Very Good News - A SCI Breakthrough

From the PBS article, "Paralyzed patients successfully move legs after breakthrough treatment":

A major breakthrough was reported in neuroscience research this week. Four paraplegic patients who participated in a study were able to voluntarily move their legs again after repeated epidural electrical stimulation of their spinal cords....

The three new patients in this most recent study had all suffered a complete spinal cord injury and were paralyzed for years. Yet they were able to move their legs immediately following the implantation and activation of the stimulator.

So...that is tremendous news. Especially the part about the patients having complete and chronic injuries, which I have. A complete injury means there is a total loss of sensory and motor function below the level of injury; in short, it sucks. At the gym while walking on the treadmill or doing squats, I often will get a tingling or burning sensation in the muscles I am working on, which I have equated to a sort of 'new normal' of sensory function. But a lack of regular sensation persists, and requires constant vigilance in monitoring my skin for redness, shears, or scrapes. Even a slight ability to feel discomfort or an abnormality would come in handy.

I use electrical stimulation at the gym too, like they do in this study: on my quads while doing squats to get the muscles to fire at the right time, on my abs while doing planks, and sometimes on my lower back to help better my sitting posture on the edge of the mat table. This would be about the only time a lack of sensation is a good thing - I imagine that jolt of electricity would be rather uncomfortable on skin that worked right.


From an article in Fast Company:

All four patients have gained back movement of their toes, knees, whole legs, ankles, and trunk to varying degrees when the stimulator--which mimics signals that the brain usually sends to the spinal cord to initiate movement--is turned on. And over time, with training, they've been able to gain back more movement with less stimulation, showing that the spinal cord can improve nerve function.  

"The concept is that the brain sends a simple straightforward signal, the spinal cord responds, and it has complex signals that execute the details of the movement," explains Dr. Susan Harkema, a professor at University of Louisville and the director University of Louisville’s Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center (KSCIRC). "That's why when we turn the stimulator on, there's a tiny residual signal that comes from the brain, which must be pretty minimal. It certainly must be very, very small and it can't be complex because there's not much remaining. If you can optimize the spinal cord, it can respond even to that faint signal."

Proving that it's not necessary for the nerve endings in the spinal cord to regenerate for function to improve is huge (although research is being done on getting nerve ending to regrow too. Beggars can't be choosers - as long as someone figures it out!). It's kind of like having a Google Maps route plotted out, than having that course interrupted by traffic or an accident. Training your nerves to send signals down a new route, assuming that there's at least a little bit of spinal cord there to transmit it, is the GPS recalculating the next best route. Assuming your GPS works right, of course - if not, you're screwed. After all, there is more than just one way to get where you need to be.

Related: this is a pretty cool story.

Former Tulane safety Devon Walker was paralyzed from the neck down after a collision with a teammate during a 2012 football game against Tulsa. But it never stopped him from becoming the Green Wave's inspirational leader the past two seasons. 

And it didn't stop Walker from realizing his dream of signing an NFL contract, either.

The New Orleans Saints surprised Walker by signing him to an official contract Saturday -- just hours before Walker realized another dream by graduating from college.

I love it. The more attention stories like this get, the better.

A Dispatch from the Music City

Nashville certainly lived up to its lofty reputation when we were there last weekend. Even our nondescript Holiday Inn boasted of having live music in their bar every night of the week. I'm skeptical the next Keith Urban will be discovered in a bland hotel bar amidst the multitude of honky tonks lining the downtown drag, but who knows. Even our waitress who claimed to have moved down from Washington State just three months prior had already acquired a Tennessee drawl. Must be something in the water. Hopefully it's not in the beer or bourbon because then yours truly might start droppin' my g's and sprinkling in y'all to otherwise respectable conversations.

Our first full day there, while our gracious hosts Megan and Garrett were at their day jobs, we toured a Civil War battle site in nearby Franklin. The Battle of Franklin, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, took place in a local family's backyard, the McGavock's, with their two story farmhouse serving as an impromptu field hospital. They called their farm Carnton. In their native Gaelic, a cairn is a funeral pyre. Little did they know that thirty years after settling that land, their modest acreage would be the final resting place for over a thousand Union and Confederate soldiers.

Out on the town with Megan and Garrett

In fact, the upstairs rooms in the still-standing farm house have blood stains in the wood floor after having served as an impromptu operating room during and after the battle. Our tour guide, whose "great granddaddy" was one of the seven doctors working that day (for the Confederates, I might add, which perhaps shaded his recounting of the battle), noted that the blood stains formed a sort of semi-circle as it pooled around the floor length aprons of the surgeons. To our surprise, the medical techniques of the day were not as primitive as we suspected, with morphine and small doses of chloroform to use for anesthesia during operations. Still, visiting the site of such brutal and ultimately needless bloodshed was a very impactful experience.

Later that day, we rejoined our hosts and headed to dinner at Pinewood Social. A restaurant/bowling alley/mothership for hipsters, we dined, bowled and made general merriment until the wee hours. Rumor has it the merriment may have been deemed excessive by management while we waited for our Ethiopian cab driver Coco to arrive to ferry us back home. That would explain the lack of drinks for the last, slightly hazy portion of our evening. Case in point: an unnamed member of the group attempted to pay for dinner with her driver's license. Ignorance or guile? We'll never know.

Clean up, aisle My Head

Saturday morning brought blue skies, warmer temps, and muddled memories. To add insult to a mild headache, upon arriving at Megan and Garrett's for a delicious brunch, a rogue robin promptly shat upon my head. Luckily the day improved markedly from there: (subpar) live music at a festival in Centennial Park, across the street from our hotel; (great) live music (at Honky Tonk Central); delicious food (at Rolf & Daughters); to-die-for ice cream (at Jeni's); and a delightfully uncomfortable game of Cards Against Humanity (a game that describes itself as being as "despicable and awkward as you and your friends". Right up our alley!).

With the Sunday sun brought the daunting drive back north. In a stroke of genius, we decided to bisect our trip with a pit stop on the Bourbon Trail. Among the nine distillery options on the Trail, Jim Beam is the closest to the highway and thus served as our mental health break before facing the long slog that is Indiana. (Seriously, in terms of scenery quotient, Kentucky>>>Indiana.) They give out free samples! It was amazing. I don't see Allegiant Airlines handing out free booze anytime soon - they made me pay for a Coke! So put that at the top of the (very short) list of reasons driving anywhere in this region of the country is even a marginally good idea.

Seriously though, it was a great trip. Nashville is a fun city I wouldn't mind visiting again - as long as there are great friends and free drinks.

Kevin Durant, a True MVP

Maybe you've seen this or heard about it, but I think it's too unique and heartfelt not to double-check. Kevin Durant, basketball superstar of the Oklahoma City Thunder, won the MVP award for the 2014 season last week, and gave an acceptance speech to match, displaying a humility and grace as effortless as one of his cross-over dribbles or step-back three-pointers. He credited each of his teammates by name, and saved his most poignant thoughts for his mother, who raised him and his brother in abject poverty as a single mom in Washington DC.

Well done KD - you've shown what it takes to be an MVP, and more importantly, a man.