We made it to Panama City!

The trip was relatively uneventful, but was a long travel day. We left at 7:00 Sunday morning and didn’t land in Panama until about 9:00 at night. By the time we got through customs got our bags and got to the condo it was pretty late. The condo is fine. The view is awesome. From one whole side ,we look out over the ocean and can also see the city. We picked the condo because it was actually cheaper than a hotel and it has a kitchen so we can eat at “home” some of the time. The only issue is that things in Panama aren’t very accessible. Some of the doorways are too narrow for a wheelchair to fit through. But as always, we dealt with it and now have everything figured out!

Here we are waiting in our "VIP" room at the airport. They actually got all of our bags for us and got us through customs very quickly.



This is the view from the windows of our condo!

We didn’t get to bed until about midnight the first night and needed to get up at 6:00 for the clinic to come take blood. They took a total of 12 viles! They use the serum from the blood to mix with the stem cells before they inject them. They actually came to our condo to draw the blood, which was really nice.

Later in the day Trish had her initial evaluation down at the clinic. During her evaluation, they decided to take an x-ray of her back so they could see the space between her vertebrae at the injection site. We got quite a surprise when the x-ray came back and showed that Trish had a broken tail bone! They said it does not look like a fresh break, but it was definitely broken. This is one of our greatest fears…having Trish get hurt and not even know it! They said it was an older injury, but definitely since her accident and that there is really nothing they can do for it now. Other than that, the evaluation went well and we actually ran into a friend we had met in Costa Rica last year! We were so excited. All of the staff and Doctors at the stem cell clinic were extremely nice. It's only about 5 minutes from the condo so travel time is great. Although, depending on the time of day the traffic in Panama can be crazy! Panama City is the biggest city either of us has ever been to. It’s hard to explain, but it’s packed with sky scrapers everywhere. Plus, the building just keeps on going. It really is an amazing site! We had no idea the city was so big.

Monday was also my birthday so Trish got a great recommendation on a local restaurant from the girls at the clinic. We went to a place called Jymy’s. The food was great! At the recommendation of the locals, I tried the grilled octopus! It was actually really good. Trish had spaghetti with alfredo sauce and octopus as well, and is was delicious! You could definitely say we are experiencing the culture of Panama!

Tuesday was busy. The day started with Trish’s first physical therapy appointment. She met her physical therapist, Ivan, and worked out hard for an hour. Unfortunately they are only allotted 1 hour appointments. The set up is more like a gym with a physical trainer. Trish is looking forward to sharing the therapy techniques she learned in Costa Rica and with her therapists at home with the therapists here. This way as more spinal cord injury patients come they will have a broader spectrum of exercises to do to help as the stem cells start to rebuild the connections and as the signals start getting through.

After therapy we checked out the mall across the street from our condo and had lunch at good old Micky D’s. The mall was very nice and big, 4 stories high! Next we headed off to Trish’s first injection. Again, the staff at the clinic are extremely nice and helpful. The Anesthesiologist,

Dr. Herrero, is amazing. She is so caring and knowledgeable. We truly feel like we are in good hands with her. She is passionate about her work and you can tell that she really cares about Trish. The injection went flawlessly. In fact Trish actually felt the needle go into her back! This is something that never happened in Costa Rica and is a great sign. We were all so excited, even the Doctor!

Now Trish is down for the night and so far is headache free! It is always a possibility that she will get a spinal headache after one of these procedures and Trish will do everything in her power to avoid one!

Tomorrow is a big day. Trish will be getting the bone marrow aspiration procedure. This procedure was a bit nerve wracking for us in Costa Rica last year as we had to check into the hospital and we were not dealing with the staff from Cell Medicine. This time, Dr. Herrero will be Trish’s Anesthesiologist for the procedure so we feel very comfortable going into tomorrow's procedure.

That’s all for now!