All The Gory Details (Literally)

Warning: If you don’t want to see the gnarly pic of Bo’s staples, be careful how fast you scroll down. I am putting it at the very end of this long post so that you can refrain from looking if you choose. I had to add it on for my dad, though. He loves that kind of stuff…

Well, we are finally back home. FINALLY!! Oh, how I missed Qingdao… beautiful, clean, small Qingdao (okay, there are 4 million people here, but when you compare it to 11 million in Beijing, you start to feel small). It was a long, tiring couple of weeks, but everything went really well with the surgery and now we can try to resume life as usual. Or as close to usual as possible when one of you lacks the use of an extremity.

I can sum up our time in Beijing by saying it was stressful, confusing, frustrating, and exhausting. But that is not all. It was also fun, comfortable, joyous, and a total blessing. And since I have so much to tell you about, I think I’ll start with the fun, joyous, blessing part…

In Beijing, we stayed with the AMAZING Harvey family. They were friends of friends of friends, and welcomed us (perfect strangers) into their home when they heard about our situation. They have a guest room and bathroom in their home that is always ready in case someone needs it. It was so wonderful to have a comfortable, private space to rest as we navigated through so much unfamiliar territory. And I can’t tell you what a blessing it was to have the support and pryers of a like-minded couple during it all. They were what made this roller coaster tolerable. Bo and I agree that in our whole lives, we are not sure if we have ever truly experienced selfless hospitality like we did through the Harveys in Beijing. We showed up at their home and they made us feel like family. Words can’t explain, but He provided what we needed through this family and we are thankful.

Next, I have to mention the Tapleys, our fabulous Australian friends who also happen to be our neighbors. They were the ones who hooked us up with the family in Beijing, advised us about the good hospitals, and were just constantly on-call for anything we needed back in QD while we were away. Tash even had my whole house cleaned for me when I got home last night. Bless her. This family has helped us in so many ways over the past few months, but they were life-savers once again this time and we are so thankful.

Lastly, Bo had his surgery at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) in Beijing. He had excellent care, skilled surgeons and medical staff, a flat panel TV, and a comfy bed. Again, thankful.

Confession: over the last 2 weeks, Bo and I looked at each other a few times and said, “this is the worst thing we have ever been through,” but when I look back at all the blessings and how His hand was totally in control, I can’t help but feel good about everything. It actually makes the stressful, confusing, frustrating, and  exhausting part of the story seem rather unimportant. Maybe I’ll save that part of the story for another post.

For now. pictures…

A broken bone and still Settlin.’ The Harveys are big Catan fans, which was SO great because you might remember that Catan night was high on our to-do list during “the holiday that wasn’t.”

Waiting for surgery, playin’ UNO. Don’t you love the hospital jammies they gave him?

I was bored while I waited for Bo to come back, so I just went outside to snap pics around the hospital.

There aren’t as many as there used to be, but I’m pretty sure Beijing still has the largest bicycle population in the world.

This store was next to the hospital. If you are familiar with my obsession with changing my hair, then you may find the humor in the product sold at my “namesake”…wigs!!

Mom, thought you might want to see the Chinese characters for “library.”

After surgery. They had CNN…we haven’t watched American news in months… woah, depressing.

And here is Bo getting out of jail after 4 days in the hospital. The nurses were SO CUTE!! They all wore little nurse dresses and matching pink cardigans. And the hats completely made the outfit. Loved it!

And finally… the gore.. Bo’s incision… I made the photo really small to try to cut down on the gross factor…

Yuck! For a woman, a scar like this would be devastating. But funny enough, I think Bo is a little proud. The staples come out in 2 weeks. More details later…