- D
- A
- J
Hello to all, thank you for all of your prayers and help thus far, it has been 2 years and 9 months since my spinal cord injury leaving me paralyzed from the chest down.
For those who don’t know what happened, on January 9 2013 I woke up and went to work feeling perfectly fine, strong and healthy. Before the night was over I had a spontaneous bleed on my spinal cord that would not clot.
The pool of blood compressed my spinal cord so bad that it affected C2 to T7 completely choking and killing my nerves along that path leaving me paralyzed from the chest down. The neurosurgeon had to cut me open along my spinal cord and shave some of my vertebrae bone away and extract the blood. Then we were told it was a waiting game on the recovery and however much I recovered within 13 months was all I will recover.
My neurologist is very pleased with the improvement of my arms and hands. I am also regaining muscle feeling only (no skin touch yet) all throughout my back and sides. Nothing in abdomen yet, but retraining my core without feeling, that is hard. I have had little improvement from the waist down but I am experiencing intense pain internally throughout my pelvis, low back and legs and feet. I am on very strong 24/7 medication to help control the pain.
At the recommendation of my neurologist, a new stem cell treatment has become available to me. Although it is legal here in the USA it is not FDA approved so there is no insurance coverage available for the procedure, it is strictly patient pay out of pocket. They would pull stem cells out of my own body, (bone marrow and fatty parts) and inject them directly into my spinal cord canal and veins. Hopefully to repair and regenerate the damaged and dead nerves from the bleed compression. They are not promising me that I will walk but they said I will see improvements in my body and will have to wait and see how far the stem cells regenerate. I would begin to see results within 30-90 days. I will be receiving 3 treatments for a total of 18,500.00. My first treatment is scheduled for December 11. God bless to all of you. Dan and Melissa Levi
For those who don’t know what happened, on January 9 2013 I woke up and went to work feeling perfectly fine, strong and healthy. Before the night was over I had a spontaneous bleed on my spinal cord that would not clot.
The pool of blood compressed my spinal cord so bad that it affected C2 to T7 completely choking and killing my nerves along that path leaving me paralyzed from the chest down. The neurosurgeon had to cut me open along my spinal cord and shave some of my vertebrae bone away and extract the blood. Then we were told it was a waiting game on the recovery and however much I recovered within 13 months was all I will recover.
My neurologist is very pleased with the improvement of my arms and hands. I am also regaining muscle feeling only (no skin touch yet) all throughout my back and sides. Nothing in abdomen yet, but retraining my core without feeling, that is hard. I have had little improvement from the waist down but I am experiencing intense pain internally throughout my pelvis, low back and legs and feet. I am on very strong 24/7 medication to help control the pain.
At the recommendation of my neurologist, a new stem cell treatment has become available to me. Although it is legal here in the USA it is not FDA approved so there is no insurance coverage available for the procedure, it is strictly patient pay out of pocket. They would pull stem cells out of my own body, (bone marrow and fatty parts) and inject them directly into my spinal cord canal and veins. Hopefully to repair and regenerate the damaged and dead nerves from the bleed compression. They are not promising me that I will walk but they said I will see improvements in my body and will have to wait and see how far the stem cells regenerate. I would begin to see results within 30-90 days. I will be receiving 3 treatments for a total of 18,500.00. My first treatment is scheduled for December 11. God bless to all of you. Dan and Melissa Levi