Without further ado...

I'm ready.  I'm feeling good.  Everything has fallen into place.  So.....without further ado....let's get started!

Tuesday was my first treatment day, and my first real taste of how it all works.

It's kind of hard to capture what this place is like, but this is what I wish someone had told me prior to coming - I probably would have been more at ease upon arrival.  Everything is onsite.  The day usually starts at 8:00am - breakfast is delivered to your room.  Part of my treatment plan includes a zero carb diet (so I had a salad with tuna and beans for breakfast!).  Sometime between 8:00-9:00am the doctors and staff do their rounds and a nurse comes by to check blood pressure and temperature.  Then your first activity usually starts at 9:00am (or sometimes 10:00am).  When you arrive you are given a schedule for your entire stay, which includes your treatment dates and all the supportive therapies.

Here's how my weeks break down:

Stem Cell Treatment - 2 days per week on average 

Occupational Therapy (upper body workout) - 5 days per week

Physical Therapy (lower body workout) or Aquatic Therapy - 5 days per week

Acupuncture - 5 days per week

Hyperbaric oxygen chamber - 3 days per week

Nutrition meeting - 1 day per week

There's usually an hour break between therapies, and all of the stem cell treatments occur later in the day, between 3-7pm.  Lunch is delivered to your room at noon.  The food is actually pretty good...if you can get past what it looks like sometimes.  Here's what I had for lunch (don't ask me what that floating yellow thing is, I ate around it!).

You're free to leave, come and go as you please, in between your therapies, but we've spent a lot of the down time in our room (the day is pretty exhausting!).  At some point in the afternoon the cleaning ladies stop by and clean your entire room (change your sheets, give you new towels, refill all your supplies...every day).  Dinner is delivered to your room at 6:00pm and a nurse stops by again in the evening to take your blood pressure and temperature.  And that's pretty much how it works!

So today I had morning occupational therapy with Bow.  She was really sweet.

Then I had an acugraph test - pretty cool.  They have a computer program that measures the energy levels in your body's meridians.  They press this device against each acupressure point along all your fingers and toes and it gives the reading for that point.  The doctor then uses this information to develop the acupuncture treatment plan - with the goal of bringing all the energy in your body into balance.

Next I had physical therapy with Beer (yes, my physical therapist's name is BEER).  He's funny and very nice.

Then, I had my first stem cell treatment.  

I was a little nervous because I didn't know what to expect, but it was pretty easy.  My first treatment was an IV injection.  They do the treatment in your room and the process takes about two hours.  Before they deliver the stem cells, they start the IV drip and add a medication to prevent side effects like headache or nausea.  That drips for about an hour and a half, and then they add the stem cells (which are in this pale yellow liquid...for some reason that took me by surprise.  I think I was expecting it to look like blood - it doesn't).  It only takes about 20 minutes for the stem cells to be delivered...and then that's it!  Afterwards I felt relatively normal – I say relatively because I had a few different sensations (like the feeling before you get a headache…very mild tension, and this rushing feeling occasionally in my arms – but I’m not sure If that was just the body receiving all the fluid or me just being hypersensitive with all the anticipation of what is this going to feel like. 

Overall, it was a really good day.  And I have to say I was very impressed with the quality of the physical therapies.  It's extremely comprehensive - it's the kind of physical therapy I've always wanted but never been able to get back home - even if you can't do something on your own they have all kinds of ways to help you do it...so your body can learn how to move again.  Even though it was quite a workout, I had a smile on my face the whole time!