Remember about the 10 year old boy named Ethan that seems to find me all the time? Well, he has it timed everyday. He shows up at 12:30 like clock work. Then he asks his famous question, "hello Jennifer, have you had your lunch today? What about William, has he had his lunch yet? Was it good?" Every single day he asks that same question. So now around 12:30 everyday we just leave the door open so he can come in. He is so smart. He can tell you how to fix anything. He told me how to change some of my settings on my iPad. It's amazing how he knows these things. He keeps billy and I cracking up because of his accent and his proper English. He always says, "oh dear!" 

 A human cocoon! No he's not turning into a butterfly, at least I don't think! They wrapped billy up in very hot towels, because his back was achy. 

Today he had his first treatment in the HBOT (Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy). It allows you to breathe 100% oxygen at a pressure that's equivalent to a pressure of below sea level. The oxygen incourages blood flow throughout the body as well as blood flow to his eyes. It's almost like a little rocket ship! 

 This is him before he went in the HBOT. His eyes are patched from last nights procedures. (I'll write about that next) 

 First, I apologize for the photos being side ways! I'm doing all of the blogging on the iPad. But if you turn your head sideways, or just turn your computer on its side if you want to do it the hard way, you can see little Billy in his rocket ship! Haha! You stay in there 45 min everyday. 

If you look to your left, you will see a brief description of how the retro bulbar procedure works. If you take your finger and place it right above your cheek bone, and right under your socket of your eye you will feel the space that they will place the needles. The needles are a couple inches in length. After the needle is inserted its then maneuvered to fit behind the eye. A syringe full of stem cells, a little over 1cc in each eye, is connected to the needle that's behind his eye and the cells are injected. It fills the eye with quite a bit of pressure. I have a video of his procedure since they let me come in. I got to put on the hair cover and the mask just like I used to do when working in surgery. The video is a little too large to upload, but for those wanting to see it I do have it. I do have a photo though. 

Here he is getting the procedure. I think I took it harder than he did almost. By the time they were moving to the second eye, I saw tears running down his cheeks. Then I stopped recording because I lost it. His eyes must remain patched for 24 hours. Which you could see in the other photo in my previous blog. He has had to depend on me for everything since yesterday. It has really been an eye opener to what completely blind individuals go through on a daily basis. His eyes just got unpatched a few minutes ago while they did his acupuncture. Everyone is joking with him that I punched him in the eyes! Haha the Asians think its funny!

 I know I know, he looks miserable! It's really not that bad, I just caught him off guard when I took the photo. Tomorrow we are going to be going to see some temples and other touristy things! On Sunday, we are going to go see some old historic things as well as, the moment I've been waiting for! Seeing Thai elephants and riding them! I can't wait! 

 So, part of Billy's therapy is exercise. It helps stimulate the stem cells and gets them where they need to go. So here we are at the gym. (His physical therapist took the photo) the gym is on the 31st floor and over looks the entire city of Bangkok. If you have ever been to NYC and thought there was lots of buildings there, this place kicks NYC in the booty. You can see buildings as far as the eye can see. I decided I'd exercise with Billy because I got on their little Asian scale that tells you what your body fat and weight should be, and well that stupid little Asian scale said I'm obese. Lol please see the photo below.

 Isn't that just ridiculous? Ugh. Today Billy will be getting a doubled dose of stem cells. One will be administered by IV the other is called retro bulbar. Retro bulbar is where they put little tubing under the eye socket to the back portion of the eyes and administer the stem cells as close to the source as possible. He will then have to have his eyes patched for 24 hours. So we will be hanging out around the facility here. Yesterday we went to visit The Grand Palace, it is where the people can go and pray and it is where the monks stay. Also, that whole theory about monks not speaking? Yeah, I beg to differ. We saw them on their cell phones ;)  we are now going to go visit with our Australian friends..see yallsoom

Last night Billy had his first dose of stem cells administered through an IV. Today he has had his first acupuncture treatment. The Asian definitely use their medicine in association with their spiritual beliefs. The place where we are staying is called Better Being Hospital. It is a rehabilitation hospital. It is not your typical hospital. Just as you have seen from numerous movies, before you walk into a room you take your shoes off. Oh and all of you that think Texas is hot and humid think again! When you walk outside here, it's that same feeling of opening and oven and your eyelashes burning off! Haha also the humidity is even worse than home. Billy is doing a lot of resting after his last treatment because they advise you do not go into the outside light after receiving the stem cells at least for 24 hours. Everything is going well. We have had some excellent food! Way better than any Asian food in the US. 

Thankfully, coke zero tastes the same in Thailand. It definitely looks different but definitely tastes the same! 

Hanging out by the pool as you can see. Billy is have his aquatic therapy while I'm basking in the sun. I'm joking, I'm really under a good bit of shade. What's the point of this therapy you ask? Well, as the doctor explained to us, you put the stem cells in your body expecting them to just go where you need them to go. The thing is, they need help by stimulating the body with exercise to increase blood flow throughout the body. This helps the stem cells thrive and do more of what they need to do. We have met some incredible people in the couple days that we have been here. One family in particular. They are from Australia and we have become very close with them. They are here for their 10 year old son named Ethan. Ethan has Optic Nerve Hypoplasia. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is a medical condition were there is an underdevelopment of the optic nerve. Ethan went to China last year for stem cell treatments. Prior to going he could only see if there was a bright light nearby. He could not see in color, only in black and white. And he also was no able to see anything like family or friends. After their trip to China and the stem cell treatments there, Ethan actually went home and could see his hand in front of his face. He can locate items on tables and he can notice when someone is standing in front of him. It is blurry and definitely not sharp, but he has come sooo far. Ethan was born in total darkness and could not even see lights until recently. Ethan gets around with his walking stick and he has become very partial to me. He comes and finds me every single day. We sit and talk and we play. He's got his cute little accent and runs around asking for me. He has managed to know the elevator and the floors. He's on floor 2 and I'm on 3. He goes up to our floor and knocks on my door! Lol so we take a walk. 

Well, finally made it to our destination. Bangkok, Thailand. This place is so different than anywhere I've ever been in my life. I'll be sure to take some photos of everything. I don't EVER and I repeat EVER want to hear anyone complain about traffic ever again. This place is insane. The population in just the city of Bangkok alone is 14 million. Compare that to Houston which has a total of 4 million. Do the math! Everything at the airport was very different. In the US they charge for everything including the little carts to push your luggage on. They provide water in the airport for free. As well as carts to ride around on and even charging stations for your phone. And here I am, being the proactive person that I am (yeah well I try), decided I'd go to Best Buy and purchase an outlet converter so I could charge my items as well as use my blow dryer and flat iron. I take my shower, go to plug in my blow dryer, as I said God please let this work you know how ugly my hair looks without blow drying it. I'm plugging it in and suddenly I feel like Clark Griswold from Lampoons Christmas Vacation as he's plugging in his Christmas lights. It's in and IT WORKS!!! I turn it on and POOF!!! It smells of burnt wire and plastic! How did this happen? I read the directions! Needless to say, I'm blow dryer less and I'm deathly afraid to plug anything else in. Billy starts his treatments today at 4. Oh also, I should fill you in on the time difference. For example, it is 8:54am here right now. So at home it is 8:54pm right now. Exactly 12 hours difference. The people here are much more friendly than the Chinese at the airport. I did get into a fight with a Thai woman on the plane though. I reclined my seat no more than 2 in (all you're allowed really.) I even was trying to be respectful of her behind me. The second I reclined the seat which didn't even affect her at all, she used her hands and feet and kicked my seat and started saying stuff to me in Thai. I thought maybe I had hurt her on accident however with only two inches of reclining I doubt that was the case. So I waited a few minutes and thought I'd try it again. I tried it again and she literally pushed my seat so hard that it catapulted me into the seat in front of me. At this point I knew she was just being rude because they were doing the same thing to the man that was sitting next to me. So here I am, I have to say something. I know Mom, I'm sorry. I unbuckle and I turn around. I said do we have a problem? Thankfully she spoke a little English? She said basically how I need to leave the seat alone. So after being kicked a good handful of times And flying for 29 hours somehow I just wasn't in the mood. So I said listen lady if you have a problem with economy class I HIGHLY suggest to take yourself and upgrade to first class. If you touch my seat again were gonna have a problem. And she stopped. Lol. Stay tuned for updates on the treatments later today! Love and miss you!