Welcome Home Dr. Shroff!

Today was the day. After a 27 hour plane ride from the States, Dr. Shroff arrived at the Green Park Clinic early this afternoon. I met with her right away. She is a beautiful woman with a wonderful sense about her. Maybe it was the fact that SHE is what I have been waiting for, but regardless I felt totally at ease and comfortable in her presence.

She immediately asked me what I expected to get out of this experience. "To stand, right? Bladder? Bowel?" In shock about having to respond to an unimaginable expectation somehow without allowing that realm of hope to enter, I simply replied, "sure." With that we went into the Physio room to show the doc my tricks, or lack there of. She called it "technical difficulties." What she is referring to is the fact that it has been 11 years since my accident and I have a ton of tightness and restriction in my hips and knees particularly. Normally this wouldn't be such a hindrance...I just had to compound that with the fact that I have 2 metal rods running the length of my left femur and right tibia. (This is the only time that being a robot has NOT come in handy.) These implants keep the physio-therapists from all the potential physical aggression of their tenuous job. I was told that if we were able to completely straighten out my legs I would have been in calipers (braces) by next week. Maybe I didn't want that Forrest Gump look anyways.

Even with these challenges, Dr. Shroff remains hopeful and says that we will figure it out. She injected me with my "test dose" of cells. This was about 5 to 10 ccs of stem cells warmed after being stored in a freezer. This dose was injected straight into my shoulder muscle just like any vaccine or shot I've received in the past. No fairy dust. No Abracadabra.

The test dose went fine. No adverse reactions; not like they were anticipating them in the first place. All of the doctors told me that no one has ever had an adverse reaction because there is simply nothing in the cells that could provide such a display...it is only procedural protocol that they must follow. Therefore, my full treatment will begin tomorrow.

To keep my feet in good health while I am in bed the sisters have created, with the utmost technological savvy, glove booties (as I would like to call them.) Basically they are 2 water-filled medical gloves to rest under my feet and heels so that I get some extra cush.
To make these "booties" feel less strange to me I have outfitted them with faces: one of me (open-mouthed on the right) and one of an Indian woman (with the bindi on the left).

Tomorrow we will be in full-swing and I am very much excited to live every moment as it unfolds. It is sort of reminiscent of having your doorbell ring only to find an anonymous package, wrapped beautifully, at your door. You have no idea what is inside, and it sort of makes you nervous to think about how it found its way to your door...but nonetheless you want to dream on it for a minute then rip it open to see what's inside.