Day Three

No ambulance rides today.  Our day began having breakfast in the hotel lobby (breakfasts and dinners included) and then we were off with the other patients at 9:30 am to the clinic.  Mom's blood was harvested which took about 2 hours.  Even hooked up to a centrifuge, she still had a smile on her face.  Her white blood cells were separated from the plasma and buffy ("dirty" white blood cells).  The plasma gets returned to her body, the buffy gets tossed with the trash and the WBC are used to make stem cells.  I will have my blood harvested this or next weekend.  Mom was a tad worried that maybe taking the WBC would lower her immune system but Dr. Moon's assistant, Mr. Won, assured us that the shot she received the first day stimulated her WBC enough to not have anything to worry about.  We did not get a chance to talk to Dr. Moon about the scan results and as tomorrow is their Christmas day, we'll need to wait until Saturday's visit.

After mom and the other patients were finished, Dr. Moon treated everyone to lunch across the street.  It is known for their chicken soup...

There's like a whole chicken in there!!

Mom ate everything you see before her.

This is my little area.  There is something made of egg (top left corner) sort of like a souffle.  Green hot peppers next to that, a spicy green bean-thing, some sauces, a plate of kimchi (unseen) and the bowl of chicken with a little soup.  The soup is boiling when it gets to your table so that the chicken slides off the bone.  Put the bones in the bucket, and scoop bits of chicken (stuffed with rice) out onto that little plate on the right, grab some chopsticks and a spoon and dig in!

When we got back to the hotel, it was time to venture up the street to the laundry shop.  It is up behind the hotel in an alleyway.  It has a blue/white awning with a very kind man inside absolutely surrounded by mounds of clothes and drycleaning.  There is literally just enough room to step in.  Here is the outside of the shop and the alley:

There is one thing here that I had not prepared for.  I was ready for the language, the culture and some of the area.  I wasn't ready for what it would be like to be with the other patients who are really sick.  The woman from Oklahoma was just diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer, her husband has Parkinson's.  A man is here with prostate cancer which is now going into his bones.  Another woman with Parkinson's and a man with frontal lobe dementia.  My heart goes out to them.  I found myself in tears yesterday at the imaging center.  The woman with pancreatic cancer was with us and she wasn't feeling well, was afraid at how her cancer would affect her family and, I believe, very scared.  When you're young and the older folks say the toast "to your health", you really don't give it much thought.  But a time will come when it means a great deal. 

Hubby and girls... I love and miss you so very much.  To all of you... here's TO YOUR HEALTH. 

Day Two

This is mom in the back of a Korean ambulance.  In order to take this picture, I had to be in the back of a Korean ambulance as well.  This took us to Leaders, an imagining center, about an hour away.  There they did a CT and PET scan which took a very long time.  After that, we survived another taxi trip (at 17,500 won) and went back to the clinic where mom received a round of stem cells and a round  of protein (via drip).  They say I am a perfect match and can give her stem cells... which I am so very happy to do and would give so much more if I could.  It doesn't make me any less old but at least the stem cells are healthy enough.  We spent time with another of Dr. Moon's patients and her family.  They are from Oklahoma and are the kindest and most thoughtful group of folks that I have met in a long, long time.  So, we finally got to eat and decided to immerse ourselves in the Korean culture and went to Outback Steakhouse.  I can tell you that, yes, the Korean people are incredibly sweet and kind.  I can also tell you that you should not expect to hear "excuse me" if you are accidentally shoved, bumped into, cut in front of or otherwise made to shift out of your general direction of travel.  Tomorrow we talk to Dr. Moon, after he's had a chance to look at the scan films from today and begin stem cell harvesting.  Mom is practically a pin-cushion at this point and it's only the beginning...