Potpourri

Richard's ankle is finally healing and he's easing himself back into his exercise routine. His Pilates session last Thursday produced profuse sweating and an alarmingly pale face that I have not seen since his first stem cell injection more than two months ago. It is sobering to realize how quickly the body atrophies. On a more positive note, Richard has found that he no longer has to use to the bathroom at night since returning from China.

One of the many symptoms of MJD is frequent nocturnal urination. A few days before we were scheduled to leave Nanshan, Richard woke up in the morning and realized that he slept through the night without having to use the bathroom. He was cautiously optimistic at first, fearing that it was a fluke. For the past month, unless he drinks copious amounts of coffee after dinner, he seldom finds himself waking in the middle of the night to visit the bathroom.

We finally bought a treadmill which will be delivered and installed tomorrow. Together with the recumbent bicycle and hand weights, Richard will have a fairly complete set up for his PT. I've located an online vendor that sells parallel bars and OT supplies. Those will be next. Richard's manual dexterity has started to worsen a bit so I need to get him to do the OT exercises.

We will be attending a seminar given by the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine on "Harnessing the Power of Stem Cells" tomorrow evening. The keynote speaker is Dr. Irving L. Weissman, the director of the Institute and co-founder of biotech company, StemCells, Inc. There will be two other lectures that evening on "Embryonic Stem Cells" and "The role of stem cell treatment in the repair of the brain and its functions".

Furthermore, thanks to our friend, Cathy, who pointed out the course to us, we've enrolled in the course "Straight Talk about Stems Cells" at the Stanford Continuing Studies Program. Here's a link to the course description:

https://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/course/BIO53.asp

Our objective is to keep abreast of the latest development in stem cell treatment in the United States in the hopes that it will be available in the U.S. in the very near future.

Speaking of stem cell treatments, our friend Fabio emailed us two interesting links recently. Fabio's mother, Nadja, has ALS and was treated at Nanshan the same time we were there. The following links are of facilities offering stem cell treatments in Cologne, Germany and the Ukraine respectively:

http://xcell-center.propreventa.net/index.php?id=|&L=1

http://www.emcell.com/