Friday continued

I wrote yesterday's blog before we went to the clinic. While we were at the clinic, Dr. Paz, the main doctor and the one who just returned from a seminar in Corpus Christi, came by again. He asked how I was feeling, and I told him about some of the small improvements. He said that was good news because any signs this early were not real common - he said realistically the new cells need 3 to 6 months to begin doing their best work. And he reminded me that not everyone will see the same results. He's very cautious but hopeful.

My small improvements are encouraging, but I still get stumbly, bumbly as I get tired, so all is not perfect - I do seem to recover a little quicker so that is positive also.

Dr. Paz told us that they were currently working with several children with autism, and that they were getting 4 more this Monday. He also said they were getting 2 siblings with muscular dystrophy - one they have already treated once and had good results so now she is returning for a booster and her brother is going to be treated for the first time. Presently they have several of us with MS and one with a spinal injury. He said they are beginning treatments for Parkinson's and have had just a few of those. Much is happening, and now that the Costa Rica clinic is closed they can actually watch over the groups better and work with the different protocols. They do not do the same thing for the ones with autism and Parkinson's as they do with MS - for one thing they get the patient's own cells from their bone marrow in the hip but for MS patients they get it from the fat cells. He said the stem cells are slightly different in those 2 places. All was interesting to me - hope it is to you.

Since we have been down here we have seen 2 American network (ABC) shows about stem cells. One from Florida where they used a man's stem cells to repair his damaged heart (instead of having a heart transplant), and another from California where they replaced a man's totally damaged cornea by using his stem cells to grow a new a cornea - he could see 20/20 after the procedure. So obviously some US clinics are open to trying this very promising protocol - just not sure why many US doctors act like it doesn't really work. Five years from now they will be leading the stem cell band!