Here we are In Dusseldorf

Hi everyone, well here we are in Dusseldorf.
We are settling in an getting used to the cold over here, even though it is spring it is bitterly cold.
The jetlag has also been difficult especially for the kids to adjust to, they are both still waking during the night.
We have been extreemly busy seeing Dr's and Physiotherapists, getting equipment for Meg to use while we are here. We have found a really lovely Physio - Claudia who has been an amazing help with getting a standing frame for meg to use while we are here, she is a really lovely lady and had offered to take Tom iceskating while we are here as she too has a 10yo boy, she will also try to arrange for Tom to atttend a day at a German School with her son so he can experience the difference.
We had an amazing stroke of luck with thanks to the News coverage of our departure. An old friend of mine Janine saw the Tv coverage and got intouch via email from meg's Blog. I was the bridesmaid at her wedding 25 years ago and we had lost contact for the last 15 years or so. Anyway the last time I was in Dusseldorf (20 years ago) was to visit them as they were living here at the time, it turns out that Janine & Ingo have split up and Ingo is still right here in Dusseldorf. We caught up and he said he would come to the appointment with us at the Xcell center to translate for us. Very luckily for us as Dr Tamascke - the paediatric neurosurgeon's English was quite poor and we had many indepth questions to ask.
Another amazing coincidence was that we bumped into Kerr Graham from RCH Melbourne (Meg's Orthopaedic surgeon) while in transit in singapore, he had just been to the Cerebral palsy conference in NZ and was on his way to London to give a lecture, anyway he was saying that the Stem cell trials going ahead in America were comming up with quite remarkable results. It seems Kismit is on our side with this trip.
So back to the Xcell center - our appointment went for some time as you could imagine but was extreemly fruitfull, we both are erring on the side of the endoscopic procedure now, although it was decided that to make a more informed decission that Meg needs a new MRI as the last one was done at only 5 days of age.
So the plan is at this stage to have the stem cells extracted on monday morning, have the MRI on Tuesday, following this see the Dr again and discuss the MRI findings. We will make the final decission on which procedure to go with following this appointment.
In the mean time I am taking Tom over to Greece today to stay with a girlfriend for the week as I think he has been pretty brilliant and such a big help with meg all week, but next week is going to be extreemly intense and I think he will have a great time with Kerry and her 2 boys Zac & Jacob who are around the same age.

will fill you in more next week

thanks for your interest and support

all our love
Kate Jason Tom & Meg
xx


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