SIKESTON — Nearly five months after receiving stem cell treatments, Terry Cole is standing — something he hasn’t been able to do in 32 years.
Cole uses parallel bars to support upper extremities, but he uses his own strength and weight to stand, which is a feat in itself.
“It’s hard to explain (how it feels to stand again) because I didn’t know this would happen. I’ve always hoped there’d be a cure some day — and they don’t have a cure yet — but I’m just gonna take it a day at a time,” the Sikeston man said.
For Cole, who has been paralyzed since he was 19, standing has been a gradual process over the past few months.
“The first time we tried to get him to stand up, he lasted for 10 seconds. He has stood at one point for 10 minutes,” said Cole’s occupational therapist Brooke Reed of Ozark Therapy in Sikeston.
Cole’s therapists, Reed and physical therapist Tracy Davied, used techniques that involved Cole gradually working his way into a standing frame. Then the therapists started taking parts of the stability of the standing frame away.
“When they told me I was going to be doing the parallel bars, I thought there was no way. I thought they’d lost their minds,” Cole said about his therapists.
Now Cole can stand in the parallel bars with assistance from two people instead of the four he started with.
Of course, standing would never have been an option for Cole had he not received the stem cell treatments.
Last November Cole and his wife, Cindy, traveled to Shenzhen, China, which is near Hong Kong, where he was the subject of a study involving a procedure using umbilical cord blood stem cells, which are harvested from umbilical cord blood after a baby is born.
Throughout his stay, Cole took four injections of about 10 million stem cells each and one IV into the spinal cord fluid.
On Saturday Cole will head back to China to receive five more stem cell injections.
“Two days before we left China, the doctor told me if I would come back in three to six months, he thought he could help me more,” Cole said.
Cole and his wife made the decision to go back to China for treatment based on his progress made over the past few months.
“He didn’t want to get to a point where he wasn’t making progress and then go back for fear of hitting a plateau. He wanted to go back before he hit that level of not getting anywhere else,” Reed said.
Stem cells regenerate for six months so there is a time frame to see improvements.
“He’s not lost anything that he’s come back to; it’s a gradual gain,” Reed said. Since returning from his first treatment Cole has, in general, increased his motion and strength — more so on his left side — and activity tolerance for functional activities, his therapists said.
The biggest challenge facing Cole’s therapists after receiving his treatments was deciding what areas to address because there were so many — from fingers, toes and knees to hips, back and neck.
“For Tracy and me, it was a big issue to not let him lose confidence in himself and in us so we didn’t want to start with something he would ‘fail’ at. We wanted to see that success and build on that success,” Reed said.
Ultimately the therapists focused on getting Cole to stand.
“It was very exciting at first because the first month or so you’re seeing things you’ve never seen before,” Reed said.
Through his daily therapy sessions, Cole has gained in his finger movement, wrist strength, trunk strength and abdominal strength. He can move his toes and lift up his heels. Of all his improvements, standing is probably the most visible one, his therapists said.
Since so much remains unknown about stem cell research, the therapists had no idea what to expect when their patient returned.
“I am pleased and I want to see more improvements. I’m looking forward to him coming back and getting more,” Reed said.
Cole and his wife will return home from his second round of treatment May 19.
“His next step is getting him to actually take a step,” Reed said.
Cole said it’d be great to start taking steps at some point, but for now, he’s taking it one treatment at a time.
“I’m just gonna keep working,” Cole said. “And whatever I get back, I’m gonna be thankful for.”
