When we patients turn up for our H.E.L.P. apheresis treatment, our job is ‘comparatively easy’ (well, at least from treatment number two onwards – because for some of us, the first treatment can be a bit ‘special’, as ‘firsts’ can sometimes make us nervous, and often existing anxiety and cognitive dysfunction do not help). Thankfully our lovely nurses are always super calm and professional, so in the end it always turns out to be much easier than you think).
Prima dell'inizio del trattamento, tuttavia, è necessario un po' di logistica e di preparazione.
Every single ‘Plasmat Futura’ (the name of the B.Braun H.E.L.P. Apheresis machine) with its serial number has a machine log book and gets regular services by certified apheresis machine technicians.
Le forniture originali sono per lo più trasportate per via aerea e devono essere costantemente raffreddate dall'impianto di produzione alla logistica a temperatura controllata fino allo stoccaggio di raffreddamento.
Circa un'ora prima del trattamento, i 30 kg di liquidi (NaCl, Acetato, Bicarbonato, Heparan Solfato) e i tubi, gli adsorbitori e i filtri devono essere preparati, collegati e poi la macchina deve essere lavata, testata e preparata e sottoposta a diversi autotest meccanici per verificare che tutte le pompe, i morsetti, i sensori e l'elettronica siano precisi e funzionanti al 100% (questo processo è chiamato priming).
Una volta fatto ciò, la macchina è pronta e rimane lì ad aspettarvi in modalità stand-by. Una volta arrivati e collegati con gli aghi per aferesi o con un catetere per aferesi, l'infermiera inizia il trattamento che dura circa 2,5 ore. Durante queste 2,5 ore siete comodamente seduti su una poltrona Bionic completamente automatica e super accogliente, che potete regolare e modificare in tutti gli aspetti e angolazioni con un telecomando.
And after those 2,5 hours the precipitation filter then holds a lot of pathogens (fibrinogen and other clotting factors, inflammatory proteins, viral spike and fragments, cholesterol and autoantibodies and a long list of other toxins and pathogens) that were previously inside your body/blood and your blood is about 10% less thick/viscous whilst your blood vessels temporarily have increased 20% in size/volume and with that the microcirculation. In other words – 100% of your blood volume (or a bit more) is processed and cleaned in one treatment.
And after the 3rd or 4th H.E.L.P. Apheresis treatment (the average treatment number we currently see is 5-8 treatments) the medical team will then start the rest of the Combination Therapy – various IVs depending on symptoms, antiviral and anticoagulant treatments and in some cases HBOT, Cryo, IVIG or Hydro Colon treatments.
Very soon I will discuss the future of diagnostics and individualized Combination Therapy with a Long Covid household name that is currently being treated at our clinic and of course I will send you an email once we publish that video – it will be a very interesting discussion to say the least!
I hope you enjoy the little video we made today in the early morning and as you will see with Keelyn – one of our brave Long Covid fighters – despite everything we are all going through with this cruel and often invisible illness of Long Covid and/or Post Vac – we fight with a smile and it is much easier if we fight together and get up the ladder step by step.
Per molti, il solo sapere che esistono posti come il nostro dà loro speranza. Quindi, per favore, aiutateci a diffondere la parola! Un saluto di stagione dalla soleggiata Cipro ai combattenti di Long Covid e Post Vac, Markus.
