Adam’s C6 SCI Treatment

More Therapy

Sundays at the Xiaoshan hospital are a free day for patients. Most of the doctors, nurses, and staff are off. So, my Dad and I decided we wanted to go see the Lingyin Buddhist temple in the afternoon. Told Johnnie, the meal interpreter, and he ordered a taxi and driver for the afternoon. Johnnie took 10 minutes to give the driver instructions in Chinese. It was a 50 minute ride from the hospital to the temple. The driver got us very close and gave us 2  hours to do our touring. What a remarkable place, one of the top 10 Buddhist temples left in China. There were multiple temples at the same location with the largest Buddha over 75 feet tall. The temple has been restored and was originally built during the Ming dynasty over 1200 years ago, a very impressive tourist and local Chinese attraction. Lots of burning of incense, people on kneelers praying, the Buddhist monks arrived to begin their afternoon prayers.

Hangzhou is under a construction explosion. We saw no fewer than 150 cranes building high-rise apartments and office buildings. All the streets we were brand new, not a pothole or a bump. Most of the streets were 4 lanes wide for cars, median on either side, then another lane on the outside of the streets for cars that is used for pedestrians, bicycles, and motor bikes, then sidewalks on the far outside. Not a piece of trash anywhere, immaculately trimmed vegetation lining the streets everywhere. Interesting to see Chinese ladies on a moped in a skirt and high heal shoes, with a child in front and another person riding side-saddle on the back. Many of the mopeds were electric. At night, only half have their lights on. Horns honk a lot here, and it seems that it is an indication of be alert or behind you, not get out of my way. Another interesting thing is that here in Hangzhou, the cars have the right of way, not the pedestrians.

Monday was a therapy day. Again, acupuncture followed by electrical stimulation on my legs, and then workout with weights. Each day, Dr. Martin adds more repetitions. Saturday was twenty, Monday was “sir-tee.”   Am working my shoulders and biceps with 10 lbs of weight on each wrist, and abdominals with 20 lb weights stacked on my stomach. Lots of leg, hip, ankle, and Achilles tendon stretching. After that, it was 50 pushups with most of my body on the therapy mat with the upper half hanging over the end. Dr. Martin assists with lifting up from above while I push up as my triceps are “no strong.”  Am up to 5-6 sets of “sir-teen.”  Therapy ends with 25-30 minutes on the standing frame.

Tuesday was another therapy day. The process is the same for each morning session which takes about 3 to 3 1/2 hours in total. It is usually acupuncture first, followed by electrical stimulation, then exercise with weights. I wanted to get more circulation to my spine and asked Dr. Martin what he suggested. He headed off for a minute and showed up with a try with 9-10 clear glass fish bowls of different sizes. There were fish-bowls that were 5 inches in diameter, 4 inches in diameter, and 3 inches in diameter. He rolled me on my stomach and my Dad watched as Dr. Martin lit a cotton swab soaked in alcohol and inserted the burning swab into a fish bowl to warm it up, then stick it on my back. This Chinese treatment is called “cupping” and is 2,500 years old. The suction process from the heat in the bowl draws the skin into the glass bowl which also draws blood to the surface of the skin. Dr Martin placed 7 of the fish-bowls on my back on either side of my spine, one on my neck, and another on my spine at waist level. The bowls were removed after 30 minutes and left some serious hickeys. The dark color is an indication of poor circulation. The lighter the better. Not sure how much good it did, but it was interesting to try an ancient medical technique.

Wednesday turned out to be a free day due to the typhoon. Lots of wind and rain, but not much flooding from our window vantage point. I went to therapy anyway and my Dad helped as Dr. Martin did not make it in that day.  My 2nd scheduled injection was cancelled and rescheduled to Friday. Vials of stem cells are flown in the day of injection, but the airport was closed due to the typhoon.

Thursday, September 20 was another therapy day in the morning. This morning’s session started again with acupuncture, this time with 24 needles in my hands, feet, and legs, but Dr. Martin added a needle next to my belly button, stuck some Moxi on the end of the needle, and lit it on fire. When my Dad arrived, he thought that the whole floor smelled like burning marijuana. It looked like a fat cigar about 1 inch long.

My head was congested and I asked Dr. Martin what he could do to help as I had almost no sense of taste or smell for the last 2 months. His answer was “acupuncture.”  I got a needle stuck in my forehead and two next to my nose. It was really uncomfortable as he wiggled those needles for about a minute each.  But to my amazement, some congestion cleared up within minutes.  Food now smells better. What an experience.

Add comment September 20th, 2007

Therapy

Therapy is every day except Sunday, when it is a free day to do whatever, and the day of stem cell injections. My therapy starts at 8:30 AM. Accupuncture is first and is conducted on a therapy mat in the Common Room on the 20th floor. Their Common Room has a wide screen TV and two computer workstations that are connected to the Internet. The computers are busy all the time with patient’s family members connecting and emailing with other family members and friends. The computer on the left which my Dad tried to use starts off in Chinese symbols. He swithched to the one on the right which is programmed to display English. Bill Gates has truly conquered the world as they use Windows and Internet Exployer here as well, but the computer on the left has 99% Chinese symbols with only a few words in English. Colors are the same with the green start button on the lower left corner.

Dr. Martin (not his Chinese name) is a young guy in his 30s who has been practicing accupuncture. He learned from his grandfather and studied the practice for 7 years. I asked him if he uses accupuncture on himself and he said yes. If he wakes up with a sore neck, he does accupuncture on himself, his neck will straighten out, and he feels like “Superman.” He inserted needles in me that were 3 inches long and were fatter at one end. I was stuck with 24 needles in all. One on each hand in the web between my thumb and index finger and one each in the web between each of my nuckles. Also got one on each arm near each elbow and another in the muscle on the forearm. On my legs, two needles in the side of each calf muscle, one in the ball of of each foot, one in each ankle, and several between the toes. The needles did not hurt much as they were very sharp and thin. Dr. Martin would insert a needle, move it up and down, then rotate it until the desired muscle would twitch. Then, off to the next site till all 24 needles were incerted. Next, he used a machine to send electrical impulses that had 6 wires and 12 alegator clamps on the ends. He connected the clamps to half of the needles on each leg and arm, and then turned on the juice! My fingers, toes, and muscles began to twitch in rythum about once every second. He left the machine on for 30 minutes I think. The process did not hurt as one would think. The Doctor was pretty good. The only place that I could feel any discomfort was the needles in the webs of my thumbs. At the end of the session, Dr. Martin pulled out each needle one at a time and used alcohol swabs and pressure to stop any bleeding, which ther wasn’t any.

Next, it was electrical therapy on the same exercise mat. They use a machine with wires and patches on the ends which are taped to several parts of my legs. This therapy lasted 30 minutes well, 15 minutes on each leg. Not sure what this machine did, but it seemed like it worked like an American Tinns unit.

From the electrical therapy, it was off to an exercise mat. I got 10 lb weights of sand in flexible bags that were velcro’ed to each wrist and then used a wooden broom stick handle with another 5 lbs hanging in the middle. I bench pressed the broom stick for 30 repititions. After that, it was 15 lbs across my stomach that I had to press up in the air with my abdominals 20 times. Next, it was a 2″ pad under my butt while laying on my back with my legs off the exercise mat. He was stretching my legs and back muscles in that position for almost 5 minutes till my legs stopped twitching. After that, it was laying across the table with my upper body on a rubber ball and arms stretched out to were I could do push ups. Did 4 sets of 10 each after removing the ball. When resting, he rolled a stool under my upper half so my head and face would not hit the floor. The last exercise was a standing frame which was a low tech unit with knee pad, side rails, and a table 4 feet off the ground that was cut out in a curve for my chest. They used a velcro belt about 1 foot wide across my low back to keep me from falling in any direction. 20-25 minutes of standing and I was done for the day.

Whew. Back to my room for a 2-hour nap and the rest of Saturday off. Just can’t say enough about the staff here at the Xiaoshan Hospital in HangZhou. They go out of their way to be friendly, smile, provide encouragement, and speak my language. They give one hope and a method to get you strong and on the road to healing. What a gift they offer.

1 comment September 17th, 2007

Stem Cell Injection Day

Was still behind on my sleep and luckily got the morning off. Fridays and Tuesdays are injection days. My injection was scheduled for 3:30 PM. Got lunch a bit early as there is no food or drink for 3 hours before the procedure. About 3 PM, the nurse came in and incerted an IV of glucose in my wrist. After about 10 minutes, I went into a spasm and accidentally jerked the IV out of the bag. My Dad went down to get the nurse who looked frantic, but said OK. She ran off to get another line. Got it hooked and off we went. She had the elevator waiting which explains why she was a bit frantic. And, we were a few minutes late by this time. Got to the 20th floor and in we went while my Dad headed back to the room to wait. The procedure did not take too long. Was given some sedative of some sort, but I think I was conscious the whole time, maybe. With the injections completed, it was back to the room for recovery. My Dad said I was gone for about 45 minutes. I was grinning from ear to ear when I saw my Dad. There would be “no water” for 2 hours, “no food” for 4 hours, and “no sit up” for 6 hours. “Can turn over”, “no sit up.” Ah, a chance to get some more rest.

My injection was in the very low back right above my tail bone. They remove some spinal fluid and then replace the same amount of volume with stem cells. And, the process is an assembly line of sorts as there were a number of other patients I saw that were in line after me. Because of the language difference, they give you little explanation. Didn’t know whether it was going to be a needle or whether they would make an incision. When we removed the bandage the next morning, they must have used a needle as there was no incision mark. What a day to remember, the gift of healing and a chance for change.

1 comment September 16th, 2007

1st Day at Xiaoshan Hospital

Got up excited and nervous at 6:30 am on Thursday, September 13th after about 5 hours of sleep. Got my bathroom program completed and was ready to go at 8:30 am. Sid the interpreter met us at my room and got us started. We met some of the hospital staff and got some paperwork to fill out. A second English speaking guy (an American who has been here for 3 years) showed up and he would do the video interview which was a short explanation of my accident, extent of injury, and my expectations for change of my future after the stem cell injections. Think this may be posted on their website, but not sure. My room is on the 18th floor, but the stem cell transplant procedure room is on the 20th floor along with 14 other patient rooms. There are patients here from Italy, Romania, Canada, and the US with brain and other neurological injuries from birth or accidents that I have noticed so far. Was told by Sid that the Beike Company has been doing the stem cell transplants for over 2 years now and there have been about 40 spinal cord injury patients so far at their 3 hospitals. They also pick which patients that they would like to try to help, so I feel very lucky to be selected and have a chance for change.

We headed up to the 20th floor for a tour of the Common Area, nurses station, other patients rooms, therapy equipment, and rehab areas. Finished the video interview and then met Dr. Mike (not his Chinese name) the head doctor. The Chinese people are so friendly and helpful. They go out of their way to try to understand English. More than half of the staff, nurses, and doctors know some English words and phrases. And, when the English language is too complicated for them, an interpreter will speak up and assist with translation to Chinese. There are so many smiles given per day from the doctors, nurses, staff, and even the cleaning people. They make you feel so welcome and greatful that we are here. Johnnie, the food coordinator came by and asked what we wanted for lunch. He has a book with multiple options, mostly Chinese food. Can’t remember what I or my Dad had for lunch, but it was pretty good. Cost was $32 RMB (Chinese Yuan currency) which is a little less than $5 US for both of us and delivered hot to our hospital room. The food service here is great as it is on time and very warm if not almost too hot to touch a plate.

We completed our tour and were directed to the rehab section of the 20th floor. Met a group of 5-6 rehab specialists led by the rehab doctor. Don’t remember his name, but he seemed to be a young guy in his 30s. He did an extensive interview on a therapy mat about 2 feet off the ground. He had a body chart, fountain pen and paper, cotton swab, and sharp object that looked like a toothpick. He would stroke the swab across my shoulder where I have normal sensation, then another location to get a same or different feeling, then back to the starting point. He said, “you must say yes or no!” when stroking the swab in another area. Since my feeling is different in different parts of my body, I could not say yes or no, so I said little. He finally understood that the feeling was different, but he said “you must say yes or no!” We later compromised to say yes for the same feeling at my shoulder as another location, or “little” for less sensation or pins and needles, “little-little” for even less sensation, or “no”. The mean time, his assistant nurse was taking notes and recording what he said in Chinese. By the end of the 45 minute session, he had mapped my entire body every 3-4 inches from the starting point of what feeling I had, the quality of feeling I had or did not have, and the amount of movement I had or did not have in my thumbs, fingers, hips, legs, feet, toes, wrists, triceps, back and abdominal muscles that were working or not working. He mapped the front side as well as the back side. I had a similar test at Baylor while in rehab there. Baylor called it the Asia test. Both at Baylor and here used a soft object (cotton swab) and a sharp object (toothpick).

We finished the examination and headed back to our room with a hot lunch waiting on the table. They said Eat, then Rest. We got in a 1 hour nap and Jerrie another interpreter came by with more paperwork. It is amazing that the paperwork we fill out is all in perfect English, so it is easy to complete and pretty short. They must have someone translating back in the office so the hospital staff will know what information they have to work with. Johnnie came by and got our dinner order, Chinese again. I got tomato egg drop soup and fried rice that was pretty good. My Dad got what we thought was chicken and vegtables. There were chicken parts in his dinner, but it was cut up so differently, we could not really tell for sure. Did not last long as we were still behind in sleep. Got our schedule for acupuncture, PT, and exercise for Saturday morning and my first scheduled stem cell injection for Friday afternoon.

Can’t tell everyone enough how incredible the Chinese people are. Jerrie, a young Chinese interpreter came by about 3 PM and we were off to “shopping”. We walked 2 blocks to a 3-story building on the corner. It was called the RT Mart and would be similar to a Wal-Mart. They had everything including an incline escelator to go to the next floor up. We started shopping on the 3rd floor and the first department was fresh and live fish. They had tanks of many types of fish, including eels and many other types we could not recognize. My Dad took a photo of a tank full of live frogs that kept trying to jump out. Many of the products were same or similar to the US in that the package was the same shape, size, and color, but the language was Chinese and sometimes both Chinese and English. We picked up some fresh fruit for our breakfasts, muffins, chips, and several types of juices. They also had some beer, what looked like a Budwiser package, and wine. Another floor was filled with cell phones, CDs, appliances, housewares, sheets, dresses, shoes, and clothing of all types. Got back to the hospital around 6 pm to another hot dinner. Just an amazing day.

Add comment September 15th, 2007

Traveling to China

Left Dallas in search of healing at 8:00 am on Tuesday, Sept 11. Flew to Chicago and had to wait an extra 4 hours due to a plane out of service. Left Chicago at 4:30 PM and arrived in Beijing 14 hours, 6 movies, and 2 1/2 meals later. Wasn’t too bad. We dozed off and on. The flight was straight north out of Chicago traveling up and over the Hudson Bay, over the north pole at 68 degrees below zero, then over Siberia, and into Beijing, the Chinese capital in northeastern China. We were blessed with an assistant assigned to us (truly a God send) to get us through airport inspections. Went through Immigration, declarations, and then picked up our 7 large bags. Off to Customs which took only 1 question, what is in the 2 boxes? Next was off to entry for domestic airlines. Got through that OK and next was to Air China (think Delta). Our bags were too large to go through the X-ray so we headed off to the large luggage inspection. Made it through there, but X-ray showed something. They pulled the one bag and asked we open it. They did not like the CO2 cartriges (contains a “gas”) for filling the air on my wheelchair tires. We use 2 cartriges to pump the air up to 90lbs and the other CO2s were confiscated. Next was off to Air China ticket counter where we gave them our paper tickets, got the bags tagged and dropped off, then off to the gate.

Beijing airport is huge and multiple floors. It is as modern as any airport in the world with flat screen TVs, in both English and Chinese, advertising, food service, etc. I used an elevator to go from floor to floor. 90,000 passengers pass through the airport per day. Boarded our 2-hour flight to Hangzhou (pronounded Hong-Jo) using a food service truck. This plane was parked out on the ramp and used a rolling stairway for the other passengers. The airlines assistant stayed with me for a total of 2 hours all the way to loading in my seat on Air China. We ate dinner on the plane (turkey, corn beef, fruit cup, and a hot begal with chicken). Arrived in Hangzhou at 11:30 PM, 27 hours after leaving Dallas. The hospital staff picked us up at the airport, one of which was Sid, the interpreter. We were in bed by 1:30 AM a little tired!

It was a long day, but not too much of a jet lag due to the difference in time, Dallas is 13 hours behind Hangzhou.

Add comment September 14th, 2007

Magnetic Therapy

Part 3:

While I was at rehab, my Dad searched the Internet for any type of new technology. He has always been interested in alternative medicine. After 2-3 months of searching and a number of emails sent to websites of interest, he came across an article in Alternatives, one of the newsletters he received. The article mentioned something about magnetic therapy and a Dr. Bonlie. He searched the Internet for Dr. Bonlie and came across his website and those of several new, experimental clinics in the United States. The clinics are called Advanced Magnetic Research Institutes and they had a machine called the MME (magnetic molecular energizer). He searched several of the clinics websites looking for information, case studies, or testimonials on patients treated for spinal cord injuries. All of the clinics combined showed about 20-25 patients who had been treated with the MME within the last few years. He was elated, however, I was not excited at all. Neither was my Mom. But, he researched further and found all the cases mentioned who had been treated with the magnet and printed them out for us to read. Two weeks later, he was at it again even more determined. On a Monday evening with my girlfriend listening, he made a proposal, asked that we discuss, and wanted an answer in the next day. On Tuesday morning, he came in at 6 AM on his way to work and asked for an answer. Candice and I said yes. My Dad did not wait long. We left for Tucson on Thursday morning with clothing, medical supplies, and two wheelchairs one of which was for the bathroom. The drive was 1,000 miles and I was not sure we could make it without having my skin break down during the long drive. I rode in the front seat for 500 miles or so, but could not take it any longer. He rearranged the stuff in the car to the point that I could lay down in the back of the van. We made it to El Paso that evening way after dark. The next day, we drove the last 300 miles and made it to Tucson by Friday afternoon, September 1, 2006.

Treatment at Tucson would be long and hard. When I arrived, I could only move my shoulders, biceps, and both wrists in an upward motion. My neck brace had been removed. I had a flicker of movement in my right thumb and right index finger. If I had help to put my arm over my head and pointed it backwards, I could move my right triceps up and down about an inch, just one time. And that was it. Still had no feeling below my upper chest, and could not move my legs, toes, or hips. I had no control of my abdominals or back muscles, nor could I control my bladder or bowels. I still could not sit up or even lie down without assistance nor could I cough on my own. I still could not feel hunger or a full bladder. I couldn’t even take in a deep breath. By this time, I was able to feed myself using a foam tube with a fork jammed down the center. My razor was setup about the same way. And, I was beginning to be able to assist with getting myself dressed using my strong biceps and knuckles hooked inside my pants and underwear. The changes were not much, but it was a start.

With the paperwork complete, I laid down under the magnet. It was a very powerful magnet, about 5,000 gauss. The earth’s magnetic field is .5 gauss. By comparison, an MRI is about 20,000 gauss. Was told by the doctor there not to expect any changes for the first 100 hours or so. After that, it was anyone’s guess. The recommended treatment was 600 hours, but no one really knew for sure since only about 25 people had tried it. The nice part was that it made absolutely no noise. And there was no heat. You could not even tell when the magnet was on except for the green light on the wall. The MME weighs about 10,000 lbs, is 8 feet tall, and is in the shape of the letter C. The treatment bed is about 4 feet off the ground and is on rollers. I would transfer with my Dad’s help, lie on the bed, and position myself under the magnet. In my case, the magnet cylinder was about 1 inch from my chin and neck. On the bottom side, the magnetic cylinder came up to the same level as the mattress, right next to my neck. My view consisted of a round white plastic disk about 2 feet in diameter (the bottom side of the magnet) that was 8 inches from my face.

My clinic room was great. There were no windows and it got almost pitch black with the lights out and the doors closed. Treatment amounted to what ever I could stand in a day. Therefore, I treated about 16 to 18 hours a day. At times, I was able to treat over 20 hours per day. Because the room was dark, I was able to treat while asleep, about 12-13 hours per day. We had a TV, DVD player, and a dish TV for signals. When I was awake, I could turn my head sideways and watch TV out of my left eye. For breaks, we got up and left for lunch and/or dinner. On the weekends, we took a break for 5-6 hours usually on a Sunday and went to the mountains, a go-kart track, or the dessert museum.

My Dad the caregiver had a bed in my treatment room as well and was about 10′ away. After a few days, he pinched my toes, ankles, calf’s, and thighs. Nothing, I did not feel a thing.

At about 120 hours of treatment, things began to change. At night, while treating under the magnet, I began to move my fingers on both hands in the dim green light of the MME’s on-button. My Dad noticed, but did not say anything. Later, he told me that he began to cry to himself as he watched with excitement. A few days later, I was doing the same thing with my arms. My triceps were working again. Not perfectly, but I could move them against gravity. The next day, I was showing my Dad. It was the beginning of a miracle. Before I left Tucson, I had put in 600 hours in 6 weeks. Feeling had somewhat returned to the lower half of my body. I was beginning to transfer from the bed to the wheelchair with a lot less assistance from my Dad, and I had somewhat of a grip. I could now pick up a bottle of water!!

The MME had a radius of about 13 inches. So, the magnetic beam had a functional effect from my eyes to the middle of my chest. The amazing thing is that there was no harm done to my eyes, hearing, throat, swallowing, tong, teeth, salivary glands, sinuses, or esophagus. The only thing that changed was the partial repair of my spinal cord. The MME’s magnetic field causes the electrons to move faster at the individual atom level. It causes the body to send its own stem cells to the area of increased magnetic activity and replace damaged or dead cells. The good cells then communicate with the new cells about what function they are to become. This is the body’s normal healing process. How else can one explain the partial repair of my spinal cord in 6 weeks and the new feeling and movement of some of my muscles without any known damage to other parts of the body in the same area.

I returned home in mid-October. Within the next 2 months, there were no more changes. We would return to Tucson for another 600 hours (1,200 in total) just in time for Thanksgiving and stayed till nearly New Years. My Mom stayed with me this time while Dad returned to work. More changes occurred, but were less dramatic than the first time. I began to move my feet somewhat, and had much more quality feeling in my legs and abdomen. I began to feel my bladder full and empty, and could feel hunger for the first time in over a year. Again, I treated my neck area no visible side effects were noticed. Not even any skin breakdown on my backside while lying on my back for days on end. What a miracle!!

4 comments September 11th, 2007

Life At Rehab

Part 2:

Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation, Dallas, Texas is one of the top 20 rehab locations in America. Was lucky enough to get accepted as an inpatient. I lived in the same city and it was finally convenient for my parents and girlfriend Candice to visit each day. Was there for 3 months. When I arrived at Baylor, I still wore a neck brace and would have that on for the next 5