In my last Column, I was talking about how life had thrown out a curveball and my new Stem Cells had been severely tested. So I really needed this next round of Stem Cells, boy did I ever. My new appointment for Stem Cell Treatment 3 was scheduled for December 5, 2011. I decided to go for the 2 week treatment by myself.
I arranged to have my driver take me directly to my favorite grocery store, El Rey (the King) straight from the airport. I like to cook in my condo instead of going out for meals. It is also shocking how those meals out can add up to mucho dinero. Don’t get me wrong, I love to go out, but this was not a vaca and was already costing me plenty. But, hey, THIS IS MY LIFE and I want to LIVE it! I still planned to have a few meals with other patients.
So, because this was my 3rd treatment, I would have to have another mini lipo this time to extract a small amount of fat….under a pound (dangit). Pretty much what happens is that one lipo will usually give enough Adipose Fat Stem Cells for 2 treatments. It doesn’t happen every time, but almost. On Monday, the 5th I had my blood draw, for testing and for the plasma that my Stem Cells would be delivered in. On Tuesday, I had the lipo and on Wednesday, I was immediately going to physical therapy! Here is a little video I made on Wednesday morning. Out of it much? Maybe just a little..haha.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH MY VIDEO
So I am going to jump forward to week 2 where I received my own Stem Cells as well as Umbilical Cord Stem Cells. It was a good week and included PT. I had the opportunity to have dinner with a big group of patients and that was fun. I also had several patients to my condo where I made lunch for them. I handled the traveling part just fine, stopping in Houston for a layover on my way back home on December 18th.
Now, here is where it gets amazing. My husband and I left for France on the 24th of December. We had layovers in Miami going and coming home. Miami is a BIG airport. I handled it just fine. I spent 2 weeks in France and I was on the go the whole time. I did a LOT of walking.
We had to see all the Aunts, the Uncles, the friends, the family…we had to go from Paris to central France and then down further in the Auvergne region. We never stopped for 2 weeks. When we got back up to Paris to take our flight home, we felt nostalgic for our time there. We even went to see some friends who lived in the same village that we lived in and we saw our house. (not OURS, but you the one we lived in). We were set to take the flight the next day, but we got bumped. Talk about stressful. We could not reach our friend to come back and get us until 8 hours later. STRESS. Now, this trip was made possible by my new Stem Cells….thank you my new Stem Cells!!
During the trip I noticed that my balance seemed to be better and if possible, my legs seemed even stronger. I was still walking with a cane, however. I joked that maybe Stem Cells like French Cheese.
So
here in Texas it gets hot early. I noticed in April/May that I could
take heat up to about 92 or so. Now this was new. This was an
improvement for me. Before this treatment, 84 was it. In May 2012, a group of Stem Cell Patients got together to do the MS Walk in Fort Worth. I was hesitant. Could I make it? Well, I made it halfway. It felt like a failure but it was not…it was a victory. Before my first Stem Cell Treatment, I would not have been able to go 10 feet. I did half a mile. Let me post a picture of the group.
Another, major development started to happen. I need to make sure I word this correctly. Here we were in 2012. In 1992, when we were living in France, I began to have some problems with my, ahem, bowels. I was still undiagnosed, but I sure knew something was wrong. By 2012, I was able to “go” only once every 10 days. This was life threatening, this was serious stuff. So here I was, on Stem Cell Treatment 3. The bladder was fixed and the legs were stronger but the walking was not good. What else? OH YEAH, the bowels….things seemed to be changing. It wasn’t perfect but something was different. Could this be real? Would another treatment take me all the way? Stay tuned….
