{Adventures in Chinese Medicine }

Today Jeff and I both got a taste of medical care in a foreign country. We both went for different reasons ( no worries, we're both fine), and it was quite an experience, to say the least. Disney provides us a brokerage service that acts as a go between for us to the hospitals and insurance companies, which is an awesome service when you're by yourself in an unfamiliar place. They make the appointments, they file all claims, and they go to the appointments with you and translate and bridge any language barriers with the doctors. We would have been lost without it.

Even with that help, it was still an anxiety ridden experience, and I'm grateful to be home and done with it. In fact, our first stop on the way home was to starbucks for a hot chocolate just so I could feel some normalcy for a few mintues after being poked and prodded by woman asking me a barage of questions in another language.

Jeff's having some problems with his back, and it turns out he has some damaged vertibrae that may be pinching some nerves. He got an x-ray which made it really obvious there were some problems and then as we headed to the MRI we quickly realized that he wasn't going to fit in any machine they'd have. We are currently stuck in a catch-22  because the doctor doesn't want to reccommend any treatment for him until he can get a better look at what's happening with his nerves, but there's no machine in China ( that's right, in the country, apparently this hospital had the most up-to-date one around) that He will fit in. Apparently there are no open mri's in China, so for now we can't do a whole lot with his back other than medication, heat and rest. Jeff is going to try out acupuncture to see if it does anything for him on Saturday, I'll let him report on how that works out.

On that note, I just want to say how proud I am of him. I don't know how well you know Jeff, but he's pretty self concious about his writing. He's written all his posts so far without nagging from me, and has been great about letting me edit them for your enjoyment. I'm grateful for his willingness to do this, because I feel like his outlook on our experiences is so much entertaining than mine, and that he's honestly who you really want to hear from the majority of the time. He's been great about trying new things, exploring new places, and pushing himself to grow in many aspects of his life. He's a great inspiration to me and I'm grateful to have him.

Until next time, hugs from far way.
-Ashley