Update 2/9/08

Hello,
Our time here in Shenyang is drawing to a close. We are now counting hours not days. Tomorrow we will pack up and be ready to leave for the airport early Monday morning.
Derek had some therapy today and more IVs. He had his last spinal cord stem cell injection this afternoon at 4:00. He has to lie still for four to six hours now to avoid a spinal headache.
We got the copies of the MRI images that were taken yesterday. Tony read us the Doctor’s report that said that there were no changes from the MRI that was taken after we arrived. This immediately sent my head into a tail spin. I needed more information to rationalize why we had had the surgery in the first place. I questioned Tony and Lucy about having Derek’s surgeon look at them and was told that he was on vacation for the holiday and would not be back until Feb. 12th after we had left. I dug deeper to find out if there was a Doctor on call who could compare the two MRIs. Lucy found a Doctor downstairs who said that he would look at them, so Lucy, Nicole and I headed down with images in hand. We were told that the cyst and adhesion were gone, but there was a white mass pushing on his spinal cord. We were told that this was the bone marrow stem cells that were injected at the time of the surgery. The Doctor said that they are not nerve cells when they are injected and that with time they would either turn to nerve cells or die. He said to have a follow up MRI done in three months. He showed us where there was little spinal fluid around his cord and said that there was swelling of the cord. We knew about the swelling factor after surgery from what we had learned after Derek’s initial surgery after the accident. I have already been on the internet emailing another Doctor to get more information about the stem cell mass, why the stem cells aren’t absorbed into the blood stream, and where in the United States do we go for a follow up MRI where the Doctors will be familiar with stem cell procedures and be able to evaluate the three MRIs.
On a more positive note: Another American patient who has a spinal cord injury from a gun shot wound was transferred here from another hospital in China where he had had stem cell treatments for a month and then came here for surgery, is already seeing his leg move. The one thing to remember is that everyone’s spinal cord injury is at a different level, different severity, and they are at different time frames out from their injuries. Any improvements are a big boost to all the patients and families.
We said good bye to Lucy today. She has the next three days off to celebrate the holiday with her family. She was a big help to us and was a delight to be around. She will be missed around here the next couple of days.
We’ll write again tomorrow before we start our journey back to the states.
Love to all, Derek, Nicole and Kathy