There's no place like home!

We left NuTech at 10:10 pm Sunday evening and walked in our door at 10:45 pm on Monday (1:15 pm USA time!!) we are exhausted, but safe & sound.  Wanda & Janusz met us at JFK and drove us home, so very nice & quite funny in the car!

Today is Tuesday and I slept from 7:00 pm until 7:30 am with a bathroom break at 2:00.  Robbin was up from 2:00 on, poor guy!  Napping now.

New caregiver, first day; seems real nice. Her name is Jessica; moved here from Florida.

Taking it easy, trying to line up PT& OT.

Last post for a while

It's Saturday night and the last night we will sleep at NuTech.  

Today, Abha & I went to Asian Roots Spa. I got a haircut, mani/pedi and eyebrows threaded. Abha had her hair washed and styled plus a mani/pedi with polish. It was nice to be out!  Robbin stayed in the room to get some piece & quiet.

Robbin will go to a storage facility in Gurgaon in the morning to store some things that we don't need at home; about $25 per month.

So you won't hear from me for 2 days or so.

Hugs to all!

Brain SPECT is normal!!

Very exciting.  We saw the pictures but don't have them yet to share with you.  But it's normal after 4 months of stem cells. Geeta wants me to have another SPECT in January in the US and if its still normal I can postpone my trip back to NuTech.

Tomorrow is Saturday and Abha & I will go to Asian Roots, Spa!  Then packing as we leave NuTech at 10pm on Sunday for a 1:50am Air India flight to JFK.  About 14 hours.

Our friend, Janusz, is picking us up around 8 am.  Bless him!

xoxo

Hey Deb, How ya doing?

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Robbin took Abha with him to shop & I got some really nice Indian outfits! In the evening, we Skyped with Ryan and that was really, really great!  Robbin went out and bought Indian pastries-about 100 of them and we gave them out.  They were a big hit. He went out for more!  Then Geeta had them bring me a chocolate cake with chocolate icing! How did she know that's my favorite??

So many people are asking what's improved, how I'm feeling, etc.  Here's the official update.

I've felt a bit better the past few days. I've had trouble sleeping so they gave me something, even though I'm on 6 mg of Melatonin and Tradozone.  According to my practitioner, Shawn Bean, based on my genes & my neurotransmitter report, he said "my sleep is horrendous & at night time my mind races." It's true and I never told him! 

I'm stronger in certain fingers and my wrists, but maybe 20% functional overall.  I still can't lift my arm & that's frustrating for me. I can just about get the electric toothbrush to my mouth. My legs are lifting more weights now at 5 kgs (11 lbs) both forward & backwards with a better range of motion. My balance is a bit off so walking has its moments; I tend to lean forward.  Yesterday, I walked without the walker for the first time since Germany; yeah! And emotionally I'm better, not crying.  My speech is still garbled but my OMs, etc are better for the past 3 days.   So I think my 5 week decline was related to the intense detox and sleep.

Embryonic stem cells take a long time. Think of a new born out of the womb, no muscle control for many, many months, and they are so tiny. The cells I received the first 2 weeks at NuTech are now 4 months old.  As nerves grow the muscles need to relearn movements.  So it will take a long time.  

My doctors now think more detox is in order so I think I'm on the right track. They think the recirculating toxins caused my inability to recover. My cell membranes are damaged & aren't functioning.  This was an assumption made by Shawn as his lab work showed my body not containing the supplements I'd been taking for many months! And then proven with lab work sent from Germany to a specialized lab in the UK. I'm still amazed that they can tell all this! Unfortunately, no such lab in the US.  

Theory: my illness started when I took Cipro & Levaquin '04-'06 & in '08, respectively.  (Jav, Frank -beware!) These antibiotics are in a class called Fluoroquinolo.  Shawn believes this is the suspected catalyst. They damage DNA and with this class of antibiotics "bacteria can enter a physiological state in which the antibiotics do not affect them. This phenomenon, referred to as persistence, is different from resistance because there is no genetic modification and because it is transient.  The presence of persister cells in bacterial biofilms contributes to the difficulty in treating biofilm-related infections."; like LYME!!!!  Then I lost 50 lbs by diet and exercise and in doing so 'shocked my body'.  Toxins are stored in fat and when I lost weight the toxins flooded my body and likely triggered dormant Lyme. 

Are you all amazed? I am!

Sibylla, another one of my practitioners, once said when the pieces of my illness puzzle start coming together, true healing can occur.

One week to go!

On Fri the doctor put the catheter higher up in my spinal chord and when he injected stem sells I could feel them in my left thigh!  It was like a shower inside my leg!!  Never happened before.  After the procedure, I had to lay down for a bit and when I sat up I had a major pain in my left hip; I saw stars!!  So I cried (what else is new?) and laid back down.

So a junior dr was called & told me not to worry its very common as its inflammation.  Inflammation my ass!  He prescribed a pain killer, twice. I typed on my iPad" I think the catheter is hitting a nerve!"  "Oh no, no, don't worry."  After an hr and trying to sit up again I called for another dr.  It's structured here that everything gets told to 1 of 2 senior doctors.  So when the senior dr came (the one who did the procedure) he said maybe the catheter is pressing against a nerve. So he put on sterile gloves & removed the bandage and pulled it out a tiny bit; I moaned because he was touching a nerve and then it was fine.  No more pain.  

Saturday nothing much happened but Sunday, Robbin & I went to the mall.  We went to a GNC to return something I purchased. They said we could only exchange it, but that's not what we were told when we bought it! The guy called his superior who said no also. This was all in Hindi so we don't really know what the conversation was.  The guy proceeded to take other customers but Robbin didn't budge.  Robbin finally spoke to someone on the phone (owner?) and said if we don't get our money back he would call Visa and have them deduct the amount AND take the product home, explaining that they would end up with nothing! The line went dead.  More waiting, more conversations in Hindi via phone and then they asked if he could come back tomorrow.  NO, duh!  So Robbin got the full refund in cash!  (Which we proceeded to spend).

Next came lunch at Nando's, yummy.  Had enough to take back for another meal. Then a bit of shopping and then Food Hall for sheep & goat cheeses!  Enough to bring some on the air plane!

Monday was the norm with PT & OT and then 3 injections in each hand, 1 in the neck, 1 in each cheek and an intravenous one.  Plus 1 IM in each arm once back in the room.

One week and we'll be home --- eating beef!! :-)

xo