A day out...

Yesterday there were terrible rains her in Beijing. Roads were flooded and at least ten people died, including a policeman who was trying to rescue people out of flooded cars when a charged electrical line fell near him. The flooding persisted till today. The three families who went into Beijing CIty yesterday got stranded by by the impassable roads and had to get a hotel. On the bright side, they said it was very comfortable hotel for only a few dollars more than we've been paying, and it includes a meal! So we checked out of the Yanda Guobin Hotel and will get a room at the other one tomorrow. Tonight, though, the hospital gave us an unused room to stay in. That was very nice.

Also during the rains, we discovered that Brian's room leaks. Badly. In the middle of the night we found ourselves squeegeeing water off the floor near where the windows leaked in the rain. Today we moved Brian to a another room. Slightly smaller, but better lit and more comfortable. 

Since the roads were still largely impassable today, we didn't go to Beijing, but we did get Brian out to a local shopping area for some supper. It was very crowded and noisy, but Brian did very well in the tumult. The food was pretty good at the restaurant. Some of the things were unidentifiable, like the dessert that seemed to be a gelatinous tube with some sort of brown filling. Sean tried it; it was nearly tasteless.

Tomorrow is Brian's first stem cell injection! It will be an IV injection. Four days later, he'll get another IV injection and lumbar injection. Four days later, again another IV & lumbar injection. And another four days later, one more IV injection. On the days when Brian's not getting stem cells, He'll be going to rehabilitation services twice a day at 8:30 am and at 2:00 pm for at least an hour each time. Sounds busy! It will be. He's looking forward to it, but still nervous. Brian and Grainne were able to call their dad via Skype before Brian's bedtime and he said a little prayer with them over the call. 

That was most of our Sunday. Oh, except that poor little Gaby from Columbia fell out of her bed and got a big lump on the side of her head. Her parents weren't going to take her to the emergency room, but the rest of us talked them into it. After all, Brian's brain injury was the result of a seemingly minor trauma. No point in taking chances when you've come this far. Grainne is accompanying Gaby, Juan and Carolina to the ER, which is only a two-minute walk away. Hope all goes well and it's just a minor bump!

Remember, you can email us for anything -  ask questions, say hi to Brian, or just keep us in touch with what's going on back home. Grainne's email is lovenola@gmail.com, Shane's is shanehogan40@hotmail.com, and Sean's is sfitzmorris@gmail.com. We'd all love to hear from you!

Stay tuned!