Tuesday Blog Post - Things NOT to have happen why you are in Guangzhou

Hi all:

Lisa here. Charlie and I are sitting with Ashley at The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College!

Things that should not happen when you are in Guangzhou:
1) Your child gets sick
2) Your child continues to get sicker and you take her to the Can Am Clinic at the Garden Hotel
3) The Can Am Clinic is so concerned that they have you take your child immediately to the above hospital!

After the clinic visit by Rita, Charlie and Ashley yesterday, the clinic was concerned about her stomach and indicated that there was a blockage in the tummy (per Xrays that they took). They allowed all of us to leave to go to the US Consulate so she could be sworn in as a US Citizen, and then we all immediately took her back to the clinic where a coordinator met us and took us to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital around 5:30, which is a pretty scary place when you don't speak any Chinese at all. Our guide and coordinator speak some English but it's not entirely clear most of the time and it's very hard to go back and forth when you are speaking in medical terms.

Several nurses came in to check her and they had us take her temperature using a mercury thermometer under the arm pit for 10 minutes! (Who takes a 10 minute temperature?) Anyway, the head doctor finally arrived about 2 hours later and several doctors and nurses proceeded to do a procedure to expel some of the air and bloat in her stomach. The head doctor luckily speaks some English that is fairly clear and he appears to be the #2 guy at this hospital (per pictures on the wall).
We are supposedly getting "VIP" treatment here, which means we have a private room and I guess alot of attention, probably because we are Westerners with a very sickly adopted child.

Some interesting observations include:

• No TP or Soap in the bathroom (I guess it's bring your own, but thank goodness there is a Western toilet vs. squat!)
• You need to supply your own diapers (luckily, we had 3 or 4 in a bag with us)
• 1 bar from the song "Edelweiss" that was played no less than 150 times last night - (I almost went mad)
• 3 sticks of a needle to get Ashley's blood - one for each arm and then into the leg!
• A worker started speaking repeatedly to the boys in Chinese (who were sitting alone outside of the room as we were in with Ashley during her procedure). When I went out to see them, Kyle says "that man keeps speaking to us, especially Dylan, but we have no idea what he is saying!" They get too shy to tell people that they can't understand them.
• All of the medical personnel wear masks on their faces at all times. All of the nurses are dressed in pink with white shoes; our head doctor had on sandals last night and another doctor had on high heels this a.m.
• We have pots of water in our room, but they need to be boiled, so what's the point and there's no way we are drinking from them! (Luckily, there is a McDonalds around the corner).
• No children's hospital gowns, so Ashley is dressed in a small man's top!
• Last night, the head doctor asked me if I thought that it was "appropriate" that Ashley had been given 8 shots at the clinic on Sat. I said "appropriate?! We can't get out of your country without getting these shots even though I spent an hour arguing with the medical clinic about them. " Now, this is one of the top doctors at the hospital telling me that it was not safe to have had so many shots -- go figure!!

Charlie and I got to share a luxury twin bed last night with Mickey Mouse sheets, a tiny pillow and a wooden slab for a mattress (I guess we should be happy that we had something).

Now, we are waiting for the Dr. that supposedly was coming at 9 (it's 9:30) and then the coordinator who is supposedly coming back at 10 a.m. Most likely, Ashley will need more tests on her stomach to find out what is really causing the blockage, so it can be temporarily fixed until we can get better medical care in the states. It seems that Ashley might not have had the surgery that she was supposed to have had per her paperwork, or that it was much more minimal than they originally stated.

Ashley, when she woke up this morning. A mini version of Ed Grimley!

The boys have been with Aunt Rita overnight and we are going to try and switch off as we wait out the day. Maybe we can get checked out (hopefully) later today. Please keep us in your thoughts.