The double whammy tripple stinger

Monday caught my ride to the BioFit center for my workout.  It was nice working out and stretching for an hour because it took my mind off of the treatments to come later in the day. I saw Bill, the director of the BioFit center, and I mentioned that Dr. Paz had told me about meeting with a nutritionist. Bill said, "Great, let's set it up for tomorrow."  There have been so many questions regarding optimal nutrition and diet to help with the stem cell therapy that the Stem Cell Institute has decided to go ahead and implement this program. I think that in the coming months the stem cell program will get refined and more organized and that I'm benefiting from some of the new refinements here on my visit.

They moved the afternoon pick up from 2:00 to 1:30 and I guessed this was because they were giving me my second double whammy and I complained so much last Friday that they wanted an extra half-hour with me. In the van John asked me how I was doing and if I was ready for the upcoming treatments. I told him I wasn't and felt kind of dazed. John told me to be strong and get through this but I certainly didn't like the idea of getting stuck twice again. When we arrived at the Royal Center Dr. Hernandez was there and he told me they needed more blood to make more serum to use with the interthecal injections. I really didn't like that! John asked Dr. Pichel if she could use the same needle for drawing blood and injecting the autologous stem cells. She said she could. I made Dr. Hernandez promise that this would be the last of the blood letting. On Friday we had talked to Dr. Paz about doing a blood panel that included hormone and cortizone and John asked Dr. Hernandez to take enough blood now to do that work up.

It was all set. I went into the little room they always use for my injections and sat on the table while Dr. Pichel readied for the shot in the back.  Today I really didn't feel up to this, but I knew I had to get through it. It stung and I complained a little when she shot me with the the anesthetic, but it was not as bad as I had anticipated and the interthecal injection went fairly smooth and fairly quick. I felt the pressure of the large needle being inserted but didn't feel the long skinny needle sliding silently through the barrier of my central nervous system. Just a note about anatomy, the central nervous system is a closed system and the nerves are encapsulated in a membrane that shields it from the rest of the body's fluid. When Dr. Pichel began injecting the stem cells I felt pressure radiating into my left hip and shortly thereafter my left foot became cold. Then it was over and I was half done.

I felt a little weak, perhaps carried over from the feeling I had in the van and Dr. Pichel said I could lay down for the intravenous injection. John asked for a blindfold but they thought he was kidding. Dr. Pichel played around with the veins on my arm and told me she was going to use a baby needle. I squeezed John's hand and prayed that it would be over soon. The needle stung going in and John said that they hooked up the vacuum tube for the blood but that the blood didn't flow. I could feel the needle moving around inside my arm as Dr. Pichel tried to get the blood going to no avail. The needle was withdrawn and I asked if it was over but it hadn't even begun. 

The first puncture was in the crook of my elbow and now she moved down on my forearm. John said the vein was visible where Dr. Pichel inserted the needle, but again no blood would flow into the vacuum tube. John said they tried injecting saline solution but that didn't help and they tried hooking up a large syringe and drawing the blood out with the plunger, but that didn't work either.  I had been holding John's hand and had his thumb between my teeth.  He said later that he was hoping that they didn't hurt me too bad since he really liked having the use of his thumb.

John said they broke out more needles and decided the next size needle was too small and went with a larger one. They picked another spot at my elbow but more towards the upper side of my arm. I gasped when they inserted this needle. Dr. Pichel kept cooing and telling me it was alright but I was complaining and biting on John's thumb again. John said this time they injected saline solution then the stem cells then more saline solution, then they withdrew the blood. He said they used the large syringe and pulled the blood out of me with the plunger. When the syringe was almost full Dr. Pichel diconnected it and withdrew the needle from my arm. Dr. Hernandez took the syringe and screwed a steel needle then injected my blood into three vacuum tubes and dissappeared.  Dr. Pichel said it was over and cleaned up my arm and put small circular band aids over two of the three puctures. I asked her if the vampire had gotten enough of my blood.

One of the things that causes outbreaks in Multiple Sclerosis patients is stress and here I am trying to get relief from the symptoms of MS but I'm having to deal with the stress of getting injections. People might think that I'm a baby and that my phobia of needles is unwarranted, but I believe you should beware of doctors who want to inject foreign substances into you. I was in the National Guard for over nineteen years and I had all kinds of vaccinations. Every year they would require us to get flu shots and every year I would get sick from the shot. Often I would be sick for a month. The flu doesn't even last that long. I recieved the Hepatitus vaccinations and that could very well be the trigger that brought on the disease. There have been more than one case where a person started having symptoms and came down with MS after receiving the Hepatitus vaccinations.

No one knows what causes the disease but there is a connection to a mechanism that allows T-cells to pass through the membrane of the central nervous system. There is a lot of information out there about adjuvants used to deliver the toxins in vaccines into the body and also about food adjuvants. The science is too complex for me to go into on this blog but you can use the two links above as a starting point. My innate sense of survival compels me to abhor the thought of injecting foreign substances into my body. By nature we are not designed to live that way.

John and I went back to the hotel and I laid down on the couch to let the stem cells do their thing. John went down and worked out at the hotel gym then came back in time for Monday Night Football. The Cowboys added to my stress for the first half then came back out for the second half and took care of business. I went to bed relieved that the intravenous injections were over and that I only had to endure three more interthecal injections.