James’s Ataxia Blog

Treatment 6 – Final

April 3rd, 2009

Jim received his last treatment at 4:50 pm.  He is in his lay flat for six hours stage.  He normally doesn’t make the full 6 hours but has always made 5.  He gets rather cranky when he has been flat on his back that long.  The correct terminology for this is “Lumbar Puncture Stem Cell Transplantation”.

I was reading an article today and I will quote from that article as I think you will find this information interesting.  “The USA  is 12 years behind because they don’t want to use embryonic stem cells.  China is not using embryos because they are not as good as the umbilical or the adult stem cells.  Beike is a biotechnology company that is contracted to provide stem cells for treatment at 24 hospitals in China.”  The facility where we are staying is Qingdao Chengyang District People’s Hospital.  “They have been commercially treating people since 2005, so there is no long-term information on the results.”  The stem cells are infused into the spine by performing a spinal tap where they will tap the existing fluid out and inject the stem cells into the spine.  They must lay flat for six hours to let the infusion migrate to the brain.”  The success of the treatments depends on doing daily therapy to train the new neurons to perform.   Beike says that it will take up tp six months for the stem cells to engraft and the final results of the procedure to be revealed.”  This was in a newspaper clipping I found and I don’t know what paper it is from.

On to some other interesting information I discovered today.  The huge center being built across the street that houses the market I referred to earlier is coming along nicely.  There are many, many shops,  restaurants etc. going in.  The signs say “Waiting for You” which I took to mean coming soon.  Two of them that we could recognize are Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonalds.  The complex takes up the entire city block.  Behind the shopping center they are building a hugh amusement park and I was told it is the largest amusement park in Asia.  There is a huge steel dome we can see over the top of the center and they are welding in it all day long.  They also pour concrete everywhere day in and day out.  That would be an excellent investment over here.  The whole complex is scheduled to be open in August.  This may not be a tourist city now but “If we build it they will come”.

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