My Left Foot

Well, Tim's left foot, actually...

I'm sitting in a hospital in Hong Kong waiting for Tim to get out of surgery. This past weekend he developed an infection in the top of his foot. His foot was double the size it usually is (if you know Tim, you know that's really, really big) and red and purple. It looked awful. So, Monday morning he went down to the International SOS Clinic, which is in our neighborhood. The clinic is staffed by English-speaking doctors and nurses and is managed by an American. They are kind, prompt, and so far have been very helpful to us.

The doctor took one look at his foot and sent him to Hong Kong, to Matilda Hospital. Matilda Hospital is located on the Peak of Hong Kong and overlooks the harbor. The private room Tim is staying in has a balcony with lounge chairs and excellent room service. It's really, really nice. The staff are knowledgeable, helpful, and conservative considering we live in China. Rather than sending him away with an oral antibiotic, they admitted him for intraveneous antibiotics to make sure the infection gets kicked out. Lucky for us they did that, because the first antibiotic stopped working on Tuesday night. His foot got worse after getting better. The wise doctor changed the antibiotic, and as of last evening his foot seems to be on the mend. Right now they are draining the infection surgically, and they had to put him under for that.

I came here to visit him on Tuesday for a few hours, too. In order to get to Hong Kong, which we can see from our kitchen window, it takes about 1 1/2 hours and a bit of hassle. We usually take a ferry from Shenzhen - the ferry station is within walking distance from our house. We have to go through China customs on our way out, before we can get on the boat. The trip across the water takes about an hour, and on the way you see many, many boats and cargo ships and ferries. It's very exciting - everywhere you look are small and huge boats loaded up with containers. Hong Kong is the second largest port in the world, and with China being a manufacturing giant, there are unimaginable quanitites of stuff going to and from each day. Once in a while we'll see one of the mega-huge container ships that seem to stretch out a mile long. The ferry usually does a bit of rocking afer going past one of those! Many cranes to load and unload, and smaller ships that have just 15 or so containers on them are all around on the water, too.

Once in Hong Kong, you go through Hong Kong customs and down the ferry station escalators to the taxi stand. If your taxi driver doesn't speak English, as mine didn't today, you need to call someone who can tell them where you're going in Cantonese. I had to call Tim, who had to call a nurse, to talk to the taxi driver today.

This evening when I return to China, I'll go through customs in Hong Kong again, and again when I reach China.

While Shenzhen and Hong Kong are really very close to each other, they certainly seem to be a world apart. When Tim and I were talking this afternoon, he said that just an hour away seems like a whole lot more considering the differences and the process to get there. And the fact that your love is on the other side of that hour and half. The kids and I can't wait for him to come home.

Hopefully he'll be coming back to the room soon and I'll get a good report. Keep him in your prayers!