A New Hope - A Stem Cell Journey

As a person who suffers from chronic issues I am like many out there, always searching for that cure that takes away the pain. In early August, while I was at a stop light, a teenager backed into my car. It was a minor accident with unexpected results.

In 2009, while I was on one of my fitness kicks, I ended up needing back surgery on my L5 & S1. Talk about a pain, wowzers. But once the surgery happened and the bone fragment was removed, I was all better. I had fallen while in the middle of a ‘boot camp’ running course. Well, as you know, once you have back pains it is easy to become reinjured and that’s what happened.

I don’t completely understand the mechanics of kinetic energy and the transference of it but what I do know, my back and shoulder hurt after my car took a rocking when the kid backed into me. My right shoulder was killing me, I was laying on the horn with my arm extended fully on impact. Looking back I can see why that was a dumb decision, I should have been more relaxed and maybe the impact wouldn’t have jarred me so much.

Two and a half months later I’m at the point in my recovery that it’s either surgery to repair the herniated disc that happened or live with the pain. The law firm that I hired suggested I try stem cells.

Not sure if you all know much about stem cells but that is something that my husband and I have researched. I first really got interested in it after hearing a Joe Rogan podcast with Mel Gibson when they were discussing how it has helped them or their family members. I knew about the controversy of it with embryos and abortions but what I didn’t know was all the different ways you could actually acquire them.

And that’s where this new journey begins. When it was suggested I said absolutely, I don’t want anymore surgeries. Remember I am just 18 months out of my hysterectomy which took a large toll on my body. Not to mention I am the mom of a special needs son who requires a lot of my attention. I don’t have the capacity to be down for any length of time.

I went into my consultation with the orthopedic surgeon who administers the stem cells on a Tuesday. He was informing me of the different successes he personally has felt by the stem cells and some of the others he has witnessed. Once the exam was done and all of the questions were answered they went to get the infusion.

The doctor told me that the auto-immune issues I suffer from should have healing results within 72 hours and my back would take 3 weeks to 6 months to heal. I was game, this sounded like a miracle. But like any medical instant gratification I was skeptical. I’ve suffered from chronic pain for so long sometimes it’s hard to remember what life without pain is like. But, I’m always up for an attempt.

The infusion took twenty minutes, and fifteen of them were trying to find a vein. It was painless and very easy. Then I went home. I felt a little high about an hour afterwards. I’ve not been high in real life so it was what I assumed being high felt like. It is really hard to explain but I told my husband I just felt odd.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt significantly less pain. It was like wow, this has to be a placebo, no way it worked this fast. Within 48 hours I was virtually pain free. It was amazing. Here is a list of all the things that I noticed changing within the first FOUR days.

- My lower back pain has been reduced at least 90%. I still have some twinges of pain when I move wrong but, I am not in constant pain. When the pain does hit, it vanishes just as quick as it came.

- My sleep has improved. Probably because my back isn’t in pain. The past month (prior to the infusion) I had to take steroids when I woke up in order to function and move around. Because the disc are pressing on nerves. It’s been two and a half week’s and I have only taken 1 5MG steroid. I was taking 10-15/day for a while there just to ease the pain, not get rid of it.

- My right wrist, as you may know or may not, in the 90’s I was in Martial Arts. Which included board breaking. Well I was as stubborn then as I am now and didn’t always follow my instructors advice. During board breaking with a palm heel strike I choose to not listen. My right wrist has hurt ever since, for TWENTY years. Within 48 hours it was PAIN FREE!

- When I woke up Saturday, just 4 days after, I thought I was crazy. I’ve had double vision damn near my whole life. It’s gone. I mean, there is a touch of it still, but it isn’t noticeable at all. My glasses have prism’s inside them and now I can’t wear them because they hurt my eyes too much. I had issues with my eyes auto-focusing and now that seems gone too. I do still feel like the astigmatisms  is there. My eyes feel like they still need some assistance I just can’t go in yet to see how much. Because I can tell they are still changing.

- My Eye Thyroid Disease, an auto-immune disorder, feels way less. I no longer am experiencing the pressure around my eyes. I don’t have the constant need to apply pressure to ease the tension in my eyebrows or just over my eye lids. It’s crazy.

- Sjogren Syndrome, another auto-immune disease, seems better. This causes dry eyes and dry mouth. If anyone of you ever ate with me you would know the amount of water I generally consume in a meal is easily 4-5 large cups. I easily drank 160 ounces of water a day. Over the last week (remember I’m at 2.5 weeks out now) I can tell a major decrease in my water craving. I also notice my eyes seem to not be as dry. Which is such a relief!

- Rheumatoid Arthritis pain in my joints is gone. You heard me, gone. My left ankle has been giving me non-stop problems since April 2017 and now, nothing. Thank God! My left foot and right wrist have been a constant pain which of course required horrible medication for. I gained almost 60 pounds on the RA medication in 4 months. So now I am just praying I can reverse all that with this infusion seeming to have helped the RA so much.

There has been one unexpected consequence from the stem cells that I am working to fix. My eyes now have a different pain, pain from the light. It’s like they are very very sensitive and I didn’t see that coming. My glasses had transition lenses so they protected me from the sun or other bright lights. Now because I can’t wear them my eyes are left exposed. My husband bought me some very nice sunglasses with that wonderful UV protection which instantly eased the pain. Now if I could just walk around indoors wearing them without looking crazy I’d be all set.

This has truly been a wild experience. I went in for help with my lower back and not only did I receive it, but I had so many other happy windfalls of side effects. What a gift!

What really has me complexed about all of this though is, why isn’t it covered under insurance to begin with? Just think if we could all get an infusion of this to help aid in the cure of so many different things, it would save thousands of dollars.

I will never understand the insurance world, and I don’t know that I want to. They would rather profit than see people succeed. This stem cell treatment, it’s a success. I can’t wait to see how my back feels in a month or two more months. It would be wonderful to not have those shooting nerve pains racing down my left leg. Or the need to flinch every time I stand up. 90% relief is a huge thing, but I guess time will tell if I can get to 100%.

I am going to document this journey because I think it’s important for people to know what options they have out there. Because people suffer daily, and maybe this could help.

The Doctor’s name is Dr. Henry Small - here is his website. https://drhenrysmall.com/  

Another Fad .... Giving Up All Sugar

Well it’s that time again ... the time when I roll my eyes at the effort, results and overall well being of the attempt that was given at healthy living. Long time followers of the blog know that auto-immune issues plague my system and that makes life super super hard when it comes to weight management.

People look at someone who is overweight, especially women, and think they are lazy or they must over eat or that they just don’t care. Well I am going to run through with you what I consume on a typical day and you can tell me if you think I am over eating.

Weekdays
Breakfast - 2-3 eggs either scrambled with cheese or hard boiled along with a banana
Morning snack - String cheese
Lunch - 1 serving of lunch meat (6 slices) I take those slices and break them into 2’s and roll them with a slice of Colby jack cheese. I also have 1-2 small orange (cuties) and then another string cheese. 2 ounces of peanut butter and 1/2 a cup of baby carrots
Afternoon snack (or at lunch if I am super hungry) - Another fruit, either strawberries (5 of them), peach, plums, nectarine, etc.
Dinner - I serving of meat and 1-2 vegetable servings. If one of the servings is a potato I never add rice to the meat dish. If I want rice with the meat I have two non - starch veggies (carrots, green beans, broccoli, peas, etc.)
I also drink 140-160 ounces of water a day.

So tell me ... is that too much food? Am I over eating? Sometimes if I am feeling really daring I will add a vanilla pudding at lunch just for fun. My co-worker thinks I am starving myself with this food intake, he thinks I’m crazy.

This has been my exact diet for idk, maybe 3 months now. Keep in mind I’ve done the 100% gluten free, 100% processed sugar free, 100% vegan, 100% vegetarian and now this adaptation ... I try to limit my gluten to eating out since I dont really buy it at home except for bread for the kids. I also don’t drink milk. The only milk I get is in the cheese. I’m down 10 pounds total and that is including all the crappy meds the docs shove inside me to assist with weight loss.

People can call it excuses all they want but life is hard for someone with all these auto immune diseases. In all the diets what I do know has helped me actually feel better are two diets, the gluten free and the insulin-resistance diet. And that diet is super easy to follow. It is all about balance. If you have 1 serving of carbs you have at least 1 serving of protein to balance it out with and no more than 2 servings of carbs per meal. I try to follow that 100% of the time. Which is why I always have cheese with my fruit. And when I say servings I mean legit servings. I measure so much out. And your protein : carb ratio has to be 7:30.

So now my husband and one of my best friends have challenged me to go 14 days at 100% sugar free. That means no fruit. I am pretty sure I may die and suffer a painful death from this. Not because there is no cookies or no Dr Pepper or any of that ... but because I can’t have my fruit! As you can see I am getting in 3-4 servings of fruit a day and it is a true staple in my life. Now I will have to give that up.

I am tired of all the medications I have to take and I am willing to try anything to see if it helps me. My husband went sugar free and lost 50 pounds really quickly and my friend doing this is at almost 30 pounds now and she looks great.

So I am going to give this fad a try for 14 days starting Monday. I told her I am probably going to end up super bitchy over this ... so we will see.

So my meals are going to look like this .... blah!
Breakfast - 2-3 boiled eggs
Snack - string cheese
Lunch - meat & cheese roll, celery, cream cheese for dipping,
Snack - ?
Dinner - meat with green beans or broccoli or spinach & more cheese.

This is gonna suck! Guess we will see how this comes out.

I realize I can also make salads with this, like ground beef, lettuce, cheese, hard boiled egg, etc. But we’ll go one day at a time.

I’m curious if any of you have ever done something like this and what your results were?

Leave a message if you have with how it went.

Good luck to all of you who have this FAD issue too. We’re all in this together.

Happy Readings and I’ll talk to you all on the flip side.

The AutoImmune Struggle ...

Unless you or someone you loved is faced with an autoimmune disease I think it is relatively safe to say not many people know about it or how much it can affect someone's life.

I've lived with at least one autoimmune issue for the last decade and it is safe to say that the health issues that come from it affect pretty much every facet of my world. The ways it changes and shifts what would be my normal existence may not seem significant to you the reader but to individuals like me who face these challenges day in and day out, it is a great challenge.

There are over a hundred documented autoimmune diseases and its claimed that once one is unlocked more can follow. They also never seem to know the 'triggers' and of course they are a life long condition that some have treatment for and others don't.

Personally I think some of the problem is that in today's world we as a society don't talk openly about our issues enough. People end up ashamed or judged. I know in a lot of situations that is how I've felt before.

I've had quite a start to my 34th year of life. One that I had originally hoped would begin a turning point in my physical life. That is still up in the air but I am certainly hopeful for year 35 in 11 months.

The people who have known me for some time are aware that I've had a few diagnosis that I have been dealing with since I was 24. The list seemed to make each of them worse because one would cause an effect that would increase or decrease the symptoms of the other.

In 2007 I was diagnosed with the following:

- Ulcerative Colitis

In 2009 I was diagnosed with the following:

- Thyroid Eye Disease
- Insulin Resistance
- Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

In 2013 I was officially diagnosed with:

- Endometriosis
- Celiac Disease

Three of these four were suspected to be the main cause of all my pregnancy related trauma and they made each other worse in terms of hormones. If you're keeping count we are at six confirmed autoimmune / hormone related issues that I was learning how to deal with and conquer.

Now in 2017 due to the random happenstance of my left ankle that I broke in college and my right wrist that I injured in marital arts both suddenly acting up on me we had a series of blood work done.

Now I am waiting for confirmation for the following autoimmune diseases to become added to the list of issues my body is facing:

- Systemic Lupus
- Sjogren's Syndrome
- Antiphosphlipid Syndrome

The waiting game now begins for this next part of the tour through hell that my body must take. And when it is all said in done, it is the Antiphosphlipid Syndrome that we are pretty convinced was the cause of all the babies I've lost over the years. Not the PCOS, Insulin Resistance or Endometriosis, but the blood clot factor that a simple aspirin a day could have helped prevent.

Kind of a lot of information to take in after having a major abdominal surgery that has pretty much left me confined to my home. The hysterectomy to relieve me of the endometriosis and PCOS issues opened a whole new can of worms just by happenstance.

This blog I know doesn't make a lot of sense, it is a bit random in posting. But I have been reflecting on my emotions and I need to start getting them out. My blog used to be a source of therapy for me and I feel an urge to write again. But not fiction, my emotions.

I do hope one day I can find a way to be at peace with all of these issues that get slapped in my face. I'll be honest the last 28 days have been some of the hardest emotionally for me that I can remember since my last baby died in 2009 and I am really struggling with coping.

There is a lot of things people do in their lives to stay healthy but I honest feel like no matter how hard I work something always comes back up that throws me back down a peg. I am really praying for a miracle. That in two months when the next round of tests come back they show that I don't have Lupus. That's just one more issue that I am mentally not ready to accept.

They say God doesn't give you more than your an handle but I am really having a hard time handling this.

But it is also said that during your lowest moments it is those who stand by you that show you who your real support system and friends are so I am thankful to those individuals who are helping me through this. And Lord knows that I never would have been able to face these uncertain doctors appointments without my step - mom. Between her and my hubby I know I'm not alone but it is really hard to remember that when you're sitting in your bed feeling the pain in my abdomen from the surgery where my intestine had been scraped clean of scar tissue. Or when you're riding in a car home from dinner with your grandfather and a bump on the highway makes you want to cry from the pain.

One day I will wake up and the nightmares will be over ... and I pray that day is tomorrow.