My first stem cells

Day three, Wednesday, there was nothing scheduled until the afternoon, so the morning was spent recouperating from the lipo surgery yesterday.  My fat has been sent to the lab to have the stem cells removed where they will be cultered and grown in super concentrations before being injected back into me intravenously. I had an appointment at another clinic in the afternoon for my first dose of mesenchymal stem cells. These stem cells are donated from the umbilical chords of newborn babies. After donation they are seperated and screened and I assume cultered then they are added to serum derived from the blood they took from me the first day and injected into my spine. We met Dr. Helen Pichel, in photo with me above, at the clinic and she explained the proceedure and covered many details. Unlike most doctors I've had to deal with the doctors here seem willing to explain everything about the proceedure the anotomy the physiology and what to expect as far as results as well as covering the complication that could arise.

I would be the center attraction at todays event. Dr. Pichel and her assistant would be administering the injection and Dr. Hernandez would be there with his little red cooler that contains my concoction of stem cells. There were also two other doctors there to observe, one was from China where they have been doing stem cell therapy for years. From what I understand Dr. Pichel has developed an injection technique that so far has been free from complications. John was also there taking pictures.

After I had been prepped and was girding myself for the injections to come John said Dr. Pichel was even going to show me the long skinny needle she would be inserting into my back but he interviened and told her that wasn't such a good idea. John said that it was about five to six inches in length but very thin. He said they first injected a local anethesia and that felt like a bee sting. John said Dr. Pichel then massaged the area and waited a couple of minutes then inserted a shorter thicker needle, I assume to get through the cartlidge in the spine, then she inserted the long skinny needle through the center of the thicker needle.  Dr. Pichel told us earlier that getting the needle into the proper location was done by feel and technique. I did not feel that needle at all but once it was inserted and the doctor injected the stem cells I could feel a tingling sensation in my lower back and down the top of my left thigh and the top of my left shin.

Part of the prep process was wiring me up to a computerized heart and blood pressure monitor. After Dr. Pichel removed the needles and said, "That's it! How do you feel?" I began to have several sensations and reactions. First I felt pressure on my tailbone and middle back area which are the two locations that I have cronic pain as a result of an injury that occured when I was 17.  I then began to have a queasy feeling in my stomach accompanied by a full body hot flash and I thought I was going to throw up. Dr. Pichel and Dr. Hernandez noticed that my blood pressure hand dropped and they had me lay down.  I was prone for about a minute and my blood pressure returned to normal.  Dr. Pichel asked me what I had to eat pior to the visit and I told her I hadn't eaten since breakfast. She advised me to eat fruit prior to the next injection to get my carbohydrate levels up.  Dr. Hernandez explained that the brain needs carbohydrates to function properly.

My condition was complicated by the fasting two prior evenings and the lipo surgery the previous morning. I had not felt like eating mainly since my stomach was sore from the lipo and I had become use to eating sparingly.  Lesson learned.

The driver took us back to the hotel and I spent the few hours before bed resting and drinking lots of water per the doctor's orders.