Ready to Rehab! And some clarifications

First the article in the Forest Hills Advance:
It’s kind of weird to read an article on your own family, but we’re so proud of Sam and thought the article was great. Overall, there was a lot of good information concerning Sam and the procedure he is undergoing but there were a few things we thought we’d better clarify:
- People are moving their legs and taking steps as stated, but to date no one is walking unassisted. Though Dr. Lima told us that some who had the surgery 2 – 3 yrs ago are very close.
- I would not say definitively that Sam is the “most promising candidate for the surgery to date”. From an age perspective combined with access to the excellent rehab program at RIM in Detroit that may be true. But there are others (especially those who don’t have use of their arms) who have much more to gain by realizing the potential benefits of this surgery.
- At one point the article said that we were hoping that Sam would be walking by Christmas. While we’d all jump up and down if that were true, we are actually hoping for Sam to begin noticing changes in feeling or possible movements by Christmas. The stem cells that were taken from his nose and placed in his spine take 3 - 6 months to make enough repairs for Sam to begin noticing something. From then on, each month should be slow improvement.
Will Sam walk again? Only God knows. This is so new yet. We are more optimistic than before based on hearing some good news from earlier patients, but we also know that 2 – 3 years is more realistic… and even then there is absolutely no guarantee that he will walk. We pray that he will, but will be thankful for any improvements short of that.

Now REHAB.
Sam and Kris go to RIM (Rehab Institute of Michigan) in Detroit on Thursday for an evaluation with Dr. Hinderer. They will stay the night and start rehab Friday morning at 9am. Then it will me Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to Detroit and back for the 3 hour sessions.

We bring updates as they occur.

Home Sweet Home

We finally made it home with the help of some awesome staff of Northwest Airlines from Amsterdam to Detroit (flight 39). They worked hard to make it a special flight for Sam. We can't say enough about the great crew. Thanks!

With all that behind us, if feels like this stage was a great success... but only 1 step on this road to improvement. Now the rehab starts. We are pleased with how Sam is recovering. On Friday I get to pull the rest of the staples out of Sam's back. Sounds fun to me, but Kris wants nothing to do with that. I keep telling Sam I am sharpening up the pliers and hammer. He just laughs.

Sam can't smell much or really taste much yet. That will take awhile to return. Maybe if I had that problem, I could loose weight easier!

Thanks again for keeping up with our adventures. The emails and comments help keep us motivated.

Thanks,
Randy, Kris, Luke, and Samuel.

Portugal Picture Portfolio!

Six new pictures from Portugal. Looking great!


(Above) Our first out of the hospital meal celebrating successful surgeries.


(Above) The family out sightseeing.


(Above) Sam gets a daypass for a Big mac (or Pitamac, as they call it)


(Above) Escaping the heat at the ocean.


(Above) Visiting Lisbon's Oceanarium.


(Above) Saying goodbye to the Hospital.

Just Released

Greetings from Lisbon Portugal. It is Monday morning and we are back at the hospital after a great weekend away. Sam got released for the weekend so we could sleep in the cooler hotel. The hot weather broke today and it should only be in the upper 80’s. With the fairly low humidity, that is not too shabby.

We just finished meeting with Dr. Lima. We removed ½ of Sam’s staples and then spent about ½ hour talking about potentials, the clear benefits and results of using your own stem cells (vs. embryonic), what he has already seen in other patients (feelings, movement, taking steps, almost walking, bladder control, and many other things never seen before in people with Spinal Cord Injuries). We talked about other procedures around the world. We are encouraged. And yet, for my own sanity, need to remain reserved in my expectations so that we can be pleasantly surprised if and when things do start changing. He said Sam’s youth will continue to be a big help towards recovery. His Olfactory mucosa contains millions of stem cells and because of his age, he has many more of them to do the work vs an adult. He said my Olfactory mucosa would not do the trick anymore. He again stressed the need for continued rehabilitation as stimulating the stem cells and growing nerves is very important as well as the re-training of the brain.

Sorry about the bad info about the Discovery Channel airing of this procedure. Apparently Discover Channel rescheduled it for this Wednesday at 8:30pm. It is hard for me to verify from Portugal, but check your local listings.

Luke made it home ok Sunday. It was his first international trek alone. We accidentally left Sam’s wheelchair tool kit in Luke’s backpack… not a good move. US customs in Detroit was not impressed with a muscular young teen arriving from a foreign country carrying tools that could be used as weapons into an airplane. They pulled him aside and “drilled” him for quite some time. He said that were NOT very nice. After convincing them that the tools were for his brother’s wheelchair who happens to be in another country, they placed the tools in a little box and checked it with the rest of his luggage. He then had to go back through the security line. The second time through, he set off the metal detector (it did not go off the first time through) and a different group of security pulled him aside and drilled him again, made him remove shoes, some clothing, etc… and finally let him through. I told Luke that it should make him feel good that they are doing their jobs well. It was very different than going into Portugal where they just looked at your passport picture and let you walk in with your luggage.

Anyway Sam is recovering very well. We went to the Lisbon Oceanarium over the weekend. It is the largest of its kind in Europe. Sam loved it (partly because he loves critters and also because it was a break from the heat). The hotel was cool, but with only 3 english speaking channels and 2 of the them being news (Europe’s Sky News and BBC World), Sam got tired of the TV. The only other English channel was MTV. Yes, I am really proud that MTV was chosen to represent the United States people and culture to people of Lisbon. It sure makes us all looks ridiculous. It is a good thing they are a very friendly and accepting culture. The genuinely seem to like us folks from the States.

This will be the last update we will make until we are home. It will be very tough to get a decent internet connection so we will just spend the last few days stress free trying to allow Sam some fun now that he can get around again.

Again, this would not be possible without the prayers and generosity of family and friends. We trust you will be able to share in the joy of Sam’s first steps someday in the next couple of years. We have seen what is possible, and with God’s blessing it is our prayer that Sam will do all that and more.

With love and appreciation,
Randy, Kris, Luke, and Samuel.

out of the hospital

It is Saturday morning and Luke will be flying out sometime after 2am to get home for football camp. Sam was taken off his last IV Late Thursday evening (2 days early). He was very very pleased about that! Sam has been released to stay at the hotel until Monday when he needs to meet with the team again and receive a final discharge. Everything looks very good. It is still over 100 degrees during the day and the nights are very hot also. Sam really appreciates being able to sleep at the hotel which does have air-conditioning.

Unless I can move some flights up, we will be doing some sightseeing Tues, Wed, & Thursday. We are all getting anxious to get back home. We noticed a couple weird things here.

We will do a last update after we meet with the team on Monday.

Thanks again for your prayers. Knowing that many of you were praying for us made the speed bumps we hit along the way easier to navigate.

Randy, Kris, Luke and Sam.

Thursday Morning

It is Thursday am and Sam just finished is 2nd real good night of sleep. What a gift that is. The nights before that ranged from horrible to lousy. We learned that giving Sam a sleeping pill jazzes him up and keeps him going until 4am. The next night without a pill he slept over 12 hours (I still don’t think that beats Luke’s sleeping record).

Sam has improved greatly over the last 2 days. He has regained a lot of his strength and is able to get around pretty good now. Yesterday I was able to pick him up and lift him without too much pain (pain for Sam that is). That is quite important since things are not very accessible around here. If you were from Lisbon and were in a wheelchair, I believe you would have to move (or hang out by one of the new malls). I don’t believe that it is intentional at all, rather almost everything is old and constructed before wheels were invented (ok that may be a slight exaggeration). There is a lot of cool history here. This country is proud of its heritage of great explorers. They have at least one huge monument dedicated to the explorers and the whole patio that it sits on is a large map of the world complete with dates they their “discovers” landed at different islands and continents.

They have an “oceanarium” here that Sam wants to go to and see the sharks and such. It is located in the EXPO 98 area where the world’s fair was held in 1998. 2 days ago we took Sam to the mall there for his first outing. He wanted KFC to eat. Since Sam can now be lifted, we can take the train over to the ocean (between his anti-biotic IV’s) and do some sightseeing. To access the public trains, we need to climb those stairs that you saw on the pictures last week and go back down them to get to the train station. I am not sure what it is like at the destination, but Luke needs to get his weightlifting in anyway before football camp next week. The ocean sounds really good since it has been and will be 100+ degrees until Monday or Tuesday. No air-conditioning in the hospital rooms... that makes it tough sleeping.

As always, we want to thank you for your prayers and support. It means a lot to us knowing that there are so many people praying an ocean away for Sam. Sam should begin feeling changes in about 3-4 months. Sam was officially number 64 (they only do 4 of these procedures a month) and also officially the youngest person to have had this surgery. Sam’s friend Eric is recovering nicely also. His injury was in his neck. Anyone who has had neck pain knows that it is tough to avoid. He is finally sleeping better also and will be joining us on our ocean trek today. I keep getting emails asking for more pictures so more will be coming shortly.

Thanks again!
Randy, Kris, Luke and Sam.