Easy injection, painful reaction

I was in the van by 8:30 Monday morning headed for the Stem Cell Institute. There was a lady with two autistic children in the waiting room filling out paperwork. Another young man and little boy came into the offices while I was there. Dr. Paz came out and greeted me and ushered me into one of the examination rooms where Dr. Fernandez was waiting to draw my blood. Dr. Hernandez was also there and he spoke to Dr. Fernandez at length in Spanish. I asked Dr. Fernandez if he was relating the fact that I kick, punch, scream and scratch and Dr. Hernandez said yes. Dr. Fernandez said he would be using a baby needle. The puncture was bearable.

I then went to physical therapy at the BioFit Center. Ivan worked on upper body strength and stretching, trying to get my mid section stretched out from the lipo, and he hooked up my right leg to an electrical muscle stimulator. While on the stimulator, Ivan put me on the treadmill and the stimulator coaxed the muscles of my calf and foot into working properly.

After pysical therapy I went back to the apartment and John made breakfast. We walked down to the little store in ground floor of the hotel building and purchased water, a watermelon and batteries. That's me standing at the entrance to the little store with the curious name. On the way to the store we met the young man and little boy who I had earlier seen at the Stem Cell Institute. I recognized them and we started talking. His fiance was down here for stem cell therapy and this was her first day. John suggested we get together if they were interested so that we could answer questions they might have and John gave them the blog address. We set a tennative meeting time for Tuesday evening.

The pick up for my afternoon injection had been moved up to 1:30. The interthecal injection went fairly easy with just a little sting as the anesthetic was administered. John did notice that the amount of fluid being injected was much greater than the previous injections and when he mentioned it, Dr. Hernandez said I was getting twice the usual amount of stem cells. John took a series of pictures that shows the whole proceedure of the interthecal injections:

First my back is swabbed with bentadine and then wiped down with alcohol,

Dr. Pichel then readies the anesthetic,

Anesthetic is injected slowly allowing the initial injection to start to numb the area before sinking the needle deeper and injecting more,

The larger needle that serves as a sleeve for the long skinny needle is inserted through the cartiledge of the spine usally one to two inches,

The long skinny needle has a steel rod inside it to prevent tissue from getting in the needle's core while the doctor slides it into position. The penetration of the central nervous system's membrane is done by feel and technique,

Once the needle is in position the steel rod is removed from the skinny needle's core,

Dr. Pichel may make slight adjustments to the skinny needle as she waits for the cap where the syringe will be connected to fill with spinal fluid,

The syringe containing the allogenic stem cells mixed with serum from my blood is screwed onto the cap at the exposed end of the long skinny needle,

The stem cell concoction is then injected into my central nervous system,

The skinny needle attached to the syringe is withdrawn,

And just as swiftly the larger needle is removed. Dr. Pichel then cleans the area with alcohol and water and places a small band aid over the puncture.

Dr. Pichel is gloved and masked during the proceedure but John is able to take pictures just a few feet away without protective garb.

I felt pressure in my hip and between my shoulder blades and at the base of my neck beginning as soon as the fluid was injected, but the feeling was less intense than the pressure I had felt on previous injections. We were taken back to the hotel and I lay down intending to relax for a few hours. About fourty minutes after the proceedure I began to feel pressure in my lower back and in my head. The pressure turned to pain and seemed to intensify over the next couple of hours. I broke down and took some aspirin. John urged me to call the emergency contact number they had given us but I just waited for the aspirin to take effect while we watched Monday Night Football then went to bed.