Wednesday was another therapy and injection day. This time Trish had therapy early in the morning followed by an injection around 12:30. Therapy was very intense again working on moving her legs, strengthening her core, and working on balance. She worked extremely hard and was completely spent by the end of the therapy. This was also Trish's first time standing with the parallel bars. She has one person locking her knees and and another supporting her from behind. Doesn't she look great?
The injection at this time of day made it more difficult for Trish to go home and do her 5 hour rest period. She was up right at the 5 hour mark and continued her streak of no headache! We decided that we prefer the late afternoon injections so that Trish can just plan on spending the rest of the night in bed.
Thursday started with me getting caught up on some laundry. Lucky for Trish the washer and dryer is down stairs so I just had to do it! She always does the laundry at home and she is the one working so hard here that she definitely deserves the break! Then we were off to therapy. They continue to push Trish farther and farther each session and it is great, she loves it! Her muscles were definitely tired as the movements were smaller today, but she was still impressive. They had her stand again between the parallel bars. This time they did it with just 2 people, one to lock her knees and the other to put pressure on her hips. They worked with her quite a bit on standing. They would start by getting her up and getting her knees locked. Then the person behind her would slowly release the pressure on her hips until she had completely let go. At this point Trish was standing with only the help of having her knees locked! Then Trish would slowly relax her shoulders and arms and take as much pressure off her hands as she could. At times she would just be lightly touching the bars for balance, it was an awesome sight. It was also very impressive to see her as her body would start to shift out of position; she was able to bring it back into line on her own. The therapist said that they were seeing some really good contractions in her muscles. Here she is!
Look at the determined look on her face and that great posture!
The director of the therapy facility has also taken an interest in Trish. She talked to us for quite a while after therapy Thursday. She was very encouraging saying that she is confident that Trish is going to do great! She is very encouraged by the amount of contractions that Trish is having in her muscle and she just knows that great things are ahead for Trish! We have heard several stories of a guy down here named Juan Carlos who was injured about 18 months ago, had his spinal cord severed, received the stem cell treatment and therapy and is now able to walk. We got to meet him after therapy! I must admit when we heard the stories we pictured him in leg braces struggling to walk with a walker or something along those lines. To our amazement he walks completely on his own and looks “normal”. He uses canes/crutches for some balance, but this is more of a precaution than a necessity. We were absolutely amazed and inspired by him. He did get his stem cell treatment sooner after his injury than Trish is, but I can’t explain how great it is to meet this success story in person! Here is a picture of Trish and Juan Carlos.
After therapy we were off to another appointment. Since we have been down here we have heard that the dental care is exceptional and very inexpensive. Trish has needed some dental work for quite some time now (a new crown) so we decided to look into it. Well, it is at least 1/3 of the cost that she has been quoted back in the states. We decided that now she can get it done. This dental office has lots of American patients. Many of them fly down here just for the excellent treatment at a very low price. We were comforted when we walked in, the waiting room was full of Americans. So, the rest of our limited free time is going to be spent at the dentist! At least they have comfortable chairs in the waiting room! The dentist is very nice and accommodating and we continue to be impressed by the level of care in Costa Rica! We didn’t leave the dentist until nearly 7:00 Thursday night so we grabbed a quick bite to eat, headed home, and crashed!
Friday is a big hospital day for us. I haven’t mentioned this part before because we wanted to get all the details ironed out. When we met with Dr. Riordon (the head of ICM) last week he asked if we would be interested in trying some bone marrow stem cell treatments in addition to the cord blood treatments. He explained that they have had good success in other clinics in other countries using bone marrow stem cells on spinal cord injury patients and that they have been contemplating adding it to the spinal cord injury protocol here. They have also been successfully using bone marrow stem cells here at ICM to treat traumatic brain injuries as well as diabetes, among other things. There are no negative side effects from this treatment and it will be done in addition to the 8 cord blood injections and 4 cord blood stem cell IV’s. So we said YES! We are so excited to be the first to try this at ICM, what an opportunity! We did ask if this would cost us any more and Dr. Riordon said, “Not if I tell them not to charge you anything!” It’s great to have connections, thanks again Sherry! So I am sitting here in the waiting room as they are in doing Trish’s bone marrow aspiration. This consists of taking marrow from the back side of each of her hips. They will take the marrow today and send it to the lab to be processed and tested before preparing the stem cells to be injected into Trish’s spinal fluid. Trish will be getting two injections of her own stem cells. These injections will occur the last week of treatment. Plus, they are taking more marrow than they need, but less than they would take for a bone marrow transplant. They will store the excess marrow in case Trish can ever use it.
Here's Trish ready to go into surgery for the bone marrow aspiration. Cute! I especially loved the booties and hat!
After the aspiration Trish has an injection this afternoon at 4:30. I’m sure she will be exhausted tonight! If she feels OK we are planning on trying to get to the beach this weekend to see yet another side of Costa Rica!After 2 hours she is out of surgery and doing great! Now we just need to wait for her next injection in about an hour. We'll let you know how it goes!
