This was not the day we expected

Not sure where to begin today - Mae is a delight and showing a little more of her personality each day. She is getting more comfortable with us and feeling reassured that she will continue to be fed! She as latched onto Jarred, who has entertained her, made her laugh, as well as fallen head over heels in love with her.

Yesterday aftertoon, Ian got sick - fever, throwing up and diarehea. He had a very rough night and by the morning time, when he couldn't hold any medicine down, we called the hotel Doctor. He recommended that we get to a hospital, as he was worried about Ian becoming too dehydrated. As I discovered in my journey (this is Adena writing) through the Chinese medical system, everyone, rich, poor, rural or city person, must go to the hospital for any kind of treatment. The hotel Dr. could not prescribe any medicine, or give Ian a shot (which is what he really needed). So off in short cab ride to the Hubei General Hospital with Ian and Michelle. Michelle is one of the two U.S. Asian Affairs employees that accompanied our group to Wuhan. Michelle has been working for USAA since 1999, but only full time for about one year, as she is a recent college graduate. I could not have made that hospital trip without her. Her genteel personality changed the minute we entered this very modern looking building. The outside looked like 70's Chinese architecture, but the inside looked like a very industrial, 1930's facility. There were 100's of people jamming the registry. Everyone must go through the registry to be seen. We paid our 3 yuan (about 36 cents) and were sent up to pediatrics. I have never seen anything like it. There were probably 100 parents with children, sitting on laps or playing in a totally unsanitary play area - all the kids presumably SICK! And of course, there was a smoking section in the PEDIATRIC section of a hospital (I know I sound stunned). I sat with Ian while Michelle got in line to see the "Consulting Specialist", ie the Doctor. There were about 15 people ahead of us and Michelle fought her way to stay in line, as people thought nothing about cutting in front of you. As I sat, Ian and I got stared at A LOT. Being the only foreigners and both blonde, the staring was non stop. A woman next to me starting speaking Chinese to me. I told her I only spoke English. She asked in broken English: boy or girl (for those of you who don't know Ian, his hair is long). I said boy and she said, "very beautiful". Her very next question was: "How old are you?" I realized she was asking about ME, not Ian. Her questions were asked out of curiosity, but she clearly thought nothing of asking a lot of personal questions. It was quite amusing, as she relayed my information to everyone in the room. Many people were fascinated by Ian's hair and wanted to touch it. After 45 minutes, the specialist saw us, but wanted more specimins (I'll spare the details). That was another 15 mins., then off to evaluate Ian for any allergies. Then back to the specialist for a prescription. As it turned out, the prescription was a two hour IV drip. No shots of Lomotil or Compazine that I had hoped for. The only way they will adminster medicine is through an IV. Michelle said she had had at least 30 IV's, as that was standard. As we entered the IV station, I was stunned by what I saw. At least 50 parents and their children, most of the kids sitting on their parent's laps, with IV's in their hands (and in the heads for the babies). There are metal racks hanging overhead to hold the old fashioned glass bottles of solutions. There was a big nurses area, with a big opening and two well worn matresses on top of the counter. As children were called, they were lifted onto a matress (most screaming) and injected with the IV. Did I mention that the nurses don't wear gloves, nor did they change the sheet after each child was on it? I told Michelle I wanted to take Ian home to rest and we would come back in the afternoon. The nurses kept our bottles of medicine and we went back to the hotel. After a few hours, I steeled myself to take Ian back for the two hour drip. As we walked back into the IV station, of course the nurses remembered us and made a huge fuss over Ian, who was still delirious with fever (Rich is convinced he was speaking Chinese!). Michelle, Ian and I settled in for the glucose, antibiotics and anti naseau drip. I then learned that Michelle was a product of the one child policy and we talked a lot about what it means to have girls here in China. I thought her father must be very proud of her and she said that now he is.....Her parents adopted a 2 year old Chinese girl four years ago and she said the process took years. Much slower than our process. It seems odd - you would think that since the girls are already born, they would make it easier to keep them with Chinese families. Michelle commented on how lucky I was to have TWO boys. We talked a lot about things that women can do in the U.S. (like my job in finance). A man behind us with his 15 year old daughter (getting her asthma medicine) asked if we have the one child policy in the United States. He really had no idea about the US or our governmental policies.

We were told to return the next day for another two hour drip, so we will see what tomorrow brings.

Jarred< Mae and I had a quiet dinner in the Italian restaurant in the hotel. Bed forwarned, if you stay at the Best Western in Wuhan, the Italian restaurant has five tables and no staff. The waitress and food come from the other restaurant. So, we literally ate alone, Jarred getting his plate of pasta with tomato sauce. It was nice after the long day of crowds.

Jarred, Rich and Mae are off for a sightseeing trip in the morning (which they skipped today, too worried about Ian). There is a possibility we will visit Mae's orphanage tomorrow.

Til then......keep Ian in your thoughts.