Dr Xia Beijing - Surgeon Peng Aimin - External Tibias - November 2013 to 2014

I'm a current patient from overseas in Beijing. My operation to put on the fixators was 27 November this year. That was day one. On day nine I commenced lengthening at .667mm per day and I have missed one day due to illness. At the weekend I was sent to the parent hospital for investigations due to my persistent diahorrhea, and I had vomiting a couple of nights before. I have a strong persistent cough and voice hoarseness. I walk slowly with a frame so that I was able to go across from my bed and into the bathroom yesterday.

Dr Peng Aimin was my operating surgeon. I have not seen Dr Xia or Dr Li except where there are pictured and listed on the staff directory. The international liaison Dr Wang Bei (Ronne) has a line of contact to Dr Xia.

There is another foreign patient here who has finished lengthening: a female who goes home to Europe later this month. I'm not sure there is a male, but two males are coming soon: an American, an Australian. Other patients come from at times far parts of China and they are correcting abnormalities of leg length and range of motion. Small kids, middle aged and between.

I'm waiting upon receiving protein isolate supplementation, glucosamine, calcium supplementation and the other things which consolidate the growth and expansion of new bone tissue, nerves and musculature.

Thanks for coming here and starting this diary.  I've been eager to hear what's been going on in Beijing since I was last there.

Hey I'm really looking forward to your diary bro! Congratulations on having the courage to go under the knife, it will really pay off. May I ask if you paid the standard 24,000 Euro for surgery and accommodations? Also how hard is it to communicate with nurses, doctors, fellow patients? Do enough people speak English besides Ronnie? I know I'm full of questions, but do you mind if you take pictures of your frames?

Many thanks!

What sort of food were you eating before you experienced illness? When I was last in Beijing with a group of students a few people got stomach troubles after a few days of the food there. We were told that a lot of people get digestive problems due to not being used to the way food is prepared there. Apparently this is especially true in India as well. Hope you get better. It will be cool to see your progress in the coming months.

I wish you a speedy recovery !

All the best for recovery, remember to stay positive. Look forward to your updates.

Ronne is a permanent staff member and fluent in English. The closest person to you will be a maid and they will have no ability to communicate outside their own language. Dr Zhao is the one who has seen me most frequently since the operation and I have not had the need to employ translations to Chinese with him. The elder nurse is also able to ask questions in English. I'm able to bring up wifi access to use translate.google.com for English-to-Chinese, and fanyi.baidu.com can operate the other way.

The price is the advertised $EUR24000 and I was also quoted $US33000

I feel recovered from what had me squirting diahorrea, but I will still be taken to the parent hospital tomorrow for a followup investigation. Somehow cold temperament and uninspiring food worked together to hold up my progress and cost me some extra.

For patients, next week will see a couple less locals who are willing to say some things in English and a couple of foreigners that are yet to undergo surgery.

Thanks for starting the diary and look forward to it, since there's not been a diary of Beijing China for some time..

How is your pain level and what are your impression of the medical care so far?

Good to hear Dr. Zhao is still there.  He started when I was there and nobody was keen on listening to his advice, instead wanting to get Dr. Peng's opinion on everything.  He was a cool guy though and now he's got 6 years' experience.

Some people got sick there while others didn't and I don't really know why.  I guess different people just react to that environment differently.

Hi

thanks for staring the diary.. it will be great if you could post  sm pic

hope everything goes well in your in your investigation tmw