East Bay SCI Support Group keeps growing in size

The East Bay SCI Support Group held its most recent meeting on Thurs., Jan. 11th at SCI-FIT in Pleasanton, drawing six participants in addition to NorCal SCI co-founders, Franklin and Nick, and SCI-FIT founder, Dan Dumas.  Once again, the meeting was very free-flowing, engaging and fun as various topics were discussed, including personal experiences using stem cells, caregiving, functional electrical stimulation use and other topics the participants shared with the group.

One of the wonderful outcomes of this meeting was that we had three participants with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and we were quite fascinated to learn that even though SCI is quite different than MS, we share many of the same challenges and issues, so it was great to have that perspective at the meeting.

Two of the individuals with MS shared their experience involving the use of stem cell therapy, which drew a lot of interest and questions, with one person going to Panama for the procedure and the other at a clinic in Southern California.

Another topic of discussion involved how to find and hire a caregiver and the relationship between a caregiver and the user.  It was an interesting topic as we also had a caregiver in attendance who was able to share her perspective.

And kudos to Nick for convincing Franklin to stop by for some Samosas.  They were a hit at the meeting. 

Our major thanks goes to Dan Dumas who made his facility available to us and stayed until the end and participated in the discussions.  The next meeting of the group will take place on Thurs., March 8th from 5-7 p.m. at SCI-FIT in Pleasanton.  To get more information, please contact us at info@norcalsci.org.