hi all...this little facility which is connected to the much larger tiantan hospital next door specializes in a neuro-science approach to illnesses such as parkinson's, altzhiemer's, stroke, spinal cord injuries and brain tumors...the big feature that attracted me was the fact that they offer neural stem cell injections...plus a daily 'cocktail' of iv treatments to complement this...these are mostly anti-oxidants and brain vaso-dilators...also they include one tcm treatment per weekday and a minimum of two ot/pt sessions per weekday...my initial attraction was reading on their website that they had a team of neurosurgeons who introduced the stem cells directly into the stroke infarct in the brain where the problem/disability originates...naturally i was excited but also frightened by the prospect of literally having a hole drilled in my skull, albeit a very small one, but this response was laid to rest when i came for an appointment with one of the directors...i was informed that this procedure is no longer done on stroke patients as they felt the risks outweighed the benefits...i was both relieved and disappointed...after kiev, i felt and still feel that if these docs can safely get the stem cells where they are needed...the infarct...that could well be a gigantic leap forward in post stroke treatment...the other hopeful attraction is that they use stem cells here that are already differentiated into neural cells so this treatment will be somewhat different from kiev (their cells were less differentiated from placenta cord blood) ...also introducing them into my cerebrospinal fluid is another new approach to take for me...in kiev i got iv and im injections...

the ot/pt are very good i'm grateful to report...the ot is some of the hardest stuff i've ever had to grapple with but that's the nature of stroke rehab...my therapist (who weighs about 62 pounds!) has a firmly formed take no prisoners approach!...the tcm is more comprehensive and no one's tapping their foot to get to the next patient...(the gods are kind to me)...i'm really disliking having a daily iv inserted into my hand...eeewwwww...but i guess i'm fortunate that the veins on my hands are practically external due to years of working with them in physical ways...i've had no lack of controversies here thusfar...i'll report more very soon...

it feels great to be on the last leg of my time here...i can not wait to get back home as i have formulated some exciting plans to recreate this new phase of my life...sending all my best from beijing, richxxx