Yeah you heard me. Not McDonalds, McThai. That's what its called here. I said to myself, "self, since you are no longer obese on the asian scale at the hospital, you deserve a cheeseburger." Oh did I mention that McThai delivers??? Wouldn't that be nice at home. They put all of your food in a box on that back of a motorcycle and bring it to wherever you are. All you have to do is pick up the phone and dial 1711 and order your food. You may want to take a few lessons in Thai first, otherwise they probably wont get your order right. They menu there is DEFINITELY not like at home. They have your standard nuggets and double cheeseburger and fries, but those are asian tasting as well. The rest of their menu consists of hot dogs, fried chicken, a samurai pork burger?? A chicken and ham pie (ew.) Like we have at home, they have the crispy delicious pies, or so they call it. We at least have apple. They have corn, pineapple, tuna, spinach? Yucky. They also asian steamed rice with beef stuff. Not about to try it. Oh and don't forget Ronald McThai Buddha. Heres a few pictures for you. Needless to say, I'm not LOVIN' it.

I wanted to get away from the busy city of Bangkok and the 14 million people living in it. I wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle and see what it's really like out in the country side of Thailand. So what do we go and do? Hire a driver of course. How far did I have to drive to see a village and the country side you ask? Only a long 4 hours. And boy was it long. First, it was a long ride to God knows where, about 2.5 hours or so, and then hopped a train at the Kwai River. Speaking of, has anyone ever watched the old movie called "The Bridge On The River Kwai?" It is a WW2 movie from the 50's. If I remember correctly, William Holden was in it. Well, that was one of my stops today. It is where the movie was filmed. If you look at the photo above, that was way back when. Here's now.

Pretty huh? And yes, you probably guessed it..I caught the next train. Let me show you a few things I found along the way. The first thing I want to show you is the ribbon tree. It was right before getting on the train. People put scarves and ribbons all around it. I thought it was very beautiful. And what a way to dress up a tree! :)

Now enjoy the scenery.

This is the train I am on. It took everything I had to hang out my train window, over a cliff to get this photo!

Kwai River

This mother was selling little items to try and make money while her sweet little baby took a nap.

This is a photo of one of the MANY monks you'll see in Thailand.

This was one of the very nice homes.

This was the most adorable little boy. He was outside helping his mom pick up.

This makes me never want to complain again..These people owned elephants. I got to ride them and feed them bananas. This is the buddy I made. His name is Shimmy.

This sweet boy LOVED to give me kisses. He would even make a kissing sound with his trunk. (See photo below) Then he would wrap his trunk around me like he was giving me a big bear hug. He must know I LOVE big bear hugs.

Shimmy was nice enough to share his kisses with Billy too!

I hope you all enjoyed the photos as much as I did taking them. I hope these photos have touched you like seeing this stuff in person touched me. Some of the things that I have seen today have forever touched me. They make me so thankful that my child has a place to sleep at night. In an air conditioned home with a roof. Air condition is the least of their problems. Sometimes we lose sight of the important things and the blessings that are given to us. Today has been an eye opener and I will always remember it.

 I give you the Baiyoke sky hotel. Or as I would much rather call it, because I am not the biggest fan of heights. Not to mention if you take the stairs, yeah you'll definitely die. Why would they have stairs for a building so tall? Maybe that's how Asians stay so skinny. Between that and their skimpy portion sizes I would definitely bet that's why. OH! Before I go any further, I must tell you this! I thought to myself, "self, you've been sweating your butt off in this hot and humid city of Bangkok. You've been starving yourself on these tiny amounts of food, SURELY YOU HAVE LOST WEIGHT." So, I decide to woman up and go face that mean little scale that had the nerve to call me obese. I step on, enter my height, enter my age, and oh boy the moment of truth here it comes!!! It prints out my little paper ticket and I immediately notice that it says STANDARD! I am no longer obese! I suddenly here the hallelujah chorus! And I rejoice in this wonderful moment as I thank this horrible Asian climate for helping me go from obese to standard in a week! Ok ok, I know, back to the story..so Baiyoke Sky Hotel. Here's a few facts. 

The Baiyoke Sky Hotel is a 85 story, 1,077ft hotel. It features an observatory deck on the 77th floor. If that's not good enough for you, take another elevator to the 84th an final floor. You will find a 360 degrees revolving deck on top.  When I got at the very top, it was a big moment for me. Some of you reading this might know I DO not like being that high without being strapped in. So me being out in the open 1,077ft in the air is a HUGE deal. The last time I had to climb high at work, I at least had someone telling me funny jokes on the way up. Lol. Wanna know the worst part for me? You have to take a solid glass elevator all the way up to the 77th floor.  I didn't like that! At all! So here's is a photo from the very top. 

 I'd much rather my tiny little size 6 feet stay ON the ground. 

Well I suppose I'll give you guys a break from all of the medical talk. And give you guys an insight of what we have been getting to see here in Bangkok. You'll actually get to enjoy all of the sight seeing without all of the AWFUL walking I had to do the past week to get these photos. I think I've literally sweat out every toxin in my entire body! I feel like I lose almost 20lbs a day..until I walk back into the facilities here and I see that stupid asian scale, that called me obese, staring me in the face!

 I do believe, billy will be going as a raccoon for Halloween! Lol! the doctor said it'll probably get a litte worse tomorrow then start clearing up. He is doing fine however he said he feels a tad bit if discomfort,

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