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).
Before your treatment starts though, there is quite a bit of logistics and preparation involved.
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.
The original supplies are mostly flown in by air cargo and need to be constantly cooled from production facility to temperature guided logistics to cooling storage.
About one hour before the treatment the 30 kilogram of liquids (NaCl, Acetate, Bicarbonate, Heparan Sulfate) and pipes and adsorbers and filters have to be prepared, connected and then the machine needs to be flushed, tested and prepared and goes through several mechanical self-tests to see if all pumps and clamps and sensors and electronics are 100% accurate and working (this process is called priming).
Once that is done, the machine is ready and sits there waiting for you in stand-by mode. Once you arrive and you are connected either with apheresis needles or an apheresis catheter, the nurse starts the treatment which takes about 2,5 hours. During those 2,5 hours you are comfortably sitting in a fully automatic, super cosy Bionic bed chair that you can adjust and change in all aspects and angles with a remote control.
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.
For many, just knowing places like ours exist, gives them hope. So please help us spread the word! Sending seasons greetings from sunny Cyprus to the Long Covid and Post Vac fighters out there, Markus
