Injection #2

The schedule for Thursday was physical therapy from 12:00 to 2:00 followed by the second injection at 2:30 p.m. Trish was feeling good this morning (the headache has subsided) so we had breakfast at the hotel and headed to the park for a stroll. The breakfast is included and is absolutely fantastic every day. The park was much less crowded than on the weekend, but it was really nice to get out and walk around after being in the room for a day and a half! There are some amazing trees here. When the bark peels off the trees are bright green, orange, red, and purple. Trish took a couple of pictures.

The park is truly amazing. It is huge with a lake in the middle, trails all over, several fields for playing soccer, a roller balding rink and even an indoor pool for water polo! The best part is that all of this is right in the middle of town!

We got back from the park just in time to catch our ride to the hospital for therapy and the 2nd injection. Therapy was good. I am amazed at the things they are doing with Trish! Their main focus is to see what, if any, function she has below her injury line and work to further develop it. Much to our surprise, Trish can actually move her legs slightly!! The therapists set her up so that there was no resistance on her legs and then asked her to move them in various directions. She can actually move them! We were shocked! The movement is relatively small, 12 inches or less, but this is more than I have ever seen her do. She has moved her legs a few inches in many different positions. It is really neat to see this therapy at work. They make Trish keep her upper body still and try not to use any muscles above her injury level. Then she needs to concentrate extremely hard on the movement they are asking her to do. Usually, the first few tries show very little movement, then it is like the muscles start to figure it out and they move really well. Finally, the muscles fatigue and the movement slows down. We will post video clips of this in the future, but are having issues getting the video clips downloaded right now. The therapists told us that they focus on identifying everything that the patient has and then work with that and that most people that come here don’t even realize that they have as much movement as they really do. This is definitely the case with Trish!

An incredible thing (sign) happened during therapy. Dr. Neil Riordon came up to us and asked us if we were from Arizona. We said yes and he said “I got an email about you today that said I should come find you and talk to you” (Thanks Sherry!). Neil is the scientist behind the treatment that is administered at ICM. This is his clinic! After therapy was over we went to lunch with Neil and it was truly a privilege to spend this much time with him. Listening to him talk about stem cell and the research and potential for its use was amazing! After lunch he came with us to Trish’s injection! Talk about feeling like you have the world’s best advocate with you! He stayed with us right up until she got her injection. Trish received an injection in her back and also an injection through an IV. The theory is that this delivers the stem cells through another pathway to help repair the damage. Here is a picture of Trish with Dr. Riordon outside the hospital:

As I said, the injections went fine and we made the trip back to the hotel for Trish to begin her mandatory rest period. It is so hard for her to lay flat on her back, not on her side as she likes for 6 hours. Just to play it safe, she stayed in bed the rest of the night until morning. She woke up headache free! We were both so excited.