The rest of the day yesterday was quite stressful after the hospital came to try and collect our passports and told us they were going to keep them until Jason was discharged. Neither one of us was happy about this but Jason was very adamant and I ended up having to go to the hospital administration office to meet the administrator. The administrator set up a meeting with Dr. Malik and called Surjio. After all was said and done our passports were returned to us by the end of the day.

This morning Jason had a shower and low and behold put the dam pajama's on!! Everyone kept thanking him and now he likes them, they are cooler than his clothes. I took a pot of my coffee I made (Ibrought coffee from home) and we went to the next room and shared with Dustin and Julie. I spoke to Julie about her experience preparing for this trip and we both had similiar problems with Lisa Chapil and agree that a more suited administrator would have made our trip better. Julie was very thankfull for a decent cup of coffee.

One of the women came in and asked me if I had gone to the malls yet and told me that just outside the hospital there were malls on both sides. You go around ten this morning, she says. So I went in search of a lighter for Jason. There malls and our malls are like night and day!. I took a picture of the meet market that was selling live chickens and fish in tubs. What a stink! I decided to find a bank to exchange some money so I would be able to purchase a lighter. I went into this CIIB bank and was ushered into the back to the managers office where they took a photo copy of my passport and I had to sign some papers. I had 140.00 american and received 4,383.00 rupees. After that a man told me that I could find a lighter at the big bizarre, I passed by a convent, the street was full of honking and crazy traffic and I knew I had to get to the other side. Finally I stopped a lady and asked how I was supposed to cross. You just go, she said, so that's what I did. You start crossing and get to the middle and then cross the rest of the way. Confidence serves you well here. The big bizarre wasn't that big and finally I found a small cart that was selling smokes, at this one I bought five packs of matches for 10 rupees and at another I finally found a lighter for another 10 rupees. I bought a kilo of grapes for 100 rupees and they are delicious. Make sure you all check out the photos.

The update on Jason is that today he received a blood test, the technician didn't wear any gloves, he did clean the area with a antiseptic wipe first at least. He then went for a wheel chair ride to get a chest xray. He tells me that they took only one xray. The next thing was an EKG and when he was back they brought in a ditital scale to weigh him. The scale didn't work so they went and got another one. There is a cute little nurse with a big smile and her name is Honey, Jason teases her and we both always say "Hi, Honey!!! I really like our room attendent too, he speaks no english but has been extremely helpful. We use a lot of sign language with him. They are also suppose to take some video of Jason today to record the way he is before the treatment. As I was blogging another technician came in to p****Jason to test his bleeding /clotting capabilities. Jason asked that we do something about him not having gloves, I motioned if he had gloves and he put the needle on the cotton ball, and left to get some. We thanked him when he returned with latex gloves. He pricked Jason's finger and used the small tube to fill it with blood. He then proceded to use his fingers to break the tube after timing it. He would have gotton blood on his hands if we didn't insist he wear gloves. On the other side of the coin the cleaning staff wear masks to come in and clean the washroom??? Some things here are advanced and yet some of the basics are very far behind.

Tomorrow Jason has the bone marrow extraction, the marrow will be divided in two and one protion will be processed in Pune and the other will go to Mumbai for a different type of processing. There will be two injections into his spine and the stem cells will continue to work and fix for six years. This is why the physio will be so important because the stem cells will work where they are needed. Stem cells will pool in the body if they are not moved around. The toltal stem cells will be 200 million or something like that. They recently had approval to increase the stem cells to higher amounts. Jason will be monitored for a full six years and the improvements recorded. Regenertex research is hoping to document these findings so that others can benefit from the treatments.

I can't wait to see the outcomes. Julie reports that after her first liberation therapy all her pain disappeared and has not returned, so she believes this will work for Jason. The neurologists comes to see us at 3 pm and the decision whether they can help the arm will be determined. Cross fingers and toes please.