Changing of the guard...

Hi Guys....let me just tell you that today for the first time in 2 weeks my pain has reduced, I'm went back on anti-inflammatory yesterday and was given 'spray'. The spray made me laugh because Dr Geeta came into physio and told the therapist to get the 'spray' which she did, Dr Geeta sprayed down my back and as she did i whispered to the therapist 'what is it?' she replied back to me in a whisper....'its spray'....I told Nicki after and we laughed, its just typical of the communication between patients and the staff, of course i knew it was spray, but what type of spray! In the end it helped so i was just grateful for the relief.
Mark arrived Friday morning at 11am, theres a story here but I'll get to that in a minute ...Nicki flew out on Friday night, we went with her in the taxi to the airport. I felt quite choked up saying good bye, 'little nicki' (as she is known here) is such an angel, she did a great job helping her aunt. Its not often you get the opportunity to have 'girly' time together because we all have responsibilities. Even though some experiences we don't need. Thursday morning we woke to the fire alarm going off, Thursday was Gandhi's birthday so it was a public holiday here. The fire alarm occasionally goes off so we ignored it, but this was different. in the stairwell on the second floor a fire broke out in the 'breaker box' the plastic melted and caused an electrical fire. We lost power for an hour or so and it freaked us out a bit because there isn't any other way out of the building. But one room on our floor has a balcony so we created idea of a fire escape in case it happens again!
So Mark arrives and i organise a paid taxi to pick him up from the airport. The driver collects him and then needs to stop for petrol. When they leave there the driver asks Mark if he'd like to stop and have a yogurt style drink. Now...Marks kinda feeling like he's filming an episode of Getaway India, the scene is set...the horns blowing...cows standing near by, the aroma of India and the sun is blaring and yes of course Mark wants to taste the exotic tasts of India. The man preparing the drink rolled between his hands a thick white substance called yogurt holding it over a cauldron. A Shelf above had small glasses filled and Mark drank one of them. When he told Nicki and I we laughed waiting for a bodily reaction which every westerner has in the first week or so here anyway. Most of us were shaking our head in disbelief. I think this is going to be the first of many experiences Mark has during his Getaway India expedition. Hence we had a quite weekend and didn't venture far from the hospital.
Monday afternoon we had a group question and answer time with Dr Geeta and Dr Ashish in the foyer with all patients. It was very informative hearing a bit from each patient and also Dr Geeta gave us recent examples, taken from an external source such as MRI's etc, to show us how other patients have experiences the stemcell process. One example in particular stands out, an Indian woman with MS who after 3 years of treatment has been cured of MS, the myliene sheath in the MRI showed normal, it was so amazing and great that the tests were done by an external medical centre. I asked a few questions about MD and she explained it by using the analogy of a bowl of apples, one apple is bad and can send the others bad, so she needs to keep giving me the stemcells to stop the others going bad, for me, it will be for the rest of my life. We asked about the loop hole on the Australian government and she said that the Australian patient has been given permission to bring stemcells in. There is currently a lawyer in Qld working on this development. I know it will take time and Dr Geeta is protective if the treatment being respected and not using it to take advantage of patients. She mentioned that she had been offered money to not proceed with the treatment but she declined, so the other aspect now for her is her safety.
Dr Geeta explained to me that during the gestational period of a baby around the 16th week a woman can feel a baby kicking , which means muscles are stronger at this time. I really believe what is happening in my body is only a scratch on the surface to what will occur when i return home and the cells have time to mature. I'm feeling more hopeful and excited today than i have during my time here, being in less pain always helps!!
Well I'm off to afternoon physiotherapy now......:-)