Adam’s C6 SCI Treatment

Therapy

September 17th, 2007

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.

Entry Filed under: sci