February 13, 2010 – The Last Weekend

The veggies, flowers and fruit are beautiful – especially considering it’s ”winter”.

This bus is in the middle of a U-turn on these busy Delhi streets.

Sister Sunjita gets the last word in, for a change.

If you did not see my update on Facebook, we made it back from Gautam Nagar on Thursday, February 11th, where I had a combination procedure; an epidural catheter and a lumbar puncture. Everything went fine, but I did have an unusual reaction to the stem cell injection on Thursday morning. Dr. Ashish had just finished injecting stem cells through the catheter when I felt strange fluttering sensations in my stomach. No sooner had I told Dr. Ashish about them when I experienced strong, painful spasms running in a band from the bottom of my rib cage, to the tops of my hips, and all the way around my body. This was definitely a first for me, as well as for Dr. Ashish. He had never witnessed this type of reaction before. These spasms would not subside. I was injected with muscle relaxants, then pain meds, and finally an anti-spasm drug. This did the trick. About 10 minutes later everything was back to normal. The entire episode lasted an hour.

Kathy was frightened; she told me all I did was traumatize her. Dr. Ashish feels any reaction is good because this means some sensation is getting through, some connection being made. Unfortunately, that was not all that happened there, I suffered burns from a hot-water bottle that had been given to me to help with the resulting soreness in my stomach muscles. It was below my level of injury, I did not feel how hot it was against my skin (yes, it was wrapped in a towel and a pillowcase), and it just happened. We did not know I was burned until later, discovering it when I was getting dressed to come home. It was really red and we felt it might just be like a sunburn but as the afternoon wore on, the blisters starting forming and it became obvious it was burned. The sisters have been taking good care of me and the ointment mixed with stem cells they apply has almost returned my stomach to normal – almost. The nurses have loved the irony of the situation, entertaining themselves with my embarrassment as they administer to my ailments, holding bandaging seminars with me as the victim. The doctors just shake their heads in wonderment, how can one person experience such problems coming to India? I tell them I am truly blessed.

Here is how our laundry gets done – by the side of the road.

One man’s abode is another man’s mansion . . . these two homes (photo above and photo below) are next door to each other.

As always, it was good to get back to Green Park to our showers, our beds, and our room. A development that I am not so happy about is I have suffered the last 3 days with Delhi-Belli, as it is referred to here. Neither Kathy nor I have slept well. Physio has been cut down because of my weakness and taking care of my digestive tract. It hasn’t made for the best of Valentine’s Days for my bride. There are bruises on both my legs from riding in tuk-tuk’s with the wheelchair on our laps. Kathy, laughing deeply, says she will be taking me home bruised, battered, burned, with the squirts – AND with more sensation! It has sort of been a bad couple of days. We are tired and ready to go home.

We are down to the last two days in India. Monday, I get a deep muscular injection, lower lumber area, in the operating theater here at Green Park; then Tuesday we pack our room up and fly out of Delhi at midnight. This will be a super long day – getting up before 7:00 am Tuesday, leaving by plane just before midnight, flying for 14 to 16 hours to Newark, New Jersey – layover of 4 hours, flying for 3-4 hours to Denver – layover for 2+ hours, then the flight home for 1+ hours. That makes about 45 hours of being up before we can fall back into our bed in Grand Junction, Colorado. God, it’s going to be nice to be home! We pray there isn’t another storm to delay us in any way.

On a fun note, Harpa from Iceland has just arrived today for her second visit. Harpa first contacted me a couple years ago off this blog and we have kept in communication since. It was absolutely amazing to meet her in person.

All of our thanks goes out to Dr. Shroff & Dr. Ashish for the help and improved quality of life they have given to us. This extends as well to their great staffs. The care we have received since arriving here, has been professional, compassionate, fun-loving, and enthusiastic. We appreciate the fact that we can come to India for treatments, with stem cells, that are unavailable in the US and know they have done the best they can for us.

Go with God, bless our Indian friends and their families.

This family is crossing the Autobindo Marg, a very busy street. Lots of people do this amazing feat every day and think nothing of it. Men and women both put henna in their hair to turn it red – as you can see these women have.

A group of men are sitting by the road waiting for work (we think). Some have no shoes or just one shoe. They casually sit here on a bridge over a creek bed which smells of raw sewage to us.