Butera's Place

October 7, 2009 Source:  Portland News – Fox 12 As many as 250,000 people are living with the consequences of a spinal cord injury.  Many times, it leads to permanent paralysis of the arms, legs or both.  For many, treatment options are limited, but a controversial therapy program gets patients out of wheelchairs and standing […]

…for which I am grateful today. My happy boys; everyone is in a great mood and have been showing me big toothy smiles this morning. Bean (AKA Max) slept until 6:01 AM.  This made all of us so happy! Our pantry and refrigerator are stocked.  I can not stand planning meals, making the grocery list, […]

October 4, 2009 Source:  The Boston Globe Author:  Cynthia Graber The idea sounds like science fiction.  But it might someday come true.  A group of Boston scientists is pushing the bounds of regenerative medicine. According to Greek mythology, the god Prometheus granted human beings the gift of fire.  As punishment, an angry Zeus condemned Prometheus […]

I was still pretty out of it when they were preparing me for the trip to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.  It seems my oldest brother, Angelo, was working pretty hard to do what he could to get me transferred there.  At the time, New Jersey hospitals didn’t have the best reputation, so he wanted me […]

[singlepic id=56 w=320 h=240 float=right] Once upon a time there was a Quad (Sweetie) and a 3rd grade teacher (me) who fell madly in love via the internet (as any good modern romance does, or maybe that’s just us and the movie “Just Got Mail,”) at any rate, there were two people in love.  Five years after […]

September 26, 2009 Source:  swissinfo.ch Researchers at Zurich University have developed a new therapy combining drugs, electrical stimuli and treadmill workouts that helps paralysed rats walk again. The treatment, which targets the neural circuits in the spinal cord that control the muscles used for walking, could lead to clinical trials in humans in five years […]

Dear Family and Friends, [singlepic id=55 w=320 h=240 float=right] We finally have a date set for Sam’s surgery!  If all goes as planned, his surgery will be on Friday, October 16th.  On October 15th, we’ll bring Sam in for some pre-op procedures, then on the sixteenth, we’ll bring him back at 6 a.m. for the […]

[singlepic id=54 w=320 h=240 float=right] “Wait, you mean that isn’t your Rosemary bush?!” , said our good friend Trish (as she pointed to the French Lavender in a pot on the deck) the day after she cooked Garlic-Rosemary-Cheese-Steaks for the guys. We love you Dish and can’t thank you and Steve enough for a super visit!

Okay, I’ve written a number of stories about what I perceived to be stupid acts by other people, so it’s about time I told a story about my own act of stupidity. This happened back before I met Laura, when I was between girlfriends and “on the prowl.” I went out with a couple friends […]

September 17, 2009 Source:  ScienceDaily Research led by a scientist at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center has shown injecting biomaterial gel into a spinal cord injury site provides significantly improved healing.  The project that also included researchers from Purdue University and Arizona State University indicates that a "practical path" […]