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| Cheryl Paget's Flight for More Freedom Produced Dramatic Changes to Her Broken Body |
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| Sonntag, 03. Dezember 2006 um 08:00 Uhr | |||
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There are no translations available. Source: Toronto Sun By Thane Burnett A month ago, heading to China, she was hoping to find at least one small mercy. But when Cheryl Paget returns this evening aboard an Air Canada flight landing in Toronto, she'll bring back a lengthy list of precious new gifts. Locked in the steel embrace of a wheelchair after a fall from a horse several years ago -- her back broken across a metal fence -- she will not walk off the plane. After a month of stem cell treatments and rehab at a clinic in China, there's been no movie of the week medical miracle for the 48-year-old mom. But what she did discover -- outlined in e-mails and an amazing video journal sent to me -- are physical triumphs her children will welcome in wide eyed wonder. And for herself -- a renewed belief that she has just tapped into a future that may, one day, allow her to stand on her own two feet again. "Although it is in its infancy stages still, I think what is happening so far is just a mere glimpse of things to come," she said of the stem cell program in an e-mail dispatch, sent shortly before getting on today's flight. "I have learned that more than one round of treatments will be necessary and it did not take me long to decide I will be coming back." DRAMATIC CHANGES The introduction of millions of stem cells into her shattered back -- a controversial surgery not available to her in North America -- has seen dramatic changes in what the widow can do with her crippled body. In her video diary, started as soon as she arrived at the Shenzhen clinic in China, each entry seems to show a new and different accomplishment. "Oh, I just did that for the first time," she excitedly says in one clip, as she practises commanding damaged nerves to move one of her legs over the other. At one point, her limp leg slides off the bed. She realizes it, and on impulse and with much surprise, is able to pull it back up. "I now have a lot better control over my legs," she eagerly tells the camera, as she explores her new, broadening abilities. A month ago, in this column space, she said: "I may be a guinea pig, but someone has to be." Every bit of improved movement and muscle tone chronicled in her video diary will wind up being pored over by those who are searching for the same wonders. They include two paralyzed sisters from Port Perry, Shannon and Erica Deering, who will also fly to China next month for a similar procedure. Like doctors charting developments in far-off labs, it's the patients who are considering themselves their own clinical trials. While other Canadians have gone to the same clinic for other ailments -- stem cell procedures are being tried on everything from Parkinson's patients to traumatic brain injuries -- it's believed Cheryl is the first Canadian with such a badly broken back to try it. So her discoveries are an important yardstick -- if not validation -- for other Westerners who see answers in China. In her e-mails, she catalogues five changes she has experienced. Some may seem small to those who can walk to the nearest cupboard for a pain killer. But to the independent woman -- who has modified a vintage sports car to drive and is still willing to jump out of an airplane with a parachute strapped to her back -- they are inspirational. "The constant nausea that has plagued me has finally gone," she explained by e-mail. "This means that I now have an appetite and am finally gaining some desperately needed weight. Since the introduction of the stem cells, she has needed only seven or eight hours of sleep a night, rather than the 12 she has required since the accident. She has also developed some bladder control. But she describes a process that's much like a toddler learning when to -- by will -- try to start and stop the process of peeing. While her bladder is no longer seized shut, controlling it is painstaking. Among the most breath- taking developments, has to do with renewed feelings. "I am beginning to get flashes of sensation in my right leg," she pointed out. "I have had a cold flash down the outside and have constant flashes of what can only be described as stiff muscles in many different areas. "This is something that continues to become more constant, the areas become larger and the feeling is longer in duration." 'LEG MOVEMENT' When she sits in certain positions, she can now feel her pulse -- the life blood rushing through -- in her ankle. "I am developing leg movement in both legs," she explained. "The left leg seems to have better control and strength than the right leg. I accidentally discovered that I could move my legs apart but only when laying down. I have now gotten to the point where I can move either the right leg, left leg or both legs upon command." She is working her way closer to a sitting position. When she lands today, she'll be joined by a selfless guardian angel, retired Air Canada pilot Jens Hansen. He gave up a month -- and his wife Heather gave up a plane ticket to China -- so someone would accompany Cheryl on her flight for more freedom. A month ago, he thought about others who are trapped in wheelchairs, and wondering where they might find their own small wonders. "Many of those people are waiting to see what happens (to Cheryl)," he noted. Tonight, on a flight from China, Cheryl is expected to bring home a long list of new gifts, which others will find hope in. She'll arrive back, even as she makes plans to return, as early as next Summer, in search of more possibilities.
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| Zuletzt aktualisiert am Montag, 04. Dezember 2006 um 23:03 Uhr |