Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!    It has been a long time since I have updated the blog and wanted to give you a short update...

I still feel fantastic and I am still not on any MS meds.   I am back to doing most everything I used to do.  However, I won’t walk up pheasants or quail out in western Kansas like I used to before my MS.  The damage to my legs that was done by the MS during the ‘90s and early 2000s was just too much and I don’t have the strength and stamina like I did.   But that won’t stop me from being a blocker at the end of the field!  I am back to deer hunting, doing yard work and even got some bowling in.  (Those of you that know me will get a kick out of that).   Most people wouldn’t know I have MS if I didn’t tell them.

My neurologist still is very surprised with my progress and is very pleased with my walking, coordination and balance.  My last MRI showed no active inflammation.   He even had me make my next appointment 9 months out instead of the standard 6 months.

One day in September of this year, my feet hurt most of the day.  My feet have lost a lot of sensation over the years and just some of it has returned.  But this day, they just HURT!!  It hurt to even walk on them. In the evening I couldn’t even stand to have my socks on so I just crawled into bed early and watched TV the rest of the evening.  The next morning, I stepped out of bed and felt the carpet better on the bottom of my feet!  I had gotten some of the sensation back!   I was so excited I had to call my sister, Suzie, and share the news.   She was so excited.  Then, the Friday after Thanksgiving, I got up in the morning and had even more sensation on the bottom of my left foot!  So, the Stem Cells are still working and I am getting better each day and that is such a blessing!

I hope that the FDA and those in power get this all figured out and start allowing Adult Stem Cell Therapy to be performed here in the US and be covered by health insurance! It would help so many!  Dr. Andrade and his staff in Tijuana do such a fantastic job and I wish I would have known about them years ago and went a lot sooner.  The MS wouldn’t have done as much damage and there wouldn’t be so much to repair and recover to be back to normal!

God Bess!

1 Year Update...

It is hard to believe that it has been 1 year this past week that I met you and your team and received my stem cell therapy.  Time really does fly.  I wanted to give you a short update...

I am still off of all my MS meds, feel great and have not had a relapse since 2 months before I came down there.   In prior years summer’s, I spent very little time outside because I couldn’t stand the heat and the sun shining on my skin hurt.   But not his summer! I was outside doing yard work, walking around and was able to sit on the deck and enjoy the sunny weather.   I could tolerate the heat and the sun didn’t hurt.   It was really nice.   I still have to watch that I don’t over do my activities outside because I can get really tired and fatigued if I over do it.   My balance is good and so is my coordination.  However, with the weather being cold, I feel a bit more spastic in my movements.   I am hoping that since it came on with the colder weather that it will also leave with the warmer weather.

My neurologist has been very surprised with my progress and just can’t seem to understand how well I have done.   He still is not in favor of the stem cell therapy but happy with my progress.   He was pleasantly surprised that my MRI in October 2011 showed no active inflammation in my brain or spinal cord and everything that showed up was old.   All in all, I am very happy with the therapy and tell everyone I see of the great work that you and Stem Cells for Hope do.

God Bess!

April Update

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. It was a wonderful week for me.

April 21st, I travelled to Oklahoma City to visit a new neurologist. My wonderful Mother accompanied me on this trip and it was nice to have her there to visit with. My visit to a neurologist was long overdue. The last time I visited my neurologist, Dr. Kathleen Hawker, was the fall of 2008. She is a wonderful doctor but has quit seeing patients to perform research in the MS arena. I really hated to lose her as my doctor but knowing that she is working towards a cure of this disease makes it worth it. I asked her for a recommendation on a replacement that was similar to her, her bedside manner, her beliefs in handling MS, etc. She recommended Dr. Gabriel Pardo in OKC. It took me 18 months to get in to see him and I believe the wait was worth it. He was very attentive and listened to what I had to say. He was very interested in hearing and learning more about my Stem Cell Therapy. He asked what type of stem cells I received and I told him they took my stem cells from my bone marrow and injected them back into my body. He told me that he felt for me because that was a painful procedure. I laughed and told him there was no pain what so ever. He said “really”. I told him that I didn’t feel any pain but just a strange sensation when they pulled the bone marrow from my shin. In disbelief, he wanted to see the site where they drilled the hole to take my stem cells. He examined the site and just said “uh” and that was that. He was very pleased with where I was in my coordination, balance, etc. He seems to support what I have done and has ask that I provide more information on the procedure that was performed and asked me to sign a release form that can be sent to Dr. Andrade and Dr. Vargas so he can get my medical records from them. We scheduled a follow up appointment for October.

My sister, Suzie and her daughter Bridgette visited us in April. Suzie was pleased with how I had progressed since she saw me last. She helped me with some exercises and asked me if I could run. I laughed since I haven’t run in over 5 years. My legs just didn’t work like they used to that would allow me to run. Even when I tried over those 5 years, the legs just wouldn’t work in a way that allowed me to run. She asked me to try and to my surprise I was able to run! Mind you, now, I wasn’t the picture of coordination when I ran, but I ran!! She showed me what I was doing wrong and how I was moving my legs in an awkward form. She had me try to do it differently and it made the running look better. It is a bit awkward to do it the way she asked but I have to change the way I have learned to compensate for my lack of coordination and balance over the past several years. I am excited!! Another thing that I can do again that I had lost.

So, I continue to improve, little by little!

God Bless!

Pleasant Surprise

I received a very pleasant surprise and wonderful gift this morning! I was given a check from the St. James Knights of Columbus Council 6780 to help cover the costs of my stem cell treatment!

I cannot put into words how much this means to me! I am truly blessed to be part of a great parish and to have such wonderful and caring people that surround me there.

I want to thank all of your for your continued prayers and financial support.

God Bless!

Before and After

Before we left to go to Mexico for my Stem Cell Therapy, my sister performed a Berg Balance Test on me that is used to measure balance.  My score was 44 out of 56.  After we returned, she performed the test again to measure if there was any improvement.  My score after the stem cell therapy was 54 out of 56!  She was amazed that within 4 days that I improved that much.  We video taped both sessions.  I have compiled a video of just part of the tests for your viewing.

God Bless!

Six weeks have past

It has been 6 week since I returned from Tijuana and receiving my therapy.  I have seen more changes to my condition and all for the better.

One night about 4 weeks ago, I awoke several times in the night due to severe cramps in my feet.  I would work them out and go back to sleep but 30 minutes later, they would wake me again.  This continued for a couple of hours and then stopped.  In the morning when I got out of bed and walked to the bathroom to take a shower, I could feel the fibers of the carpet under my feet instead of just the pressure that I have felt for so very long.

A similar thing happened a couple of days later when my left hand would cramp up causing my middle finger to be pulled towards my index finger . I would work it out and then it would happen again and continued for several hours.  The next day, I seemed to have more sensation back in the fingers of my left hand.  I can’t wait until this happens to my right hand!!  It is the one that I have lost most sensation. Being right handed, I really miss having the sensation.

My leg strength has increased and my balance has gotten better.  I can walk stairs more quickly now and without holding onto the hand rail.  I still have issue with walking in a very dark room or moving around with my eyes closed.  It is strange how much we rely on our sight for balance.  Chad, my physical therapist, has me doing some exercises that challenge my balance with my eyes closed.  I am getting better at doing them and with time should be able to do them without feeling like I am going to fall.

I am very pleased with how my energy level has increased!  It used to be that I would come home from work and would be completely worn out.  And that was when I was on medication to help with fatigue.  But today I am not on any medication and I have energy during the day and still have some at the end of the day.  For the most part this is every day but there are those days where I get tired and worn out.  But I used to get that way when I didn’t have MS.

Little by little I continue to improve.  It is kinda exciting to get up each day and see what has come back or what I can do that I couldn’t do the day or week before.

I want to thank all of your for your continued prayers and financial support.

God Bless!

Two weeks since the Stem Cells

It is hard to believe that it has been 2 weeks since Suzie and I were in warm, sunny Mexico.  I talked with her this evening on the way home from work and we both agreed that with all the snow we that we have had in Kansas City and Denver and with the single digit and below zero temperatures, it is time to go back to Tijauana and get me a booster.  J

Things have been going very well.  I get up at 5:10am and spend about 20-30 minutes doing my exercises.  During the night, my legs seem to tighten up a bit in the calves so doing this in the morning stretches them out and gets me ready for the day.

I haven’t seen any huge changes since I have been back home like I did in Mexico.  But I guess that is to be expected.  This disease has gradually done its damage in my body for over 15 years.  So it only comes to reason that I will not see an immediate improvement on everything in just 2 weeks.  I feel like I am getting better with each day, though.  Remember in an earlier post that I said I burned my hand by spilling coffee on it while walking after Sunday Mass?  Well, this past Sunday, I picked up a FULL cup of coffee and walked to the table to sit down and didn’t spill a drop! A small thing?  Yes.  But I was excited about it and share that experience with the people at the table.

I can walk down the stairs now without holding on to the rail if I need to. Michael, my son, came home from college this past weekend to see me.  It was nice of him to think of me and I really appreciated that!  I asked him to take some items downstairs and he did.  I followed with a glass of water and a plastic grocery bag full of items in my right hand and a case of water under my left arm.  When I got to the bottom where Michael was waiting, he stood there with his mouth wide open and said “way to go, Dad!”.  Now, I didn’t go down really fast but 3 weeks ago I couldn’t have even walked down the stairs empty handed without holding on to the railing.  Another small bit of progress.

The other day, I was lounging on the bed watching a basketball game and doing some work on my laptop.  I needed to do something in the other room so I got off the bed and started to walk towards the door when my foot caught the laptop cord that was plugged into the wall.  I stumbled but was able to recover my balance quickly enough that I didn’t fall.  Three weeks ago, I would have tumbled to the ground.  At my age, that sudden stop is really a jolt to the old body and I have had my share of falls over the last several years.  Not falling really amazed me and I had a big smile on my face as I walked into the other room.  Again, just something small that we all take for granted.

These are just a couple of little things that got me excited about my progress and I really look forward to all the next “little things” that will come back into my life.

Again… Thank you to all of you for your continued prayers and financial support!

God Bess!