Angela’s Brain Stem Injury Blog

a tour around the hospital and “tweetment”–you’ll get it at the end…

May 9th, 2007

let me give you a tour of this hospital. i fixed the pictures in earlier blogs so now the pictures aren’t miniscule and you can actually see them! if you go back a few, you can see the rehab room, so i won’t show that again. i also showed you my TCM therapist rose, so you can check her out too.

here’s the entrance to the room i get TCM in.and there are 3 beds in the TCm room.and there are posters in there.

here is the computer room which is in the same building, the rehab center building. it’s nice they have 2 desktop computers and a printer.

then there are sofas by a tv and dvd player. i asked wendy how to get the dvd player to work, but she still hasn’t told me.

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ok, now remember how i told you there was a week-long holiday from may 1st to the 7th? so nothing new happened here at the hospital. i just continued to get my 2 bags of IV fluid. every day, i get my IV started around 8. the nurses come by between 6-7am to check my blood pressure and they inject a solution into my IV pump which is to make sure the blood doesn’t clot. they used to check my temperature around noon but they haven’t for 3 days. i guess they don’t worry about me so much??? not sure.

in any case, i was very keen to get the may holiday over so i could finally start getting the stem cell treatment!! well, the good news was that we finally had the big pow-wow meeting with my head doctor dr.wang who’s a neurologist and dr. han who is the stem cell injection doctor. i’m not sure what his official doctor title is…so i just say he’s the stem cell injection doctor. haha
we had our meeting with them today at 2pm. wendy also attended just in case we needed someone to translate. well, dr. han’s english is great! he spoke english to us and even translated what dr. wang was saying. she showed us the MRI results that i had taken before the may holiday started. she showed us the location of my injury. she said it was so small that if no one had told them to look for it, they would’ve missed it!

so luckily william and i came up with a list of questions to ask them about the procedure and it took an hour for it to end. dr. han was really pleasant and patient and told us that i will be given a lumber puncture (spinal tap) tomorrow at 10am to insert the stem cells, because an injury site insertion is too dangerous due to the location (even a needle might cause damage). we reviewed each question and they answered them all. they are so great!!
he and dr. wang explained how my MRI “looks normal” unless someone knows exactly where to look and only then can you see the very slight injury. the location is very dangerous and i am lucky that nothing worse happened, e.g. stop breathing, heart, vision, etc.

dr. han and dr. wang both believe i am an excellent candidate for a good recovery as my brain has shown excellent plasticity (flexibility to repair) so far with my natural recovery. it is very exciting but we are realistic and will be thankful for a safe procedure and any progress at all ….. though i hope and pray for 100%. it was cool to learn that the change in my voice is probably not from the tracheotomy but from the nerve injury so there is hope for a full recovery there too. i would like to do voice over work again, God willing.
i will have to lay still for about 3-6 hours afterwards, which will be tough but i will do my best. i have to lie down flat so that the stemcells don’t drain out of my brain down into my lower spine (as they are injected into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), Liquor cerebrospinalis, the clear bodily fluid that envelops the brain and flows through the spinal chord. cool; i knew that.

theoretically i could have an SLE flare based on an immuno reaction (rejection) of the stem cells but they have taken precautions (with medications and by only giving me neural stem cells - which trigger a lesser reaction apparently). it will take 3-6 months for the stem cells to grow into proper working cells but i should see some near term improvement and there is good potential for them to re-mylenate (recoat the nerves so there is no moisture in them) and otherwise heal the injury spot and i may be good as new. that is the optimists view. and i am an optimist. that’s just peppy perky me. hmmmm. sounds like someone is in need of alliteration, e.g. i love my bird, peppy perky pippen.

i miss my birdies!

well, off to bed and here is to me! 3 cheers! hurrrah! your favorite guinea pig (oink).

wan an (= good night in chinese)!!!!

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