The double whammy

Went to the lobby early Friday morning to be picked-up for my  physical therapy appointment but the driver wasn't there. I called the Stem Cell Institute from the cell phone they loaned me for the duration of my stay and they said that the driver was stuck in traffic. He was a new guy and not only was there a lot of traffic but he was also confused as to where to go or how to get there. I arrived 10 minutes late at the BioFit center. Ivan went right to work and we did balance and upper body exercises. I enjoy my workouts and feel they are one of the best things to try to get my neurons firing again to my weak leg.

For some reason the damage to my nerves seems to be effecting my left arm and right leg the most. Until last January I still had good control over my walking, but since then my right leg has gone down fast. It is noticably skinnier than my left leg and the muscles seem to be withering away. I have a case of what is known in the MS world as foot drop. No control over the muscles in the foot and it just flops where ever it wants with each step unless I focus on placing it correctly as it hits the ground. I have to look at the ground as I walk because I cannot feel when my foot is touching down and if I don't watch with each step I loose my balance.

My left arm is also weak and I have diminished feeling in my left hand. I can touch things with my left hand but cannot feel them and if I pick something up with this hand I have to look at it or I will drop it. It was the tingling sensation in my left hand that caused me to go to the doctor so many years ago that eventually led to the diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. If stem cell therapy does anything to relieve the symptoms in my left hand, and more importantly, my right leg, I will be eternally grateful. Multiple Sclerosis seem to be such a prevalent disease and so many people are doing research on it that from what I have learned I believe they are close to discovering the cause. If they figure out the root cause of the disease I believe a cure would be forthcoming. In the meantime stem cells are showing great promise in repairing the damage caused by the disease so that people with Multiple Sclerosis as well as many other diseases can have some or all of their ability to function restored.

At 2:30 in the afternoon John and I went down to get picked up for the ride to the Royal Center where I've been getting my injections by Dr. Pichel. Dr. Hernandez and Dr. Paz were there when we arrived and we had a nice talk. I told them about the pain and tightness I was still experiencing from the lipo surgery and Dr. Paz examined me and said that it looked like the healing process was going well and told me to be patient. I told him that I wish they had done a physical evaluation prior to the lipo so that they would have a base line of where I was when I arrived to compare it to where I am when I'm done. He agreed that should be done and could be worked in. He then explained that they would be moving their offices into another building and would be attempting to consolidate all the activities in that one place. It is evident that they will be growing exponentially. After Dr. Paz left John grilled Dr. Hernandez on their patient capacity and the types of things being treated. They have a rather large program for autistic children and Dr. Hernandez says that they have good results and that for the most part the earlier the person gets treated the better the results. This seems to be the case with MS patients also. Jimmy, who was just diagnosed last year leaves today after four weeks of treatment symptom free.

I received my fourth interthecal injection and it was relatively painless. Dr. Pichel is spraying the injection area with a numbing solution prior to administering the anesthetic. I only feel pressure in the area when she inserts the larger shorter needle and more pressure when she injects the stem cells. Almost immediately when the stem cells go in I feel pressure in the area of my tailbone and my feet get cold. The whole process now takes about three minutes.

Next came my first intravenous injection. For some reason I do not like the idea of having needles stuck in my arms. I didn't watch but John said Dr. Pichel found the vein easily then injected saline solution into my arm. I was cringing the whole time and squeezing John's hand. Dr. Pichel then switched syringes and injected my own stem cells grown to over twenty-six million in number. Dr. Hernandez told us that they have a new lab process and they are now able to increase the number of autologous stem cells up from the eighteen to twenty million they had been able to propogate in the past. The intravenous injection process took about three minutes also but it wasn't over soon enough for me. When I looked at my arm there was blood everywhere. John said that when they switched syringes that blood poured out of the needle connection. Dr. Pichel cleaned me up and put a small band aid over the puncture and we were done.

The driver took us back to the apartment where my job was to rest and drink lots of fluid and that's what I did.