Amanda Feeling Strong Now

February 19th, 2008 at 06:33am Amanda Boxtel 18

I must preface this communiqué with a humungous thank you for your loving emails. I can’t wait to turn on my computer and receive your little notes of encouragement. I am sending you love right now…and thanks to all.

Friday, February 15, 2008

As I sit in my room, computer balancing on the bed, the sun shines outside and two pigeons sit on the ledge on the neighboring building. I celebrated my Valentine’s Day with these two love birds (they’ve been doing the mating ritual for weeks until mum actually caught them in the act not long ago). This is the type of excitement that is witnessed from my little hospital room two floors up at Nutech Mediworld. Pigeons mate for life. Together they perch themselves on sills and precarious concrete outcrops preening and snuggling. I have nicknamed them Geegee and Ashi (short for Geeta and Ashish meaning Song of God and Blessings respec tively). Together they bring the song of life and blessings to me daily. They are my friends. They cock their heads and twist their necks when I speak in a high pitched voice through the windows. This is their home, and it is mine too. Interesting Delhi Facts Today is literally another “spectacular” day in Delhi, and I say that with all sincerity. I squeezed my wheelchair through a narrow doorway to sit in the sunshine on a small balcony outside Room 208. Usually the “spectacular” comment would be with tongue in cheek, but the temperature is a pleasant 71 degrees Fahrenheit (21 C) with a wonderful 0.6 miles (1km) visibility. Yes, I can actually see the building down the street more than a block away. In contrast I think of Tucker snuggled in bed at Gabrielle’s house in chilly Basalt as the temps dip to a high of 24 F (or -4 C). For breathability sake, the visibility in Basalt is current ly 10 miles (16.1 km) and that’s with clouds and pending snow showers! Today’s Times of India reads that Delhi is busy adding 308 cars and 600 two-wheelers everyday to its tally of 5,036,842 automobiles (as per surveys done in 2006). As a result pollution levels are ricocheting back to where they stood before 2000. In fact, Delhi barely met the national bench mark for 111 days of what is considered to be “clean air” recently. Delhi is preparing to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and is being compared to Beijing, which is hosting this year’s 2008 Olympics. Beijing managed to meet the national standards for clean air with 245 days (mostly because they stopped using diesel cars and two wheelers, and they relocated the pollution industry). What’s ailing Delhi is the increasing number of automobiles, especially those run on diesel. Regardless of Delhi’s pollution problem (and to the amazement of the nurses) my oxygen saturation levels continue to remain at 100 percent. As I flicked through today’s newspaper, another article was headlined: Night-time noise increases blood pressure. Yes, the daily rag confirms that the din of modern life can be harmful to my health. All this as Delhi’s horns unrelentingly honk, airplanes fly overhead, and dogs bark through the night. Apparently, all of these noises (sorry to report Mum…even snoring) could be giving my blood pressure an unwelcome boost. Interestingly, the average decibel levels for everyday sounds are: Quiet room: 40 decibels; Vacuum cleaner: 70 decibels; Rock music: 110 decibels; and a Loud horn: a whopping 140 decibels! After reading such facts, I am also proud to report that despite Delhi’s cacophony of noises at all hours of the day and night my blood pressure remains a stellar “normal”. With this knowledge, I can’t help but believe that stem cells are most likely keeping my body in check.

William Blake said: “What is now proved was once only imagined.” I travelled half way around the world on two airplanes coving a distance of 8,852 miles (14,246 km) from Denver to Delhi via Frankfurt in twenty something hours; my emails evaporate into cyber space and are delivered to my friends in the US and my family in Australia in a matter of seconds; and Human Embryonic Stem Cells are alive and growing in my body, infusing me with life and awakening my legs. As I near the end of my second treatment at Nutech Mediworld, I continue to regain strength. I have three days before I board my flight bound for the US. This time around, I am discovering that my body is so much more sensitive to the treatment, and I am more in tune with my bodily sensations.

I realized a dramatic change in my sensitivity upon returning home to Colorado last year after my first treatment. Like a newborn, I was more susceptible to sunburn, and varying temperatures of hot and extreme cold really affected me. During treatment, I have found that HESCs deplete my body. Why? It is my understanding that HESCs need energy to grow or gestate in my body. I must think of myself as being pregnant. During treatment my body craves extra sleep with an afternoon nap almost every day. I crave healthy food and lots of little meals; vitamins; exercise; and a smoke-free and alcohol-free lifestyle. I crave chocolate and Pringle potato chips (of all things!). I haven’t eliminated coffee from my diet. I still rely on a strong cuppa java to jump-start me into action (I ’ve never been one to jump out of bed). My French Press was the most critical item on my list of things to pack for India. Along with my diet and exercise regime, as a pregnant woman might visualize her baby growing in the womb, feeding it nothing but positive life-enriching thoughts, I too imagine my HESCs gestating in my body. My mindset is equally as critical to my health.

I try to clear my thoughts knowing that each thought affects each moment from now. I have incorporated meditation and a daily Buddhist chanting practice into my routine. When I am disciplined with this practice my thoughts are more positive, I have more physical energy, and my day flows smoothly like the river outside my condo in Basalt. The flowing river is my calming metaphor—al ways moving, never stagnant, transforming from current to new. My final three-day procedure went off without a hitch and I am already feeling stronger in my torso and legs. A five-inch catheter was inserted into the space between the spinal cord and the outer casing (Dr. Ashish Verma is an anaesthetist and could provide a much more professional description with more credible medical lingo). This catheter remained in my back for three days. Two times a day I was injected with millions of HESCs through the catheter, saturating my spinal cord. After each injection, Dr. Ashish requested I lay in a certain position for several hours at a time (sometimes I’d lay on my back, my right side, my left side, sitting upright, or on my stomach).

As the flood gates were opened, I felt the stem cells affecting the pressure in my ears and sinus cavities depending on my bodily position. I was submerged 50 feet below and my head was encased in a diving bell. The toughest position was lying flat on my back for five hours with my head tilted downhill, feet elevated, and the bed reclined the old fashioned way—bed posts resting on four sturdy bricks on the floor. Thank God I didn’t get sick, horrendously vomiting as I did in the previous procedure. When I returned back to the newer hospital in Green Park on Wednesday evening, I opened numerous emails from my incredibly supportive community at home, praying that I would have a pain-free and healing procedure. I felt your prayers as I lay in Room 202. Yes CP, I felt cradled in everyone’s arms. I never felt alone, not for one moment. Thank you! I had periodic phone calls from Mum and my sister, Michele. From my hospital bed I lay with my thoughts, contemp lating, reflecting, and writing. Cat Stevens’ song, Where Do The Children Play? sings over and over in my head. In the older hospital at Gataum Nagar a park sits outside the hospital’s windows. At all hours of the day I hear children’s voices. Sometimes I hear laughter and high pitched squeals. Occasionally a baby cries. I feel like I am at a children’s party, or in a school playground. There are a gazillion voices. I hear them from the wee hours of the morning when light peeks through the lace curtains…to the late hours of the eveni ng. I have heard children playing until 11 p.m. The children’s voices fill the air with a zest for life that only stirs from the lungs of the young and uninhibited. I know they are fearless. Electricity from the park buzzes through the hospital walls into me. My ears are tuned into their sound of life, vigor, and play.

How many of us in our adult years have forgotten how to play? I have forgotten how to play and play hard: To be joyful; to run, jump, and be silly. I remind myself to bring my thoughts back to where the children play. I will make a genuine effort to regularly visit a park at home with Tucker romping by my side…or a school yard. I will surround myself with the vibrancy of youth—carefree and full of life. I will ski over whoop-dee-doos and giggle with my friends. I will laugh on a chairlift with Jim and John…and I will gently fall back into fresh powder and make a snow angel with my arms. I will catch snowflakes on my tongue and dance in a blizzard. I will embrace life’s mystery and PLAY. My thoughts are interrupted as I hear the cry of a newborn outside my door. This hospital at Gataum Nagar is also a facility where babies enter this world and life begins. It’s all perfect. Like a lotus flower that blossoms and seeds simultaneously, so is this hospital—what is beautiful in life bears life. Improvements/changes in my body after the second treatment of HESCs · Heightened sensitivity and overall awareness in body and lower extremities. · Nerve burning pain has dissipated during the course of both first and second treatments. Yet, during my most recent three-day procedure, the pain intensified and bled into my right hip and right thigh for the first time. (Dr. Ashish Verma was pleased to hear that the procedure induced pain in the right side.) ·

My torso and abdominal core strength is outstanding. It is stronger than ever! When I hold my arms up above my head and lean to either side, I can hold the position for a few counts without falling over. · The quadriceps muscle at the front of my right thigh is stronger—when I sit on the side of the bed, I am able to slightly kick my right leg extending it up and out (which is greater than the left leg). Last year I couldn’t do this movement at all. · The inner thigh muscle on my left leg is stronger. Before the second treatment, there was no movement at all. I can now lift my thigh against gravity. · Kneel balancing has improved. I am more stable keeping my hips forward and holding a count to twenty with a lighter hand grasp on my partner’s arms. My hips wobble less and I am more confident. · My muscle bulk has increased in my thighs and calf muscles. · My spasticity and swelling has decreased. While I haven’t seen radical changes to my body this second time around, I remind myself that one percent or an iota of change is miraculous. I am certain that my body will continue to get stronger after I have returned home to Colorado and progress with physical therapy and yoga regularly. I am a Warrior of Light. I will continue to hold strong, bravely fighting the odds, while feeling illuminated in love and healing. I believe in the impossible. “A Warrior of Light is someone capable of understanding the miracle of life, of fighting to the last for something he believes in.” – Paulo Coelho Namaste, Amanda xoxo P.S. Home on Tuesday, February 19th with prayers for calm blue skies and sunshine! — Amanda Boxtel “Human Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy has restored life into my limbs and “hope” back into my vocabulary!” PROFESSIONAL SPEAKER PO Box 3767 Basalt, CO 81621 Tel: 970-927-3630 Email:

ABoxtel@comcast.net Email: amanda@amandaboxtel.com www.AmandaBoxtel.com Blog: www.amandaboxtel.wordpress.com “It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you embrace the changes that take place and who you become!” INSPIRATION~OVERCOMING ADVERSITY~EMBRACING CHANGE

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