More reactions
After the second lumbar puncture on Wednesday, I felt good all day Thursday and then, in exactly the same pattern as after the first lumbar puncture, I got a reaction starting about 7:00 pm on Thursday night. This time, though, the reaction was different than the leg pain from before. I had a bit of a headache when I went to bed on Thursday night, nothing serious, and I slept well and deeply – some vivid and varied dreams. But after breakfast on Friday morning, the headache was worse, to the point where all my therapies were cancelled. And as it hurt only when I was vertical; bedrest was (thankfully!) prescribed. I stayed in bed all day and interestingly felt very fragile emotionally. So I meditated and prayed and got through alright. The headache, however did not let up. That night (last night) I was extraordinarily thirsty all night, drank about 1.5 litres of water, and must have gone to the bathroom 10 times! Made for a fun night. 
Fortunately, in between trips to the bathroom i again slept very deeply with intense dreams, so I didn’t feel too tired this morning. But at breakfast this morning (Saturday) the headache as worse than ever. I had to lean forward while eating because it was too painful to sit up straight! Needless to say, I was back in bed quite quickly. As the morning progressed, things felt a bit better, and at lunch I could sit up and eat although I felt light-headed and tired and had the strange sensation of my head seeming to want to ache, but being somehow not quite able to get there! After resting this afternoon, things seem better to the point where I can sit up and type this blog without pain. All-in-all, my reactions seem to be totally normal (if rather uncomfortable) and none of the nurses or therapists or doctors seem to be concerned in any way. In fact, the only reaction from them was the delivery of the notice of my next lumbar puncture to occur on Mon. Mar. 30 at 2:00 pm here. This is good I figure – apparently there are no problems that are enough to alter the treatment plan at all. I just wish I could go a bit longer before the next treatment gives me another reaction Hopefully the next one will not be so painful – but then again, if all the discomfort is just the stem cells working their magic, I am more than willing to suck it up and take a bit of pain and discomfort! I am hopeful that the deeper sleep and more intense dreams are a sign that the nerves in my brain are waking up and healing.
The other notice they gave me today was that (assuming all goes well with the lumbar puncture on Monday), the next lumbar puncture will be on Fri. Apr. 3, probably at 2:00 pm here again, although I will have to confirm that time later in the week. The interesting thing about the one on Friday is that it will inject the stem cells cultured from my own bone marrow into my cerebro-spinal fluid. I should apologize here for a little lack of clarity – the procedure I had last Friday which I called a ‘bone marrow transplant’ was really not a transplant at all in that 200 ml of bone marrow was taken from my hip, but nothing was ‘transplanted’ back in to replace it. It was used solely to culture the stem cells which will be used in the lumbar puncture this coming Friday, which I suppose you could say will ‘transplant’ them back into my system. I don’t know. The problem, of course, is that we are doing all this in China, and the use of english here in general is, at best, imprecise!
Thank you again to everyone who has left a comment. It is really wonderful to read your thoughts and feel your care and support. It makes all the difference and truly makes my day!
2 comments March 28th, 2009
