Lumbar Injection Rev. 2

Linda is back from her procedure and must lay flat for 6 hrs. She said the actual injection hurt a little but not too bad. Now the only thing bothering her is having to use the bed pan because she must not even rise her head. No discomfort laying in bed except boredom. Today everyone who was on the schedule received the injection assembly line style. Everyone else will get a series of 3 or 4 injections a week apart, Linda just gets one because she received the brain operation. Tomorrow the whole staff of doctors will make rounds and see how Linda is doing and make a decision on how much longer we must stay, but the time is getting shorter.

We have not seen a lot of Beijing because Linda has been hooked to the iv's everyday and I did not want to leave her alone all day so we have talked of coming back next year and doing all of China. I do take the bike out and leave for a few hours at a time but as care giver I have to stay close. The hospital does not provide meals although someone does come around to ask about take out from the restaurants around the area. But you must be alert or you have no idea what's coming back. So I go out shopping and bring back food either we cook here or eat raw.

Sat Morning I better write and let everyone know what is going on, I didn't report on how Linda did after the last injection. Linda came out better than ever, but I spent yesterday going around and checking and talking to the other patients who received the treatment. I should have dashed off a note but I didn't. So after Linda came back and had to lay still for 6 hrs, she just sat around after the 6 hrs were up. But yesterday morning she woke up full of piss and vinegar and wanted to head out and conquer the world. Jumped right out of bed and started her exercises she does every morning and was thrilled to see her balance was good as ever. She did things she had not been able to do for months. So as she was making all the plans what to do, Amy came in and checked her out and said she was not to leave the room because Amy did not want the cells to go bad. Well hell, here Linda now has all this pent up energy and has to sit in the room all day. But she did manage that. This morning she is up and still feels great. As the day goes on we will see if this is real or what.

There are a few interesting cases here. Two that Lynn would be interested in. They both have Parkinson ism.This is Parkinson's that medication has no effect on. The German woman who is in her 50's started showing symptoms about 7 years ago. For 5 years she wasn't too bad, but about 2 years ago she started to go down hill pretty fast. Now she can't walk but a few steps and is in a wheel chair. She has had 2 injections now and it is too early to see any difference. The man is 68 and again it is too early to tell the outcome. Another 66 year old woman from England had DBS done 6 years ago. The effect of the DBS had now worn off, her husband has set the impulses as high as it can go and it has no effect. She has had 2 lumbar injections now and we are waiting to see what the results are. One man is 75, he was vice president of an engineering firm and wrote a book that is the standard of the industry and is in it's 4 printing. He has PD and early stage Alzheimer's. I want to follow up on these cases too see the outcome. I better get this off so we can share the good news.

john and linda in China