Hi everyone!  I tried to post this yesterday but had difficulty with the internet connection….

Tyson and i have just boarded our plane to India once again. This time for 4 weeks. I figure it’s as good a time as any to update you on where we left off in April after our first 8 weeks of treatment and on Tyson’s current state.

Tyson stopped declining after about a week of the stem cell therapy. Once he was stable at that point, we could see improvements almost every day in his physical and occupational therapy sessions (I’ll post videos of his progress later on…). Dr. Shroff explained to us that in lyme patients, the stem cells work to strengthen the immune system so that the lyme antibiotics can function properly and effectively as well as repair any damage caused by the lyme bacteria. We left India with great improvements, NO decline, and full of hope.

We were instructed to maintain our PT and OT work once we got home because by doing so, the body would be training the stem cells and therefore Tyson would benefit the most from them. We met with Dr. Horowitz and Dr. Bouboulis on the Monday after we got home. The following day, we called Burke Rehab hospital in White Plains to get him admitted for in-patient. Tyson was a patient there last summer for 6 weeks and was discharged because he was declining so rapidly. So, this time around the doctor at Burke, Dr. Stampas wanted to take things slowly and have him start out at the out-patient facility first and gradually work his way up to full-time in their in-patient hospital where he would have physical and occupational therapy sessions 6 days a week rather than 3. Dr. Stampas said that if he did well and showed no decline, he would have him admitted to in-patient (which is what we want, as you can tell- because it’ll be like boot camp 🙂 )

We were placed on a two week waiting list which turned into 4. In that time, due to inactivity, Tyson got a little weaker than when we were in India. After a couple weeks of doing our out-patient therapy sessions, we spoke with Dr. Shroff and expressed concern that he was weaker. She agreed with us that it was more than likely a result of being inactive for the four weeks when we got home. She said to give the therapy 1 more week and if Tyson wasn’t feeling better- to come back to India early! In that following week, Tyson did very well at Burke. His core was stronger, he was doing more to help with his transfers and had more energy! He had some not so great days where he just felt exhausted and weak but overall he did very well.

So as of right now, Tyson feels he is just about at the same level as when we left…with the exception of his hands which feel the weakest. We feel good. The fact that his overall health hasn’t declined is an enormous accomplishment!

We are excited for this next chapter. We miss our India family and we are looking forward to the treatments, the workouts and to seeing improvements!

More to come when we land.

Love,
Annie and Tyson