Soon after pregnancy, Soo started experiencing some sharp pains in her stomach accompanied by chills & aches. I took her & Halle to the emergency room, and soon after we checked in, all the pain and everything went away.
The doctor attributed it to gastritis and our doctor furthermore gave her nexium for heart-burn.
The attacks would come every couple weeks… we began to assume it was something she ate… as we cut certain items out she seemed better… she cut out all tomato-sauce based items & all spicy food… then all citrus & acidic fruits & foods… and coffee… basically, she couldn’t eat anything except rice & grilled chicken…
The problems never seemed to go away… and after some other concerns we went to the local doctor here.
We have been blessed to find an American doctor at the Red cross hospital. We knew of the OBGYN last year, but didn’t know about the regular doctor until this year. He is great.
And it is so cheap here!
Doctor’s visit: $3
Blood Tests: $3
Cat Scan, X-rays: $5
Prescription medicine: $3
Even an overnight hospital stay is only like $17
After checking out Soo, he thought gallstones… but we had to do a few more tests… there is another foreign surgeon here who could have removed the gallbladder, but some of the other tests we needed to go somewhere else.
This is part of the experience of living here… leaving the city or country to go to the hospital
so we got in contact with a hospital, set an appointment… and made plans to go to Hong Kong…
The doctor there seemed to know what he was talking about and insightful.
The scariest part for Soo was the fact she would be put under… she had a gastropacy done here with no medicine. Usually in the states they’ll at least give a local anisthetic… here they could prescribe a pill… but that was too much… so she did the gastropacy w/o anything…. But hey, she gave birth without any medicine either!
So, we went to HK and Soo got knocked out. The doctor put 4 keyholes in her, removed the stones & sucked out her gallbladder… they gave us a DVD of the surgery… but we haven’t watched it... Movie night anyone?
They brought a jar of the stones to the room… we weren’t like Joey when he got his kidney stones… but we did look at it… I counted the stones: 81!
81 stones!
That’s a lot.
Soo was also scared about Halle. How would I be able to take care of Halle & her? And what if Halle won’t eat? She doesn’t really take a bottle, and doesn’t sleep well away from home…
However, God was gracious!
We fed Halle formula for the first time & she loved it! She took the bottle without any problems.
Actually, if Soo was around, she wouldn’t want the bottle, but if not, she wanted the bottle all the time.
We were also blessed by Joy Ford. A person we didn’t know; And a person my parents had never met, only corresponded with thru email.
That is the body of Christ!
We really felt God’s hand upon us & the blessing of the body of Christ thru her.
Even though some family were not willing to help because it may be too much trouble, someone we didn’t know went out of her way to come help us & went the extra mile to bring us food & stuff we didn’t ask for, but knew would bless us.
Our true family is our family in Christ
Unfortunately because of the procedures, the day before the surgery Soo couldn’t eat anything, and the first few days after she didn’t have much of an appetite… too bad, b/c going to Hong Kong means a lot of good food…
Before we went, Soo was convinced after the surgery she’d be able to move around and do whatever she wanted… I kept on telling her we probably won’t be able to do much…. After the surgery, Soo vented she just had surgery and I was planning too much…
Still, Soo loved HK. She called it one of her favorite places.
I hated it. I would never want to go back
Hong Kong is expensive.
Hong Kong is hot.
Hong Kong is big & busy.
We were at the mid-levels, which means it was just a series of hills…. The places we were going were supposed to be walking distance… but it was all uphill, thru tons of traffic, and winding roads… and it was hot.
I never sweated so much in my life.
The taxis charged for baggage.
I don’t like big cities.
Still, Soo got to go to H&M and we bought some toys for Halle at Toys R Us.
We got Bubba Gump’s Shrimp (Amazing!), pizza, salad, Fo, Dimsum, Italian & Steak… and of course McDonalds.
The favorite though may have been going to the grocery store and getting deli meat… and of course, my favorite: Tim-Tams!
We got to go to the Peak for a little bit… though I don’t like it so much, Hong Kong is a beautiful place.
We also went to one of the small islands before the surgery as it was much cheaper there…
Anyway… the HK trip has made me think of a lot of memories… and thoughts
1. I miss riding mopeds in Chiangmai with Billy Van Elk
2. I miss going to mid-year conferences in Thailand… last year we were in the states having a baby… year before we got married… and the year before it was in Malaysia…
3. We should have planned better… or what if we got married in June, had the baby in May… at the very least I could have gone to Mid-year last year and been there when Ken came… been there for Asian friends leaving EA… and then been back this summer for CSU to hear Francis Chan & go see David crowder and Tenth Ave North… and we would have been around in the fall & I could have led the team, wouldn’t have start all over…
4. The ferry reminded me of Turkey… could you imagine us living there.. taking the ferry every day… hm…
5. Cold showers reminded me of WW02… taking showers outside… cool showers on hot days & warm showers on cool days outside… it was pretty sweet
6. Of course I’m in HK, so I got to think of Kelvin Ng
7. With all that, how about Ghandi’s 5…
8. And I thought about the fun with Adam Anderson when I went back in 05… the girls were fun too and the students… but Adam & I bonded… got cheesesteaks and hung out weekly… joked around a lot…
9. This place is a lot like Macinac Island in Michigan… no cars, bikes, lots of small shops… no fudge though
10. Ah, Traverse city was a fun summer… and then today Soo gave me & hug after getting out of the water… reminded me of when Chris Woods said he would accept a hug after being out in the rain and Matt Sfura jumped at the chance… what a memory…
11. This place is like a retreat center… retreats used to be so much fun!
12. Also reminded of the dream I had a few weeks ago: I was on a summer project in India… but hald the students were Americans, the other half were Indians… but we were on one summer project, but like a state-side project… students didn’t realize how lucky they were… Mitch Sheehan was the project cook… Soo & I were there- no baby I think.. Christine Major… not sure who else
13. I don’t think I’ve ever sweated so much in my life… my goodness it is hot here! And the uphill climb didn’t help.
14. Nutella tastes good when it is fresh
15. Saw Ring-tailed lemurs, which of course reminded me of Steve Tanzek & the TC project again… 15 years later & I still remember
16. I really like sitting in starbucks, drinking a frappacino & writing & reading…
17. Whenever I feel like I’m going to get a lot of reading done, I read nothing at all
18. Wow, I miss deli meats, seeing the case was like walking into heaven
19. I don’t like big cities
20. Can’t wait to get home… where at least we know where things are, and feel more freedom to be normal
Well, that’s me processing our trip…
Thankful for…
1. Soo getting the surgery and hopefully can eat now and won’t have much pain
2. There were no complications with the surgery or big problems created by the kidney stones
3. Experiencing God’s grace & kindness thru the body of Christ as Joy, a complete stranger, but sister in Christ- came to help
4. God taking care of us, getting us where we needed to go
5. Everyone’s prayers and concerns for Soo & us
6. God providing for all our financial needs, that even with all these expenses, we have what we need
7. Halle taking the bottle & sleeping well while there
8. Being able to bond with the baby more – as I got to feed Halle, helped me feel closer
9. God using this to build Soo & I’s marriage
10. Tim-Tams
11. Good food
12. Being able to communicate with all of you!
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