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.
September 15th, 2007
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.
September 14th, 2007
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!!
September 11th, 2007
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
September 11th, 2007
Part 1:
My name is Adam. My life severely changed one Sunday afternoon in mid-March 2006. I was riding a dirt bike with my Dad and a friend of his in the Red river bottom. Have been riding for 14 years so it was not like I was inexperienced. Tried to hydroplane across an 8′ wide water puddle along the south bank of the river and then make an S-curve trail on the other side. Was going much too fast and could not make the S-curve. Went airborne straight up the bank and plowed into the bank wall about 3′ from the top. Hit the bank with such force that my bike and I ended up on top of the bank. I laid there stunned and my Dad and his friend ran over to find out if I was OK. Told my Dad that,
September 10th, 2007
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