We returned to Neurogen by midday. The staff told us that our Son’s treatment would begin at 12:30 AM that night and we realized that we had another long night ahead of us.
The preparation
Vajjr was fully awake from the anesthesia and insisted on removing his IV. The nurse suggested that he should stay awake as much as possible, since he hated IV and he needed a lot of IV fluids after the procedure. That way, he would be sleepy the next day, which was the recovery day, and the IV fluids could be administered easily. Otherwise, he might suffer from a spinal headache, which was the last thing we wanted for him after the procedure. The staff also told us that he could not eat or drink anything after 5:30 PM.
We did everything we could to keep him from sleeping. We let him play with the tablet for a long time, listen to his favorite music, and walk up and down the stairs. But we could not keep him awake the whole time, and he finally fell asleep at around 11:30 PM. At first, the staff said that we had to get him ready for the procedure, which meant giving him some injections and putting on another IV an hour before the procedure. But later, they agreed to do that in the procedure room.
What is stem cell procedure?
Stem cells are special cells that can turn into different types of cells, such as blood cells, brain cells, nerve cells, or heart cells. Stem cell procedure is a treatment that uses stem cells to help the body heal from damage or injuries. For example, if someone has a damaged brain, stem cells can be injected into the spinal fluid to fix the damaged brain cells.
Stem cell extraction
We move him on the stretcher at around 12:30 AM, they took him to the 2st floor. He was a little drowsy, they took him inside the room and in about 10 mins he was out sleeping under the influence of another anesthesia. They brought him back to the room at around 1:15 AM. The extraction of stem cells was completed.
The staff told us that the next procedure is planned at 4:30 AM where they will inject the stem cells in the spinal fluid. Vajjr was sound asleep and we were tired too. So we set 2-3 alarms on both our phones, turned off the lights and closed our eyes for a few hours.
Stem cell injection
The staff returned to our room at around 4:30 to get vajjr ready for the 2nd procedure. They carried him on the stretcher and took him to the same room again. They must have given him another dosage of anesthesia. This procedure was completed in just 2-3 mins, and he was out fast asleep and with an IV fluid running on his right arm. His 2nd procedure went well, and he came back to the room at around 5:00 AM. The staff told us that he had to get at least 4 bottles of IV fluid, and we wished he would stay asleep for the next few hours. We turned off the lights again and slept and this time we did not set any alarms.
Post procedure
The nurses came in regularly to check the IV and changed the IV fluid. We had some tea at around 10ish and went off to sleep again. Eventually, we woke up at around 1:00 PM. Vajjr was still fast asleep. We hoped he would finish his 4 bottles before he woke up and he did. He started to get his contentiousness back at around 2:00 PM but it took him about 1-2 hrs. to completely get back into his senses and then we lost another battle with him on the IV. He made us remove his IV for the last time (hopefully). The only risk here was that if he gets the spinal headache, they would have to give him more IV fluid which means another IV. They told us to make Vajjr drink a lot of fluids. Finally, in the evening at around 5ish, he peed (which is a good sign that his body is working normally) and we fed him some daal khichri. This was a long 24 hrs. for us and we were glad it went by without any major challenge.