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Bill remained in intensive care for the next three and a half days, whereupon he
was taken to the ninth floor of the same building and put into the room where he
was to spend the next six months.
DMSO as you no doubt already know, stands for Dimethyl Sulfoxide, a non-
aqueous solvent that will dissolve everything that water will, plus more, was given
to him intravenously for a total of ten days. After several days, he began to have
distinct feelings in his shoulders and arms, then in his upper chest to just below
what they medically refer to as his nipple level. And before he was taken off the
drug, he was even beginning to experience feelings and sensations in his bladder
and kidneys, asking for his urinal time and again, and in each case, actually
urinating in it. Of course you can imagine the excitement that came with each new
discovery.
Also during the course of these ten days and some time after, Bill fought off three
bouts of pneumonia and a very bad urinary tract infection. But with each new
obstacle, the realization of the fact that DMSO had literally saved his life by
drawing the fluid and pressure from his spinal cord and head caused by his injury,
and then by the added benefit of all the new feelings he was experiencing, his zeal
to fight off these so-called enemies and survive was much increased.
Several weeks later, we were informed that Bill had also destroyed or damaged
much of the cartelage in his neck and would have to undergo a surgical procedure
to remedy this. This surgery was performed approximately five weeks after the
medical staff of the hospital had taken him off of the DMSO, and involved implant-
ing two stainless steel surgical rods in the back of his neck, fused together with
some bone and muscle taken from his left hip.
He recovered quite nicely from the operation which was very definitely successful,
but as the days rolled by, he seemed to slowly deteriorate and he was continually in
a state of pain. This kept him from participating in the physical therapy program
with the fervor that was necessary for his improvement and eventual release from
the hospital. During this time, we kept applying DMSO topically to all the painful
areas in his neck, shoulders and arms as well as much of his body we could reach.
This seemed to help minimize the pain, while at the same time we began to notice
the very smooth and fluid motions that his legs would make. When explaining this
to the staff and students, it was simply dismissed as natural leg spasms, that would
occur frequently in the future. Then one day, one of his legs made such a motion
while Dr. Greccos was in the room talking to him. He came out of Bill's room with a
look quite close to awe and wonderment, and flatly stated that now he realized what
we were talking about, and instantly agreed that this indeed was not a regular
spasm, but something quite different on which to speculate in the coming weeks.
Shortly after the removal of the drug, and the urinary tract infection had finally
been put under wraps, the bladder and urinating feelings gradually left, and Bill
seemed to slowly go down hill physically. It was only because of the condition he
finally reached, that we managed to get the staff physicians to agree to let us bring
him home for Thanksgiving, more or less as a last ditch attempt to start him back
on the road to recovery, which it did. However, without the aid of the drug, it was
extremely difficult and painful, and he was only managing possibly fifteen minutes
to a half an hour of therapy a day, before the fatigue and pain would send him back
to his bed.
For close to three months after they took Bill off of the DMSO, we fought daily to
have the intravenous procedure continued, without much luck. But we finally got
our point across shortly after the Christmas holidays, and they did agree with
certain stipulations. The first of these were to agree to let them take him across
town to Good Samaritan hospital for a series of neurological tests to be run on him.
If these tests gave them any type of room for some noticeable improvement to which
they could credit to the DMSO, then they would put him back on it twice a week for
a given number of weeks. After that, he would be returned to Good Samaritan for
another series of the same tests for a reevaluation. If there were no significant
changes, then we were to drop it.
From that time on, Bill quickly and steadily improved, to the point to where he
could now tolerate maximum occupational and physical therapy for three to five
hours per day without any pain; just sheer exhaustion from working himself so
hard. He jumped from lifting two and a half pounds of weights on his right arm and
wrist, to between fifty to sixty pounds; and from one and a half with his left arm
and wrist to between thirty-five and forty. By being able to accomplish this, he has
worked back his tri-flex in the right arm, which up to then had been gone; and I
might add, a very good bi-flex muscle of which he is extremely proud of, and ready
to take on anyone in a good arm wrestling match. And slowly but surely, the left
tri-flex is coming around, and we are increasingly confident that before long, he will
also have all of that back.
