Tag: Angela

June 7, 2018 (Sick Pt. 5)

~ Justin Wang ~ Leave a comment

My coughing was better today. It’s not as bad as before. I can soothe it with tea. Luckily the Ronald McDonald House provides free tea.

I made key lime pie with Angela today. Angela is my friend at the Ronald McDonald House. We followed a recipe from AllRecipes. We squeezed a lot of lemons and limes for our key lime pie. Squeezing was okay though because it was fun making the pie.

At the Ronald McDonald House there’s a community fridge where you can give food. Angela and I shared our key lime pie with the community.

June 11, 2018

~ Justin Wang ~ Leave a comment

Angela and I made chocolate chip cookies today. Angela is my friend at the Ronald McDonald House. Cooking is a good way for me to push my endurance. We both made chocolate chip cookies, but there were extra chocolate chips so Angela’s mom made some modified cookies. After our chocolate chip cookies were done baking, we shared it with the other families at the Ronald McDonald House.

Joe made lobster rolls today. Joe’s daughter, Nicole, is in the hospital after her 5th open heart surgery had complications (see September 20, 2018). As a result, her family has to stay at the Ronald McDonald House while she’s being treated.

I helped him make them. After the lobster was done cooking, he tasted them, and found out they went bad. Joe had to drive back to the store to buy shrimp for the rolls instead. It was fun making food with Joe.

June 13, 2018

~ Justin Wang ~ 1 Comment

My church family visited me again at the Ronald McDonald House today. I go to a Chinese church, so they’re all Chinese. They brought porridge, eggs, and pastries.

I stopped going to church when I was in elementary school. I didn’t believe in God. However, last year I really needed help. My grandma prayed to God for my heart transplant. When my doctors said it was unlikely for me to get a heart, I really believed them. However I got a call two weeks later. That is a miracle by God. After surgery, I was in so much pain. It was unbearable and I felt sad. I asked the hospital preacher to pray for me. I’m not radically Christian, but I do believe God is watching over me.

My Mom took her church family to explore around the Ronald McDonald House’s surrounding area. Next to the house is a very expensive senior housing. Across the house is the Stanford Mall. Downtown Palo Alto is also a longer but walkable distance from the Ronald McDonald House.

One of the church members taught Angela and me how to cook Taiwanese chicken broth. Angela is my friend at the Ronald McDonald House. Angela’s mom really liked the recipe, although Angela may not be able to eat a lot of it. Angela can only eat a maximum of 20 grams of protein per day.

June 15, 2018

~ Justin Wang ~ 2 Comments

I like to cook at the Ronald McDonald House. It’s a good way to get some activity into my day and meet/talk to new people. However, since I experience heart pounding cooking is difficult.

After transplant, I have a sensation of heart pounding. It’s when I can do as little as walking across a room and my heart starts pounding. I can feel it in my chest and I feel thumping in my ears. It’s not as bad as when I was in the hospital, but it still inhibits the amount of activity I do. That’s why I want to push my activity levels every day. If I do more activity, I raise my endurance levels. That’s why I walk on the treadmill everyday and cook often.

I’m planning to cook mushroom cups with Angela. I got the recipe online. Angela is my friend I made at the Ronald McDonald House. She’s at Stanford for treatment of her liver. She can only eat 20 grams of protein per day. 20 grams of protein is nothing. An egg has 6 grams of protein, so she can only eat under 4 eggs each day.

My mom took me to Safeway for ingredients of the mushroom cups. Mushroom cups are cooked mushrooms in a cream cheese mixture stuffed into filo cups. I bought mushrooms, heavy whipping cream, and filo cups. When I came back, I cooked the filling with Angela. We diced the mushrooms and cooked it with the whipping cream. After the mixture was thickened, we saran wrapped it and stored it in my room’s refrigerator overnight.

June 16, 2018

~ Justin Wang ~ 1 Comment

My Mom’s friend, Joanna, visited me at the Ronald McDonald House today. Joanna was my piano teacher, and I’m friends with her son, Andrew. We went to eat at Calafia Cafe & Market A Go-Go. We went there because I saw that restaurant on a TV show called Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

Update: Calafia Cafe & Market A Go-Go is permanently closed.

When Joanna and Andrew left, I made mushroom cups with Angela. We followed a recipe online. Angela is my friend at the Ronald McDonald House (see June 15, 2018 for her condition). I already made the filling for the mushroom cups yesterday, so I brought it out from our community refrigerator. I put the premade filling into the filo cups and baked it in the oven.

Angela’s family had a BBQ today. I joined in their barbeque and they liked my mushroom cups. I met Angela’s sister and her English teacher. I had a great time with them!

After the barbecue my Dad visited me at the Ronald McDonald House. Dad brought Julia, my sister, too. This is the first time after transplant that I’ve seen Julia. The reason is because UCLA doesn’t start summer break until June 10.

We went across the street to the Stanford Mall to eat dinner. We ate at Tender Greens, a restaurant that serves salad. I couldn’t eat so much since I had to walk to the Stanford Mall. Although it’s across the street from the Ronald McDonald House, that distance is enough to make my heart start pounding. When I do activity, my heart starts pounding. I can feel the thumping in my chest and ears. When heart pounding happens, I’m usually too uncomfortable or nauseous to eat.

June 21, 2018

~ Justin Wang ~ 1 Comment

Today Pixar came to the Ronald McDonald House. They’re showing The Incredibles 2 in the activity room. I watched The Incredibles 2 with Angela and Noah. Angela and I watched The Incredibles on Sunday to be prepared for the sequel (see June 17, 2018). Noah is my friend being treated for stomach cancer.

Angela had to leave halfway through the movie for her therapy, so it was just me an Noah. The activity director gave us a pixar bag with a pixar hat inside. After the movie, I waited in line to get a picture drawn by Pixar artists. I choose to get a drawing of Remy from Ratatouille.

  • Tony Maki – Story Artist
    Paul Topulos – Digital Art/Painter

July 16, 2018

~ Justin Wang ~ Leave a comment

I cooked today. Since I have chicken breast in my room’s refrigerator, and onion in my room pantry, I decided to cook some chicken breast.

At the Ronald McDonald House you have your own section in a refrigerator, and your own pantry. Although they’re your own, they’re very small. You don’t have your own section in a freezer, so you have to throw all your frozen items in a bag, put a label on the bag, and stuff it into the freezer.

The Ronald McDonald House also has a community pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. You can take any of the items from them and use it. For example, I can take baloney from the community refrigerator, bread from the community pantry, and ice from the community freezer. I can make a sandwich and ice water from those ingredients. If I didn’t eat my sandwich, then I can take some saran wrap from the community pantry, wrap the sandwich up, and put it in the community refrigerator for anyone to eat.

I also took some garlic powder and from the community pantry and canola oil on the counter for my chicken breast. I diced the onion, sauteed it with the canola oil, and seared the chicken with garlic powder. The chicken took longer to cook than I expected.

While cooking I talked to Angela. Angela is my friend that I met at the Ronald McDonald House. She’s here for liver treatment, and because of her liver disease she can only eat 20 grams of protein per day. I talk to her everyday because she’s a good friend.

My sister came after I made the chicken. She wanted to go eat, but since I already cooked I didn’t go with her to eat. My sister stayed overnight.