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The Plague! A Coronavirus Update

Before I get to anything else, let me go ahead and update you on the one thing most everyone asks us about: We are perfectly safe, happy and healthy here in China. The actual risk of any of us contracting the Coronavirus are very minuscule. That being said, since the outbreak began in early January, we’ve been through a series of unfortunate events that I surmise will be fun for you to hear about.

Okay, first things first – a quick Coronavirus timeline for the uninitiated. And please forgive me if this information is slightly inaccurate –

DEC 31. At the end of last year, doctors in Wuhan, China were treating dozens of cases of what they thought was pneumonia. Days later, those same doctors figured out it was a little more than your typical pneumonia.

JAN 11. The first person dies from what is being called the Coronavirus. The 61 year old man was a regular at a wet market in Wuhan. Wet markets here in China are large open food markets with fresh meat, seafood, fruits, veggies and all kinds of other assorted food… things. The markets in my city are pretty similar, with the most unusual things you can buy to eat are turtles and eels. They are alive. Yes, you buy them like that. Then you take them home and do the deed. The Chinese like their food really fresh. The Chinese like many eastern Asian countries, enjoy a variety of fresh exotic foods – like snake and bats. The rumors are that the virus started with a bat, or a snake, that was eaten by a bat or snake, who passed the virus on to the other animal, and then THAT animal was sold at the Wuhan Wet Market , which in turn was passed on to some unfortunate human being. At least, that’s what I’ve heard. China is pretty closed off about information, going in or out. I’m pretty sure they just let the CDC in the country last week, a full month after this whole fiasco began.

On with the timeline –

JAN 20 – First confirmed cases outside of China in South Korea, Japan and Thailand.

JAN 21 – First case reported in the United States.

JAN 23 – The city of Wuhan, which has over 11 million people, was quarantined by the Chinese government. I mean cut off, like… you can’t leave. Go out of your house. Imagine that happening in the US? Ya’ll would go crazy. For reference, in case you’re freaking out and are worried about our location, we’re about a 12 hour drive south of Wuhan. And that’s just a tiny part of China.

JAN 30. – The World Health Organization declares a a global health emergency as there are thousands infected in China and many others in different countries.

JAN 31 – Major airlines stop service to China. The US restricts entry to the US, imposing a 14 day quarantine on people coming from China. By this date 213 people had died and nearly 9,800 had been infected worldwide.

FEB 2. – First Coronavirus-related death outside of China.

FEB. 5. – Hundreds, mostly Americans, were evacuated from Hubei Province and a cruise ship in Japan is quarantined.

FEB. 7. – A Chinese doctor, who tried to warn others, died from the coronavirus.

FEB. 10. – The death toll in China surpassed the number SARS killed worldwide. 40,000 people have been infected.

And on, and on and on. I’m tired of writing the timeline. Since this blog is about us, let us rewind and tell you what WE were and have been doing during all this.

When the whole shindig started, Alanna and I were on holiday from work. Chinese New Year was almost here and the kids were out of school. We had planned on spending a good part of the holiday in Hong Kong, just to get away from the mainland for a bit. We had just began to hear the ramblings of some virus, somewhere in China. Heck, I had never heard of Wuhan until all of this, and I live in China. Everything was still pretty normal where we live as we left China on Jan. 23 and headed to Hong Kong. Sure, some people were wearing masks, but with the air quality here in China, some people are always wearing masks.

We had a great two or three days in Hong, doing our normal touristy stuff – We visited a beach where found a 3000 year old rock carving, visited Hong Kong’s favorite son – Bruce Lee, spent some quality time in a Cat Cafe, and most importantly ate amazing food, minus the Pizza Hut and McDonald’s orders for our kids. But as we watched the news in our hotel room, we began to see the scope of what was happening. And it became quickly apparent in Hong Kong, as within only a few days EVERYONE was suddenly wearing a masks. We also heard rumors that it was now mandatory to wear masks back in our home city. So, we bought masks, or the 4 masks that were still in stock. Many reports today say that these masks really aren’t all the effective. I mean, they aren’t actually tight over your mouth and nose. Those little virus particles can get in. But, we wore them whenever we went out. At any rate, it made us stand out much less than we used to, so… bonus.

By the time the weekend had rolled out, we were getting ready to head back to the mainland, because we were expecting at least Alanna and the kids going back to school. I still had a few more weeks left before I returned. That never happened. Schools all across China were postponed from starting back, and pretty much all businesses began to shut down, save for grocery stores, pharmacies and restaurants. As we traveled back to the mainland, the temperature checks began. At length. This would sometimes happen randomly during a border crossing in China. Now… it was happening at every border crossing. And at the hotel, and at our gate of our complex.

Chinese officials were urging everyone, even in our city, to just stay indoors and avoid contact with people pretty much as soon as we were back in town. We really didn’t have a ton of food in the house though those first few days back, so we ventured out to the closest restaurant within walking distance – Burger King. The city at this point already looked like a ghost town. No one was around, except for security guards, police, a few people here and there, and those poor suckers who had to serve us a Burger King. Of course, we were the ONLY customers there. Normally during lunch time, its packed to the walls. Not that day. and not since.

The next day we took a trip to Sam’s Club. Yes, they have one here. And though its quite different from the American version, it usually allows us to stock up on a bunch of stuff. Not so much this time. You know when they predict a light dusting of snow and there’s no bread and milk on the grocery shelves? That’s how it felt at Sam’s Club. People were scrambling for the last best meats, the eggs, all the good stuff. Or at least the good stuff that we liked. There were still plenty of noodles.

At the beginning of February, the virus was in full swing, and Alanna and the kids were in the midst of online schooling. The Chinese internet is a bit… restrictive here, so anything online is going to be fraught with difficulties. At this point, we were looking at options for getting out of China. There was always a quick vacation destination nearby, such as Korea or Thailand, and we also discussed just making the long haul back to the States to wait all this out. In the end though, we came to the conclusion that, for now, staying put was best for our family. And by staying put, I mean we were going to hang out in Hong Kong for another week. So on Feb 7, we headed back across the border. Hong Kong, unlike mainland China, still has mostly everything open. No, Disneyland and most of the large public tourist destinations are closed until further notice, but the malls, restaurants and the like are all in full swing. So even though everyone walking around with a mask on and worrying about dying, or you know, China pressuring them into being more like China, most Hong Kong people are carrying on their day to to day lives.

Yes, this elderly couple is doing Tai chi with swords.

We stayed in Hong Kong until Feb. 12, doing the same things we normally do – relaxing at the hotel, eating great food, all the jazz. Biggest bummer this time was that, because of the virus, the hotel’s amazing hot tub and pool were closed. We’ve been back (stuck) in our city in China since the 12th. Cabin Fever is a real thing. More restrictions continue to be piled on us as the days go by. We all tried to walk to Burger King one day early last week, and on the way there, they told us only one person was allowed through this makeshift gate. So only I went to BK that day. They are doing this, from what we’ve heard, to restrict too many people in public areas. I mean, really. If they would have left my wife and kids, there would have been a total four 4 people in that area instead of just me. This past week has been more of the same. We are in somewhat of a routine now. We get up and make sure the kids do their online school work, we play games, we run around the house, we listen to music, I clean things because I’m bored. We have watched a LOT of TV and movies, catching up on many things we missed. Alanna says Parasite was just okay. I didn’t watch it. I did watch 1917 though, and Alanna agrees with me that it should have won Best Picture over Parasite. That’s saying a lot as Alanna’s least favorite genre of entertainment is war movies.

We’ve heard rumors just today of a new restriction. They are closing our “side gate” to our complex. Its the gate we can walk out of to get to Burger King. Now, if we want to get to Burger King, we’ve have to talk about 20 minutes out of the way to get there. Also, there’s rumor that only one family member is going to be allowed out of the complex at a time so they can monitor who is in and out. We’ll see how that goes if it happens. At this point, they’ve also shut down mostly all the restauraunts, save for a few that will only do take out.

Hey… thanks to each and everyone of you for reaching out to us. It does mean a great deal to know we have so many of you who care about what happens to our crazy nomadic family. Honestly, to us, it feels like a “first world” problem. We are terribly inconvenienced by what is happening, but it could be a lot worse, and IS a lot worse for a lot of other people. We are thankful for our health. We are thankful for each and everyone of you. And, at least at this point and time, we are thankful that Burger King is still open. For take out.

Hong Kong for Pre-Christmas.

We stayed mostly low key for the holidays this year. Well, as low key as we can get for our unusual family. We split the last few weeks into two trips – the first to Hong Kong, and the second to Macau, with Christmas right in the middle at home. We had to be home for Christmas, right? I mean, that’s where Santa brings all the presents. And Kevin (our Elf on a Shelf) was there, right?

Let’s tackle the Hong Kong Trip in this blog. From where we live, there are a few ways to get to Hong Kong – with the two most popular being a one hour ferry ride or a one hour bus ride over the longest (over water) bridge in the world. We’ve traveled both in the past, and I can’t say I really have a preference. Okay, maybe riding on a ferry is cooler, so I guess you could say that is my preference. This trip we took the ferry to Hong Kong. And for those of you who are interested, here’s what I typical family trip on a Ferry looks like for us:

Yeah, so that’s our typical ferry ride. Abby is overly excited. Logan is on his tablet, and Alanna? She usually has motion sickness. For the record, she didn’t actually throw up.

The Ferry dropped us off at the HK port where we moved as quickly as we could through customs, though it seemed to take a little longer this trip than most. Yes, HK is part of China. But yes, you still have to go through customs. It seems like people around here don’t like all this rigmarole. Maybe they should protest it. Oh wait, they are. Currently. We avoid that political mess though and move along with our vacay. We stayed at a lovely hotel on the northern part of Hong Kong called Kowloon. We had specific goals in mind for this trip. My main goal? See the new Star Wars Movie. So my kick booty wife booked a hotel that’s literally connected to a huge mall with a cinema. Goal accomplished. And I don’t care if you didn’t like the new Star Wars movie. We all enjoyed it. I got emotional.

My kick booty wife also has 3 kick booty sisters, and one of them just happened to arrange to hang out with us in Hong Kong. Sho (that’s her name) is a bit of a go-getter, so after raising funds by participating in a triathlon in Bali, she and her awesome BoFro George headed over to HK to spend time with the fam. We hit up the typical tourist destinations around the hotel, including the mall, a street with nothing but flower shops, a street with nothing but birds for sale, and then a street with EVERYTHING EVER CREATED for sale. You know, cause its Hong Kong. Sho even sprung for childcare at night so we could all have some adult time. We had some fantastic Sichuan cuisine (hot food) while hitting up the most expat area of Hong Kong, then ended up a local spot for after dinner drinks.

Sho and her Bo headed back to the States and the rest of us continued to relax in the hotel pool/hot tub and/or visit more touristy destinations. We hit up a monkey park. No, not a zoo. A park. Its just a large wooded area with trails that happen to sport a lot of wild monkeys. We didn’t stay long, as these monkeys weren’t the most friendly of creatures. They kept yelling at me when I tried to take pictures. And they even blocked our path in the road at one point. Do they thing they own the place or something? Privileged monkeys! We also took more strolls through the city, finding more weird streets filled with weirder things – like an entire street selling tropical fish and other sea creatures, all in a bunch of plastic bags filled with water. Just pick what you want and take ’em home I guess! We also visited Victoria’s Peak while we stayed in HK, which is the highest spot in the area and offers amazing views. Of course, the day we went it was overcast and the views weren’t spectacular, but still pretty neat. They also had some kind of Monopoly museum/amusement park… thing.. at the top. We didn’t pay to go in, and were pretty confused about what it was even after reading the brochure. We left the peak with a few cool souvenirs though. Okay, we left with two fidget spinners and ONE cool souvenir – a hand painted picture of our family names in Chinese Characters. So touristy but a nice addition for our family’s collection of stuff from around the world.

And on our final full day in Hong Kong, we did what parents do to make their kids happy – Disney. That’s right, back to Disneyland Hong Kong. Since this was our second visit in just a few months, we knew the routine well enough. We hit the rides we wanted pretty early, making sure to do anything we missed last time. I am happy to say it went smoothly, no one was sick, and no child had any major breakdowns. I call that a success.

OK, I’m tired of typing. I’ll fill ya’ll in on Christmas festivities and our trip to Macau next time. I have spoken.

Oh.. wait! Outback! Yes, we went. It was of average taste, smaller portions and pricier than the States, but hey… steak and cheese fries, people!

Pain – Emotional and Physical

Most readers of this blog probably also follow me on social media so you know that I’ve been on the struggle bus for the last month and a half with a severe shoulder separation and the death of my father. I’ve slacked on the blog as I’ve spent most of my time recovering from surgery and managing out the mourning process. Here’s a recap of what happened.

As October drew to a close, we were preparing here in China for Halloween. Alanna and I were going as Mario and Luigi, since… they are cheap costumes we could buy online. The kids were all set to be the captains – America and Marvel. A few days before Halloween, I received the news from my sister that my Dad wasn’t doing well. He’d fallen a few times and all signs pointed to a stroke. After getting him to the hospital, the stroke was confirmed and then it seemed he had another stroke while he was there. At that point, everything seemed to go downhill quickly for Dad and doctors ultimately came to the conclusion there just wasn’t much more they could do but to make him comfortable. This meant moving my Dad to Hospice. For those of you that don’t know, hospice is just a place where you go to die. They make you as comfortable as possible, try to manage the pain as best they can, and its generally, or at least in my Dad’s case, is a better way to pass rather than being in a hospital.

In the middle of all this happening, I was having some problems of my own – namely a separated shoulder. I joined a Darts League here in China just to get me out of the house some more. I am below average at the game, but it lets me socialize and have a beer or two, so I figured it was a good idea. I’m in a solo league and a team league. We played in a team match Wednesday before Halloween. It went pretty late and I made my usual way home on the scooter. It was dark. The scooter does have a light, but if you turn it on, it drops the power of the scooter by 50% and it goes much slower. My better half has told me not to ride at night. Apparently, I need to listen to her. About half way home that night, the front tire of my scooter hit some kind of hole and I was launched over the handlebars and down to the asphalt at about 15 miles per hour. I tried to brace myself with my hands, but they quickly gave way. I was lucky my head didn’t hit the ground, or it would have been much worse. The only thing that DID make first, solid contact with that asphalt was my right shoulder. I rolled around a little bit, felt a little sick, but got back up, found my flip flop about 20 feet away, then got back on the scooter and made my way home. The pain really didn’t hit me until I got home. Everyone was mostly asleep, so I slipped into bed, mumbling to my wife about how I was fine when she asked how the night went. I spent the rest of the night in agony as I tried to get in a position to sleep in that wouldn’t hurt my shoulder.

When I figured out how to get out of bed the next morning, the pain was excruciating. Alanna immediately noticed something looked off about my shoulder, even with a shirt on. When she made me take off the shirt, well… a picture tells the story…

Yes, that’s my clavicle sticking up in a way it was never meant to be.

While all that is happening is when my sister called to let me know about my Dad. I needed to come home to the States, to see him before he passed. And here I was with some kind of nasty injury. I freaked out a little. Alanna freaked out a little. She immediately sent me to the hospital. Ah yes, the Chinese hospital experience again. Same hospital as before. I met with the same English-speaking nurse on the VIP floor and she took me to get X-Rays. The X-ray tech used an app on his phone to move the machine all around me, so that was kind of cool. Once the pictures were taken, the nurse took me to see a doctor who would look at my results. He didn’t speak English, but as soon as he touched my shoulder and felt the bone sticking up, he made the universal “Oooohhhhhh……” sound that lets everyone know, in any language, that there is something definitely wrong. From the examination of my shoulder and the x-ray scan, the doctor concluded I had grade 3 separation of my AC joint – which means that all the tendons holding my clavicle in place were torn completely apart and nothing was holding that bone down anymore.

The doctor recommended immediate surgery. His plan was to admit me to the hospital right then and there, stay through the weekend and then have surgery early that next week. I asked some questions, such as “So how does this surgery work? Do you put me to sleep? What is the recovery time?” You know, all standard questions. To my shock, the doctor said they he would NOT put me to sleep. He would just numb my shoulder, then cut open my shoulder, put some pins in my bones and pull everything back in place… all while I’m awake. Like, my right ear is right there, listening to whatever he would do to my shoulder.

I called my wife, and had her talk to the nurse. My father’s situation was explained to the medical staff and how having surgery right now wasn’t going to be in the cards for me. I asked them if I was ok to fly home. They said no, I shouldn’t fly. They weren’t too worried about further injury, just me being in pain. I told them that’s what I had to do though. I mean, come on. It’s my Dad. My hero. They got me a very flimsy sling and put it on my arm to keep it slightly immobilized. It still hurt like hell, but it was the best they could do I suppose. They also gave me some kind of pain meds – that did absolutely nothing. It made no dent in the pain whatsoever. So, I was sent home against medical advice. This was actually on Halloween. My lovely wife, who was already slammed busy at her work with Halloween festivities, was also slammed busy making my travel plans with my sister. Even the folks at my work were helping look up prices, figure out the best routes, out of the kindness of their hearts. It would be just me, with the injury. I had to leave my wife and kids in China. We were able to get me on a flight early the next morning, but that was the only good thing about the trip. Flying was horrible. The China to the States flight, no matter which way you go, will always be about 13 to 15 hours… straight. That’s just from the major flight hub of China to a major hub in the U.S. That doesn’t count the connecting flights and layovers. The average travel time for me is about 24 hours of flying and layovers. And I had a separated shoulder. And my seat didn’t even recline on the 14-hour flight. My shoulder throbbed the entire way. There was no chance to sleep. An abundant amount of turbulence on the long flight only made matters worse.

My brother-in-law picked up my battered self at the airport and drove me an hour to see my father, but first dropped me off at the ER to have the U.S. Docs take a look at my injury. They came to mostly the same conclusion as the doctors in China – a separated shoulder that would require surgery. The only difference in their diagnosis was an upgrade in the severity of the injury. It was a grade 5 AC separation, not grade 3. Grade 5 is the most severe I guess. Anyway, they referred me to an Orthopedic Surgeon as soon as he could see me, which would be early the following week.

I saw my father for the first time the next morning. While he wasn’t able to open his eyes or really even speak, I am confident he knew I was there. He perked up just a bit when I spoke to him and that did give me some comfort. I spent that day and night in hospice with my Dad. His breathing only got more labored and it seemed like it was just getting harder and harder for him. The ladies there told me he wasn’t in any pain. My sister came back the next morning and after checking on my Dad, the doctor gave us the news. He had about 48 hours left. This shocked us. You just assume you have more time. You assume that it will drag on longer. But that’s all there was to it. The doctor was very nice, told us what to expect, but nothing quite prepares you for watching someone you love die. I have been very lucky in my life, and have been spared going through that, until now. My father continued to fade through the next day, and the next morning, the doctor was sure that my father would pass sometime soon. She was right. My father passed away later that day. I sat there, right beside him, and held his hand as he took his last breath. It haunted me. It haunts me. The only comforts I have is that he was in no pain and I got to see him before he died.