but had planned to clean it after PT. As I was quickly picking up the room, Shivani came in. She told me that the lift would be fixed around 11, and we would do the stretching and balancing in here for now, and walking later.
After PT, oh wow, I was full of energy, and no one was up and moving because there is nowhere to go. Julie is sleeping now, this is my perfect chance to talk the sisters into taking this horrible hoop out of my nose and put in the stud. I had Rita talked into it,but Jaq is saying no, that I will get an infection and my nose will fall off. I’m thinking I need a second opinion. The doctor was in Shawn’s room, so I asked her, she told me I should wait until it has been a week after first getting the nose pierced. DANG IT! Since I could not change the nose ring, and I could not bug Julie and Elaine yet, I decided to clean my room again, and had the ward boy clean my bathroom and floors. I was satisfied but also extremely bored, so I checked my emails until the internet went out. Now, I had nowhere to go, and nothing to do. Thankfully Elaine’s neighbor called, he too was bored. I grabbed my blanket, a pillow, a coca-cola and a movie, and headed to his room to watch movies. Elaine joined us. She and I pulled out the blue futon thing, and we both sat on that with our feet up on my wheelchair. That worked for a while. Then lunch came, the ward boy delivered our lunches to the room. Deepak was in for a visit, and wanted to hand Elaine her lunch, but he grabbed it wrong, so it went flying across the room. It was very amusing; however, the second lunch that Elaine took was her mother’s, (no lunch for Julie). We both wanted ketchup for our nuggets, but we were too lazy to get up and get some, so we yelled across the hall to Julie. She came across the hall, throwing ketchup packets at us, apparently we forgot about her, and when we left to go across the hall, we left the door wide open while she was showering"OOPS! After our chicken nuggets we then laid the futon thing out so that it was a bed, and we watched our 2nd movie. All three of us fell asleep, Elaine and I squeezed onto the small futon thing, and the neighbor in his bed. We were sleeping really good too, until Dr. Pruty came in. He knocked once then entered. It was obvious that all of us were sleeping but he decided to confirm it by speaking loudly to all of us, "ARE YOU SLEEPING? ARE YOU FEELING WELL?" With no response, and an unpleased look from me, he could tell he had woke us up. NO problem though, we all fell back to sleep. We were all supposed to have PT again for our afternoon session, but the lift is still not working. After 11, when it was not fixed they told us 2 it would be fixed. I give up! We slept through a movie then watched another. By then it was dinner time! The food smelled very different, so Elaine and I ordered out. Since we all had slept almost all day, we were worried we would have a hard time sleeping, but we all fell asleep with no problems! Hopefully tomorrow the lift will be working! Oh yes, we learned something today when Julie went to the hair salon. Apparently, (this is a HINDI thing) they do not use tools on TUESDAY! I wonder if that is why the lift is still not running!
April 09, 2008
This morning I woke up feeling a little sick to my stomach! I had mentioned it to one of the sisters, so she came in to check on me. I was tempted to have her call Shivani to cancel PT until the afternoon, but then I remembered that I was getting the smaller procedure today, and I did not want to miss out on that. Shivani, came to the room for PT because the lift is still broken. We had a light session of PT, and I waited for my procedure. My lunch came, then it was time for my procedure. Dr. Ashish injected the stem cells into my muscle around the spinal cord. It was painless, because it was below the level of injury, and took two minutes! Sonia, he informed that THIS ONE YOU WOULD BE ALLOWED TO WATCH! J I have had a slight headache that came with my upset stomach, so after the procedure, I decided to take a small nap until Yoga. I asked the sisters if they would make sure that no one disturbed me, also if the Dr. Pruty could come in at 4 to take my bandage off. Elaine came in, and because of my headache, we decided to ditch yoga. (Slackers). We waited for an hour for the Doctor but he never came in! Elaine and I watched a movie and hung out the rest of the evening, with occasional visits from Jacque. Elaine and I did not like the way the food for dinner tasted so we decided to make some tomato soup in the tea kettle. I was watching it very carefully, or so I thought. I turned away for five seconds, and it exploded all over my room. After cleaning that up, we sat down to eat our soup, I grabbed the remote to change the channel. When I grabbed it, it went flying out of my hand and into my bowl of soup. Elaine started laughing, and said that I would not be able to do that again if I tried. She was right, that was very tricky. However, I now have more tomato soup all over the floor again. After our soup, Dr. Pruty FINALLY came in, 4 hours later! He had asked Elaine if she felt like she had a bladder infection. She had told him no, and asked him why he would think that. He told her that her urine sample came back positive for ECOLI! Ha! I started laughing! OK, how do two people get Ecoli in their urinary tract. That just seems too weird to me! Elaine had to go to sleep, so I was left all alone. I should go to sleep too, but I really had to clean my room. Tomato soup everywhere is not working for me. After cleaning I was wired and did not sleep until 4am. OH boy it will be a rough morning!
April 10, 2008
With very little sleep, I crawled out of bed and forced myself to go down stairs for PT. The sisters stopped me in the hallway, (my normal daily routine traffic jam). They did make me feel better, when they said that every morning no matter how much sleep I get I always look so fresh! Shivani stretched my legs and we did balancing, I had a choice of walking or knee balancing. I chose walking but forgot my socks, back upstairs I had go for my socks. Where is SONIA??? Oh yes, then I locked myself out of my room! WHERE IS MY HEAD?? After grabbing my socks, I went back to PT. Shivani measured my legs and put the calipers on. While she was doing that, I fell asleep. I am exhausted! My walking was excellent. My posture and my steps are much stronger, and it feels so much better. I actually feel like my legs are now doing the work and not so much of my upper body. It is a wonderful feeling. My morning session of PT went well, but I want to be well rested for my second session. I informed the sisters that I was taking a nap and not to allow anyone to knock. I put the "DO NOT DISTURB" sign up, and unhooked my phone! I had no problems falling asleep, until the knock on my door for lunch. PT was awesome, well rested and full of energy, I was able to be an over achiever on my steps. It was feeling so normal, and so much stronger I really wanted to keep going. I even wanted to do the sidestepping. I pushed for it! The sidestepping is still not as good as I would like it to be, but it is the hardest thing to do. Sam came over and helped me fix some things that needed adjusted on my chair. Too many bumps and stairs I have been climbing. I was bothered by some of the sisters, the usual random checks! I felt the need to get out of the hospital. Having been cooped up on the 3rd floor for the past two days, with the lift being broken, I am ready for an outing. Julie and Elaine are feeling the same way. We headed off to Dilli Hat, but first to the food market for some juice. Julie ran into the food market for the juice, and other nesassities while Elaine and I sat in the car with our driver. Our driver kind of creeps us out, so we decided to have him go out on a mission. I gave him 1000 rupees to recharge my phone. After explaining what I needed for 10 minutes he finally got it. In the meantime, Julie had returned to the car with two cases of water, and some groceries that she needed to put into the trunk. To do that, we needed the keys to the car. The man helping Julie completely ransacked the car looking for the button to open the trunk. As he did that Julie was laughing at him, and the parking guy trying to squeeze another car between our car and another car and a tree. She was telling us that it reminded her of a comedy routine! That is the perfect way to describe living in India! Once we had gotten all of that squared away we were off to Dilli Hat. I wanted to show Elaine the best place to find Bangles, but they rotate the layout of the shops, I was confused. After wondering around for a bit, and not finding what we were looking for we decided to have a bite to eat. We tried one of almost everything, nothing too spicy because I am still feeling a little bit queezy! Julie wants to buy a big shoe. After our night out on the town and our "wild" ride back to the hospital, I am exhausted and wanting to sleep, but that did not happen, I fell asleep at 4am-AGAIN!
April 11, 2008
Again another day of very little sleep! The sister’s woke me up with their chatter in the hallway, and I was still feeling ill. In PT, I called Scott to make sure that he was ready to come to India. He informed me that American Airlines has cancelled 900 or more flights. I thought that he was lying to me at first, but when he told me that Sonia was on top of it and rearranging his flight plans, I knew he was serious but that it would all be taken care of and he will still be arriving around the same time. Sonia Rocks, I have complete faith in her! After PT, I came back up to my room for another nap until my next session of PT. I was exhausted even after my nap, but I headed down to do some walking but took a detour before I got onto the lift. I briefly stopped by Julie and Elaine’s room to make some afternoon plans. EVERYONE was hanging out in their room. Julie is trying to entertain Shawn while he is up and about. I came into the room with my usual bottle of Coca-Cola, and followed by a sister. Julie informed the sister that I may have a Caffine addiction! I ignored her, and asked her what time she was taking us (Elaine and I) to get our nose rings changed from the hoop to the stud. She said that we would do it after my PT, but before Yoga. Off to PT I went. PT was not as progressive as I would have liked it to be, but not feeling well, I am hoping that as soon as I am feeling better, my steps and endurance will also improve. After walking in the walker, I rushed up to my room, grabbed the necessary items to head over to the jewelry store to change the nose ring. I went down the hall to Julie’s to pick her and Elaine up. There was still a party going on in their room, this time, I joined in for a bit. We ate some Oreo cookies, and joked about the India News Paper. One of the articles, was about a cussing parrot who is teaching the other parrots the “F” word. Very bizarre! Julie had conned Jaq into taking Elaine and I to the nose piercing place so that she could go to yoga. Our adventure to the jewelry store started out 10 feet away from the hospital. OUR DRIVER IS CRAZY! The driver drove down the wrong side of the road (nothing unusual) but he was going too fast. A tow truck stopped him by forcing him to drive off to the side of the road. He does not know any English, so he could not tell us what was going on. The three of us were sitting in the car while he had a confrontation with the tow truck drive. He got back into the car, and we drove back to the hospital, and he got out of the car again. With me not feeling well, I was extremely grumpy and was not amused by the situation. I was asking him what was going on and all that he could tell me was “yes maam!” Finally, we arrive at the store, SAFELY! We went there on a mission and that was to get the gold hoop out of our noses. The man said it was still too early, but I told him that it was healed enough. ( The hoop is disgusting) I informed him that I would find a way to cut it out myself if he did not do it right then, (I am way to grumpy for him to argue with me). So he agreed to cut it out. My pin went in fine, but Elaine’s took some work. The pin was way too short in her nose, so he needed to extend it with another piece. While he was doing that, he was wrenching on her nose, I was very grossed out by it, and thought that it had to hurt, she said that it didn’t (man she is one tough chick). After an hour of the barefoot man putting the nose rings in, we were finally ready to get back into our "joy ride." Friday nights get pretty wild here in NU TECH MEDI WORLD. I was forcing myself to stay awake, and making Elaine talk to me and keep me entertained, while Julie made me some Ramen. I was doing anything I could to make it to at least 8pm so that I could try to sleep all night. After messing around on the floor for a while, I was finally so exhausted that I started speaking gibberish, and decided to go to bed. I was bummed out because Jaq was volunteered to cut Shawn and Louie’s hair. I was going to miss out on the fun, normally I would force myself to stay, but could not function anymore. I went to my room and laid in my bed for literally two seconds before I was passed out. However, that did not last long, I was awake at 10 until 4am again. UHHHH I need some rest! Hopefully once the bug in my stomach goes away I will be back on schedule.
April 12, 2008 When I woke up this morning I was feeling very sick, and very tired, I need to get some sleep! I crawled out of bed five minutes before PT. I must have looked tired, and probably sick because both Shivani and Chavi asked me if I was ok, and if I had slept at all the night before. I thru myself onto the exercise table, and Shivani stretched my legs. While she was stretching my legs, I was able to feel the stretch in my hamstring on my right leg. I was so tired and so weak that I was not able to function, I fell asleep between stretching and the balancing exercises. Shivani could tell that I was not up to PT today so she sent me up to my room. When I got upstairs, Julie gave me a Gatorade. I gulped it down so quickly, she knew right away that I was dehydrated, she gave me another one. I was still feeling terrible-I think I have "Delhi Belly!" I sat in my room all day, trying to recover. After I took a shower, later in the afternoon, I had the ward boy to come clean my room, it made me feel a little bit better, but I decided that I needed to get out of the hospital to really make me feel better. Elaine and I got our stuff together to go outside, and maybe to go to the markets to look around. When we were ready, Julie was not ready, so we waited for her, in the meantime Elaine developed a really bad headache. She asked me if I would lay in her bed with her, it would help to keep her distracted. She scooted over and Julie tucked us in. It was a relaxing hour of Hannah Montana. I noticed how exhausted I really was, while I was laying there with Elaine. Elaine and I were craving grilled cheese, so to please both of us, Julie went to the market to pick up some cheese. When she came back, she started making the grilled cheese right away. She has perfected the grilled cheese in the toaster. A little smoky in the room, but it was so worth it. Julie calls it our "comfort food!" While Elaine was laying in her bed, and we were all getting ready to go to bed, I shared a song with Julie that reminds me of my grandpa. It’s called, "Grandpa Told Me So." I talk about him constantly, Julie says she practically knows him, she would love to meet him. She was very happy that I shared the song with her. She is also as homesick as I am! Another “late” night for me, but I tried to go to sleep early. I am not sure what is going on with my sleep pattern!
April 13, 2008
SICK AGAIN WITH NO SLEEP! I fell asleep at 4am again, but I didn’t wake up until noon. I woke up to the sisters knocking on my door. I lay in my bed hoping they would go away, (ha, yea right!). I rolled out of bed, and asked the sister what she needed, she told me that the doctor wanted to talk to me and that she had heard I was not well. I informed her that I didn’t need a doctor, and I was sick and that it would pass! Once I was finally awake I ventured down to Elaine’s room. Julie gave me some more Gatorade, and we chatted for a while, Jaq joined us soon after. We were discussing the grilled cheese that we had the night before, it sounded so good Julie made us all some more. Shawn across the way, called Elaine’s room to have the party come over to his room. He kicked his family out of his room to have us come visit. I was not feeling well again, so I went back to my room. I took a long long shower, it made me feel so much better. Once I was dressed and ready to do something it was around 5pm. Julie, Elaine, and I went to the Ansal Plaza, to tool around and to eat some good food. We had to rush out of the plaza early because I had to go to the airport to pick Scott up. YAAAAY! I am so excited for his arrival. I am homesick, so it will be nice to see a familiar face, and to have my best friend in the whole world here with me! Scott and I are very close, like father and daughter, brother and sister, best friends! After our driver dropped Julie and Elaine off at the hospital, I was on my way to the airport with the driver. He is a very creepy man, and he smelled like B.O. and “acted” like he did not understand what I was saying. On our way, a Tuc-Tuc cut us off, so he sped up to get next to it, then slowed way down and was glaring at the driver. Ok, I’m not going to lie, this driver has already pushed all of my button’s, along with Julie’s, she I ready to fire him, not only that I am kind of in a hurry, I don’t want Scott waiting! I asked him, (in a very stern voice J) “CAN YOU PLEASE JUST PASS HIM?” OMG- he is such a MORON! On my phone I wrote in a text, “The plane landed at 8:30, please hurry.” OK, he can’t understand when I talk in English, but he can read it?!?!?! OH Boy! Big mistake, he turned into a race car driver , but hey, I’m not complaining-Anymore! I went inside the airport to wait for Scott, it seemed unusually busy tonight. I waited in the guest area for almost an hour. Finally when he came out I was so relieved to see him. On our way back to the hospital, he opened up a bag of beef jerky. WOOO HOOO BEEF! He is not impressed with India!
Sunday- Weekend is boring unless you’re hanging with your "mates" from across the hall! I was very lazy this Sunday. I had plans to go to the mall with Julie and Elaine, but the dudes across the hall were going to eat, and cruise the markets, so I joined them. We all piled into the big rig, with the driver, that they had called for four hours this afternoon. We went to a building that had a lift that did not reach the restaurant, no problem though, because we can be carried.
After lunch we all walked (and rolled) around the markets, there was one that was underground. It was very busy and very hot down there, but also very interesting. (An underground flea market.) The guy who drove us to Jaipur was there shopping and stopped me to say hello, SMALL WORLD! I NEVER thought we would see anyone we have met here ever again, this place is HUGE! There were a lot of children begging on the streets today, nothing unusual, it really bothers me though, and I feel terrible. One guy was carrying a baby, and the little one had sore’s all over his legs. The baby was drooling and was completely unconscious. I went to McDonalds and wanted to get the baby a milkshake, but the line was way too long and I didn’t want the rest of the group to have to wait. It breaks my heart to see that. On our way back to the hospital, we were stopped at an intersection and some of the beggar’s were surrounding the vehicle asking for some rupees, all of a sudden someone in the backseat noticed one of the young girls on the side of the street was asking for rupees as she sat on the ground waving her broken leg in the air. It was the saddest thing I had seen, I feel so badly and wish that I could help them all, but I have been told that most of them are doing it for a business, and they get the sad looking children for the suckers-like me!
Jacque and I decided to have the driver drop us off at another market. We had given the boys my cell phone number, and had, also told them that if we were not home by dark to come looking for us. Well, we were so into the market and all of the action that as soon as it was dark we realized we had better head back (though, it was dark, there was still no phone call from the boys!). So on our way out, we stopped to look at some more bangles, and even after 65, that Jaq had purchased on the inside, she still decided to buy two more, as did I, they were a great bargain, so why the heck now. 50 cents for two, good deal! We did not want to pay too much for the ride home so we piled into a Tuc-Tuc! The yellow and green three wheeler, which has a cab on it! Very Tight squeeze for two people, not to mention we had to add the wheelchair. VERY INTERESTING. We took the wheels off, and set the chair on our laps. The driver also had to lean forward a little. It was a great adventure, and when we arrived at the hospital the security guard was laughing and shaking his head in disbelief. (He seriously does not know what to think of me, anything they think cannot be done by someone in a wheelchair, he see’s from me! Well, and Amanda, they all think she is absolutely amazing, and she is, but she shocked them with her wheelchair skills!)
Back onto the residential floor, and we are wondering why the boys were not more worried about us, without an answer, we had to show Elaine and Julie all of the bangles that Jaq had purchased. We sat and chatted with them a while, then off to our own rooms!
With all of the running around that I did I thought I had worn myself out, but still no sleep. I did not fall asleep until 2am. I laid there tossing and turning, usually I can play on the internet, but with that being on and off in my room, it really leaves me with nothing to do!
April 07, 2008
This morning I woke up very late, and very exhausted, too little sleep. I rush into the shower, and down to PT. I even ditched the sister’s, and their attempt to take my BP. However, I did have to wait on the elevator, (it is getting slower and slower daily), and Mr. Lalalin to take my lunch order. VEG or NON-VEG!
PT was fun, I have gotten so much stronger in my balancing exercises, and also the knee standing. I am happy with my improvements with these exercises, because I can see the changes, they are very obvious.
"Humble" came in today with a new bad word for me! Dang her, those are the bad words are the easy one’s for me to remember! And, no one will tell me the meaning, I asked Geeta (one of the sister’s) and she blushed, slapped my hand and asked who told me that! She would not tell me. I am happy to be able to entertain the PT group, they all laugh at me when I learn these silly words and they explain them to me in Hindi sentences, dumb blonde trying to figure that out-yea, pretty much impossible! Shivani, had noticed through my performance, that I was exhausted so she sent me to my room to take a nap, so that I was 100% for taking steps in the afternoon.
I got to my room about 11, and had just laid down for my nap, and there was a knock on the door. I ignored it! Then there was a phone call, which I also ignored, (it was Elaine). Three more times there were more knocks on my door, with two more phone calls. Do they know what a nap is? I disconnected the phone, so there were three phone calls on my personal cell phone. OK-NOW WE NEED SOME BOUNDARIES! Finally, after an hour of all of this going on, I climbed out of bed, with my hair in my face, and the "I just woke up" look, I opened the door and asked the sister’s, "CAN I HELP YOU?" They looked at me like I was not supposed to be sleeping. They were rambling off something that they wanted to know, but I was only half way listening! I shut the door and climbed back onto my bed, two minutes later, another knock on my door. It was lunch! My nap time was officially over, and absolutely unsuccessful! I ventured on down to Elaine’s room to vent to them about my unsuccessful nap. She did tell me that one of the knocks was her, but that the sisters had told her I was sleeping and to knock louder, and to turn the door knob. Jaq also had knocked and they told her the same thing.
I went to PT early, so that Shivani and I could work on steps and side steps! When I got down there Shivani had informed me that I had a procedure on the 9th, which kind of confused me because Dr. Shroff had told me that I would not be having a procedure. I needed to have a meeting with her! To kill two birds with one stone, (walking, and my meeting with the Doctor) Shivani and I decided to take the walker upstairs into the lobby. We climbed into the elevator; I am so used to pushing the number 2 button to go to my room, so I pushed it. Shivani was freaking out, telling me noo; we need to go to number 1. When actually after we pushed number 1 we remembered we need to go to 0. OOOPS! So onto the 2nd floor, and to the 1st floor, and then to the floor 0! Both Shivani and I were laughing so hard by the time we got to the right floor, that people were waiting for us to get off of the elevator to see what was so funny!
I got onto my feet with the walker, and started toward Dr. Shroff’s office, she just happened to be out in the hall, and very confused as to why I was upstairs in the walker. Shivani told her that I was insisting that I speak with her regarding my procedure. Talking 90 miles per hour, I told her that I felt I was able to be alone and receive my procedures and that Shivani was my reference. She interrupted, telling me that, yes indeed I was getting my procedure; it is a smaller procedure but that I will be getting it this Wednesday. Satisfied, I told her our meeting was over! She laughed at me, it was the shortest meeting ever!
It was very confusing to everyone, as to why I was walking in the reception area, so I told them. Deepak said that I reminded him of the movie "Legally Blonde" because I can talk 90mph, and I believe EVERYTHING he tells me! DUH! Dr. Ashish, laughed at me for my reason of being up there, he said I am always asking about my procedures; how many will I get, and when will I get them! I laughed and told him I will vacation in India later, for now I want as many procedures as he will give me. He just laughs at me! I love him, he is the best!
After PT, Elaine, Julie and I went to the mall. It is not fun to try on pants! We found out that the sizes are all wrong. I had what I thought would be my size, tried them on, um...no! They were so small, so I grab the next size up, um...no! WAY TOO BIG! WHAT THE??? After hours of shopping (ok, like 30 minutes), I am on a demand for sugar. Right across the way we found a Sweet Shoppe! YAY, GUMMI BEARS! (Sonia, you no longer have to send me some!) SUGAR OVERLOAD! And now, satisfied, off to shop for Elaine some jeans..HA good luck!
Enough shopping??? NO, we went to a market, because Elaine wanted to find some yarn! It was 9pm, and most of the shops in the market place were closing, but we were able to find an open shop with yarn. Half of the price than what she would spend in the US.
I wanted to show her a shop that Sonia and I really liked, so we travelled all over the market, up and down a couple steps, and across the busy street. To the shop we had to go up six more steps, so to do that I asked three young guys to lift me up them, so they did without any problems. The store was closed so we had to find some more guys to help me down the six steps. I grabbed the three guys closest to me, they were skinny young guys. On the way down the steps, (one on each side of me and one behind), the wheel goes flying off. Laughing hysterically, Julie and Elaine are so worried that I was hurt, and the guys were holding me in mid air trying to put the wheel back on. Language barrier- yea! Dark, and an interesting trip down the stairs, we decided that it was time for us to head back.
We shared our treats from the Sweet Shoppe with some of the residents, and thankfully exhausted ourselves to have a great night sleep!
April, 08,2008
I slept well, FINALLY! I think all of the running around helped to wear me down, to have a great night! I woke up with enough time to have breakfast and get ready for PT. As I went out to the traffic jam, they informed me that the elevator was broken, and that it should be fixed around 10am, and that PT will be in the room. I had to rush back into my room to clean it, I had left enough time for me to get ready but had planned to clean it after PT. As I was quickly picking up the room, Shivani came in. She told me that the lift would be fixed around 11, and we would do the stretching and balancing in here for now, and walking later.
After PT, oh wow, I was full of energy, and no one was up and moving because there is nowhere to go. Julie is sleeping now, this is my perfect chance to talk the sisters into taking this horrible hoop out of my nose and put in the stud. I had Rita talked into it,but Jaq is saying no, that I will get an infection and my nose will fall off. I’m thinking I need a second opinion. The doctor was in Shawn’s room, so I asked her, she told me I should wait until it has been a week after first getting the nose pierced. DANG IT! Since I could not change the nose ring, and I could not bug Julie and Elaine yet, I decided to clean my room again, and had the ward boy clean my bathroom and floors. I was satisfied but also extremely bored, so I checked my emails until the internet went out. Now, I had nowhere to go, and nothing to do. Thankfully Elaine’s neighbor called, he too was bored. I grabbed my blanket, a pillow, a coca-cola and a movie, and headed to his room to watch movies. Elaine joined us. She and I pulled out the blue futon thing, and we both sat on that with our feet up on my wheelchair. That worked for a while. Then lunch came, the ward boy delivered our lunches to the room. Deepak was in for a visit, and wanted to hand Elaine her lunch, but he grabbed it wrong, so it went flying across the room. It was very amusing; however, the second lunch that Elaine took was her mother’s, (no lunch for Julie). We both wanted ketchup for our nuggets, but we were too lazy to get up and get some, so we yelled across the hall to Julie. She came across the hall, throwing ketchup packets at us, apparently we forgot about her, and when we left to go across the hall, we left the door wide open while she was showering"OOPS! After our chicken nuggets we then laid the futon thing out so that it was a bed, and we watched our 2nd movie. All three of us fell asleep, Elaine and I squeezed onto the small futon thing, and the neighbor in his bed. We were sleeping really good too, until Dr. Pruty came in. He knocked once then entered. It was obvious that all of us were sleeping but he decided to confirm it by speaking loudly to all of us, "ARE YOU SLEEPING? ARE YOU FEELING WELL?" With no response, and an unpleased look from me, he could tell he had woke us up. NO problem though, we all fell back to sleep. We were all supposed to have PT again for our afternoon session, but the lift is still not working. After 11, when it was not fixed they told us 2 it would be fixed. I give up! We slept through a movie then watched another. By then it was dinner time! The food smelled very different, so Elaine and I ordered out. Since we all had slept almost all day, we were worried we would have a hard time sleeping, but we all fell asleep with no problems! Hopefully tomorrow the lift will be working! Oh yes, we learned something today when Julie went to the hair salon. Apparently, (this is a HINDI thing) they do not use tools on TUESDAY! I wonder if that is why the lift is still not running!
April 09, 2008
This morning I woke up feeling a little sick to my stomach! I had mentioned it to one of the sisters, so she came in to check on me. I was tempted to have her call Shivani to cancel PT until the afternoon, but then I remembered that I was getting the smaller procedure today, and I did not want to miss out on that. Shivani, came to the room for PT because the lift is still broken. We had a light session of PT, and I waited for my procedure. My lunch came, then it was time for my procedure. Dr. Ashish injected the stem cells into my muscle around the spinal cord. It was painless, because it was below the level of injury, and took two minutes! Sonia, he informed that THIS ONE YOU WOULD BE ALLOWED TO WATCH! J I have had a slight headache that came with my upset stomach, so after the procedure, I decided to take a small nap until Yoga. I asked the sisters if they would make sure that no one disturbed me, also if the Dr. Pruty could come in at 4 to take my bandage off. Elaine came in, and because of my headache, we decided to ditch yoga. (Slackers). We waited for an hour for the Doctor but he never came in! Elaine and I watched a movie and hung out the rest of the evening, with occasional visits from Jacque. Elaine and I did not like the way the food for dinner tasted so we decided to make some tomato soup in the tea kettle. I was watching it very carefully, or so I thought. I turned away for five seconds, and it exploded all over my room. After cleaning that up, we sat down to eat our soup, I grabbed the remote to change the channel. When I grabbed it, it went flying out of my hand and into my bowl of soup. Elaine started laughing, and said that I would not be able to do that again if I tried. She was right, that was very tricky. However, I now have more tomato soup all over the floor again. After our soup, Dr. Pruty FINALLY came in, 4 hours later! He had asked Elaine if she felt like she had a bladder infection. She had told him no, and asked him why he would think that. He told her that her urine sample came back positive for ECOLI! Ha! I started laughing! OK, how do two people get Ecoli in their urinary tract. That just seems too weird to me! Elaine had to go to sleep, so I was left all alone. I should go to sleep too, but I really had to clean my room. Tomato soup everywhere is not working for me. After cleaning I was wired and did not sleep until 4am. OH boy it will be a rough morning!
April 10, 2008
With very little sleep, I crawled out of bed and forced myself to go down stairs for PT. The sisters stopped me in the hallway, (my normal daily routine traffic jam). They did make me feel better, when they said that every morning no matter how much sleep I get I always look so fresh! Shivani stretched my legs and we did balancing, I had a choice of walking or knee balancing. I chose walking but forgot my socks, back upstairs I had go for my socks. Where is SONIA??? Oh yes, then I locked myself out of my room! WHERE IS MY HEAD?? After grabbing my socks, I went back to PT. Shivani measured my legs and put the calipers on. While she was doing that, I fell asleep. I am exhausted! My walking was excellent. My posture and my steps are much stronger, and it feels so much better. I actually feel like my legs are now doing the work and not so much of my upper body. It is a wonderful feeling. My morning session of PT went well, but I want to be well rested for my second session. I informed the sisters that I was taking a nap and not to allow anyone to knock. I put the "DO NOT DISTURB" sign up, and unhooked my phone! I had no problems falling asleep, until the knock on my door for lunch. PT was awesome, well rested and full of energy, I was able to be an over achiever on my steps. It was feeling so normal, and so much stronger I really wanted to keep going. I even wanted to do the sidestepping. I pushed for it! The sidestepping is still not as good as I would like it to be, but it is the hardest thing to do. Sam came over and helped me fix some things that needed adjusted on my chair. Too many bumps and stairs I have been climbing. I was bothered by some of the sisters, the usual random checks! I felt the need to get out of the hospital. Having been cooped up on the 3rd floor for the past two days, with the lift being broken, I am ready for an outing. Julie and Elaine are feeling the same way. We headed off to Dilli Hat, but first to the food market for some juice. Julie ran into the food market for the juice, and other nesassities while Elaine and I sat in the car with our driver. Our driver kind of creeps us out, so we decided to have him go out on a mission. I gave him 1000 rupees to recharge my phone. After explaining what I needed for 10 minutes he finally got it. In the meantime, Julie had returned to the car with two cases of water, and some groceries that she needed to put into the trunk. To do that, we needed the keys to the car. The man helping Julie completely ransacked the car looking for the button to open the trunk. As he did that Julie was laughing at him, and the parking guy trying to squeeze another car between our car and another car and a tree. She was telling us that it reminded her of a comedy routine! That is the perfect way to describe living in India! Once we had gotten all of that squared away we were off to Dilli Hat. I wanted to show Elaine the best place to find Bangles, but they rotate the layout of the shops, I was confused. After wondering around for a bit, and not finding what we were looking for we decided to have a bite to eat. We tried one of almost everything, nothing too spicy because I am still feeling a little bit queezy! Julie wants to buy a big shoe. After our night out on the town and our "wild" ride back to the hospital, I am exhausted and wanting to sleep, but that did not happen, I fell asleep at 4am-AGAIN!
April 11, 2008
Again another day of very little sleep! The sister’s woke me up with their chatter in the hallway, and I was still feeling ill. In PT, I called Scott to make sure that he was ready to come to India. He informed me that American Airlines has cancelled 900 or more flights. I thought that he was lying to me at first, but when he told me that Sonia was on top of it and rearranging his flight plans, I knew he was serious but that it would all be taken care of and he will still be arriving around the same time. Sonia Rocks, I have complete faith in her! After PT, I came back up to my room for another nap until my next session of PT. I was exhausted even after my nap, but I headed down to do some walking but took a detour before I got onto the lift. I briefly stopped by Julie and Elaine’s room to make some afternoon plans. EVERYONE was hanging out in their room. Julie is trying to entertain Shawn while he is up and about. I came into the room with my usual bottle of Coca-Cola, and followed by a sister. Julie informed the sister that I may have a Caffine addiction! I ignored her, and asked her what time she was taking us (Elaine and I) to get our nose rings changed from the hoop to the stud. She said that we would do it after my PT, but before Yoga. Off to PT I went. PT was not as progressive as I would have liked it to be, but not feeling well, I am hoping that as soon as I am feeling better, my steps and endurance will also improve. After walking in the walker, I rushed up to my room, grabbed the necessary items to head over to the jewelry store to change the nose ring. I went down the hall to Julie’s to pick her and Elaine up. There was still a party going on in their room, this time, I joined in for a bit. We ate some Oreo cookies, and joked about the India News Paper. One of the articles, was about a cussing parrot who is teaching the other parrots the “F” word. Very bizarre! Julie had conned Jaq into taking Elaine and I to the nose piercing place so that she could go to yoga. Our adventure to the jewelry store started out 10 feet away from the hospital. OUR DRIVER IS CRAZY! The driver drove down the wrong side of the road (nothing unusual) but he was going too fast. A tow truck stopped him by forcing him to drive off to the side of the road. He does not know any English, so he could not tell us what was going on. The three of us were sitting in the car while he had a confrontation with the tow truck drive. He got back into the car, and we drove back to the hospital, and he got out of the car again. With me not feeling well, I was extremely grumpy and was not amused by the situation. I was asking him what was going on and all that he could tell me was “yes maam!” Finally, we arrive at the store, SAFELY! We went there on a mission and that was to get the gold hoop out of our noses. The man said it was still too early, but I told him that it was healed enough. ( The hoop is disgusting) I informed him that I would find a way to cut it out myself if he did not do it right then, (I am way to grumpy for him to argue with me). So he agreed to cut it out. My pin went in fine, but Elaine’s took some work. The pin was way too short in her nose, so he needed to extend it with another piece. While he was doing that, he was wrenching on her nose, I was very grossed out by it, and thought that it had to hurt, she said that it didn’t (man she is one tough chick). After an hour of the barefoot man putting the nose rings in, we were finally ready to get back into our "joy ride." Friday nights get pretty wild here in NU TECH MEDI WORLD. I was forcing myself to stay awake, and making Elaine talk to me and keep me entertained, while Julie made me some Ramen. I was doing anything I could to make it to at least 8pm so that I could try to sleep all night. After messing around on the floor for a while, I was finally so exhausted that I started speaking gibberish, and decided to go to bed. I was bummed out because Jaq was volunteered to cut Shawn and Louie’s hair. I was going to miss out on the fun, normally I would force myself to stay, but could not function anymore. I went to my room and laid in my bed for literally two seconds before I was passed out. However, that did not last long, I was awake at 10 until 4am again. UHHHH I need some rest! Hopefully once the bug in my stomach goes away I will be back on schedule.
April 12, 2008 When I woke up this morning I was feeling very sick, and very tired, I need to get some sleep! I crawled out of bed five minutes before PT. I must have looked tired, and probably sick because both Shivani and Chavi asked me if I was ok, and if I had slept at all the night before. I thru myself onto the exercise table, and Shivani stretched my legs. While she was stretching my legs, I was able to feel the stretch in my hamstring on my right leg. I was so tired and so weak that I was not able to function, I fell asleep between stretching and the balancing exercises. Shivani could tell that I was not up to PT today so she sent me up to my room. When I got upstairs, Julie gave me a Gatorade. I gulped it down so quickly, she knew right away that I was dehydrated, she gave me another one. I was still feeling terrible-I think I have "Delhi Belly!" I sat in my room all day, trying to recover. After I took a shower, later in the afternoon, I had the ward boy to come clean my room, it made me feel a little bit better, but I decided that I needed to get out of the hospital to really make me feel better. Elaine and I got our stuff together to go outside, and maybe to go to the markets to look around. When we were ready, Julie was not ready, so we waited for her, in the meantime Elaine developed a really bad headache. She asked me if I would lay in her bed with her, it would help to keep her distracted. She scooted over and Julie tucked us in. It was a relaxing hour of Hannah Montana. I noticed how exhausted I really was, while I was laying there with Elaine. Elaine and I were craving grilled cheese, so to please both of us, Julie went to the market to pick up some cheese. When she came back, she started making the grilled cheese right away. She has perfected the grilled cheese in the toaster. A little smoky in the room, but it was so worth it. Julie calls it our "comfort food!" While Elaine was laying in her bed, and we were all getting ready to go to bed, I shared a song with Julie that reminds me of my grandpa. It’s called, "Grandpa Told Me So." I talk about him constantly, Julie says she practically knows him, she would love to meet him. She was very happy that I shared the song with her. She is also as homesick as I am! Another “late” night for me, but I tried to go to sleep early. I am not sure what is going on with my sleep pattern!
April 13, 2008
SICK AGAIN WITH NO SLEEP! I fell asleep at 4am again, but I didn’t wake up until noon. I woke up to the sisters knocking on my door. I lay in my bed hoping they would go away, (ha, yea right!). I rolled out of bed, and asked the sister what she needed, she told me that the doctor wanted to talk to me and that she had heard I was not well. I informed her that I didn’t need a doctor, and I was sick and that it would pass! Once I was finally awake I ventured down to Elaine’s room. Julie gave me some more Gatorade, and we chatted for a while, Jaq joined us soon after. We were discussing the grilled cheese that we had the night before, it sounded so good Julie made us all some more. Shawn across the way, called Elaine’s room to have the party come over to his room. He kicked his family out of his room to have us come visit. I was not feeling well again, so I went back to my room. I took a long long shower, it made me feel so much better. Once I was dressed and ready to do something it was around 5pm. Julie, Elaine, and I went to the Ansal Plaza, to tool around and to eat some good food. We had to rush out of the plaza early because I had to go to the airport to pick Scott up. YAAAAY! I am so excited for his arrival. I am homesick, so it will be nice to see a familiar face, and to have my best friend in the whole world here with me! Scott and I are very close, like father and daughter, brother and sister, best friends! After our driver dropped Julie and Elaine off at the hospital, I was on my way to the airport with the driver. He is a very creepy man, and he smelled like B.O. and “acted” like he did not understand what I was saying. On our way, a Tuc-Tuc cut us off, so he sped up to get next to it, then slowed way down and was glaring at the driver. Ok, I’m not going to lie, this driver has already pushed all of my button’s, along with Julie’s, she I ready to fire him, not only that I am kind of in a hurry, I don’t want Scott waiting! I asked him, (in a very stern voice J) “CAN YOU PLEASE JUST PASS HIM?” OMG- he is such a MORON! On my phone I wrote in a text, “The plane landed at 8:30, please hurry.” OK, he can’t understand when I talk in English, but he can read it?!?!?! OH Boy! Big mistake, he turned into a race car driver , but hey, I’m not complaining-Anymore! I went inside the airport to wait for Scott, it seemed unusually busy tonight. I waited in the guest area for almost an hour. Finally when he came out I was so relieved to see him. On our way back to the hospital, he opened up a bag of beef jerky. WOOO HOOO BEEF! He is not impressed with India!
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