DAY #10 - First Treatment!!

Today I had physical therapy for an hour and then my first stem cell treatment! Today they used umbilical cord stem cells, and they will again tomorrow.  These stem cells come from live healthy births and are donated to the Institute for use.  Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday they will use my own stem cells that they harvested last week.  I still don't know the exact count of how many stem cells they were able to harvest (hopefully above that 40 million mark), but hopefully I will find out tomorrow.

So about the first treatment....what a cool experience! Let me walk you through it as it happened for me.  Here's the front doors as you walk up to the Stem Cell Institute.

Our driver, Javier, helped me celebrate my first treatment by making firework noises and pretending like they were going off above his head.  He is the one I mentioned in previous postings that used to be a horse jockey. 

There is a little waiting area inside these front doors.  They have the most beautiful orchids!  Past the waiting room area is the hallway (notice the hand sanitizer on the wall in every room).

At the end of the hallway is the treatment room.  It is complete with 2 reclining chairs and an exam table.  I've never had to sit on the exam table though - just the comfy chairs.

So the actual injection of stem cells only took about 2 minutes.  Dr. Diaz put the IV needle in just as she would to draw blood and then flushed the line with saline.  She then injected the umbilical cord stem cells which had a mysterious taste.  It was kind of fruity and comparable to peaches!! 

Dr. Diaz did mention that there was a possible side effect of an increased body temperature.  This could last a couple of hours and can easily be controlled with Tylenol.  I guess we'll wait and see if that happens...