Well, I am back from Mexico and California, the stem cell treatment, nice weather and visiting with my daughter, Nadine, and husband, Peter, and three children - Emily, Zoe and Evan. The entire trip was fantastic from start to finish and I thoroughly enjoyed time with family and with grandchildren.

Forgive me for not keeping the site updated the past months and staying in touch as before. The main reason being - a lack of time, and short of previous energy levels. Lack of time was due to my internet business growing at a faster rate then we could keep up with. My right hand gal, Pam, spent every minute of her work day with customers and maintenance work on the site. The only break she took was for lunch and to pick up the mail, and an occasional trip to the school for her children's events. She has 3 children, 10, 14 and 17, and they keep all of her away from work time busy as well. And, I was extremely busy implementing changes to our sites several thousand product pages. Adding "live chat" system, new look throughout, adding new factories and their products; doing web pages for other people and their sites, maintaining the ones I have previously built; putting in 10 - 12 hours a day with that. Lack of energy was due to the work load, living alone, caring for my home myself, cooking, cleaning and etc., taking up other time and when chores were finished, I just did not want to get back on the computer for anything. My Sundays during the nice weather months (no snow or cold) were spent outdoors, tending to my little garden and "hiking" in the mountains with my trusty electric 4 wheel scooter. This to keep my sanity and provide a much needed break from the computer and work. And, yes, I went alone on these hiking excursions, except for 3 times when friends wanted to accompany me. I only got stuck twice when attempting to make the scooter go places it was not built to tread, and those were adventures for sure. This time away in the mountains provided the needed time for spiritual growth as well as for great picture taking, and just being out in this beautiful world with the nature and wildlife. Trust you will understand this explanation as it is the only one I have to offer. Even my local friends wondered if the hermits life had taken over, which it has not.

I have been working on this new stem cell treatment for some time now, going through more testing (long distance testing), doing things to get the body ready for the treatment, and attempting to maintain the body from going backwards too fast. This took several months to complete and then the appointment was made for mid September with Dr. Fernando Ramirez in Mexico, and with a visit with Dr. Steenblock the day before the treatment.

The trip started Sunday September 11th with friend, Ron, driving me to Wenatchee so I would not have to leave the car at the airport, and then coming back to get me on the return. We had a nice visit on the way, shared lunch before the plane left. Then the staff at the airport (some of whom I met before) helped me so much, even to walking with me to the plane. On the plane I was seated by a lady from Wenatchee who was going to Vegas for a bank seminar. We had a great chat, exchanged cards and agreed we would stay in touch because she had someone in the family who also lives with MS, a constant, although unwelcome, companion.

Arriving in Seattle to change planes I met several other people and on the flight to San Diego I met more. Amazing how many people know someone with MS and want any information that could possibly be of help and encouragement. Peter met me at the airport at 10 p.m. and we drove to their house - arriving about 11 p.m. and we all went directly to bed. Monday Nadine and I shared much after the kids went to school, and she also drove me up to Mission Viejo to meet with Dr. Steenblock. Dr. Steenblock immediately put me into a hyperthermia chamber for an hour at 104 degree temp - to aggravate my MS so that the new stem cells, that I will receive Tuesday morning, would know exactly where to head once they were inserted. We also had a nice visit, as did the staff at the Brain Therapeutics Medical Center.

Next morning, Tuesday, Kevork picked me up and drove me to Mexico and stayed until I was finished. Dr. Fernando Ramirez and I visited for about 45 minutes before starting the procedure. They hooked me up to an IV that contained Mannitol, a drug to open my blood brain barrier and when that was almost all in me, Dr. Ramirez inserted the 2.8 million stem cells (The same kind of hUCSC used by the Koreans at Chosun University last year to get a woman out of a wheelchair after 19 years. No, the cells aren't from Korea, but are of the same type used by them). The second the infusion of stem cells went in, I felt something in my throat and noticed an odd smell like oysters or garlic emanating from my mouth. Kevork who was in the room with me, also smelled it and we almost simultaneously looked at the doctor and said what's this? This, I found out, is dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), a compound used to protect the hUCSCs from ice crystal formation during freezing in liquid nitrogen (The amount per vial is small - 5% or so). It is smelly, but harmless to both hUCSCs and to we 2 legged recipients!

The following day was a bit rough for me - tired, sleepy, bit of the runs, so cancelled seeing Dr. Payne in San Clemente, but made it there with Nadine and Evan on Thursday. Spent about 3 hours with Dr. Payne just visiting and sharing about stem cells, new advances, touring the lab and enjoying our time in person. That night Nadine, Peter and I went to El Toro's for Mexican dinner and had a nice evening. Then Friday night I cooked dinner for the family - Singapore Stew, which we all enjoyed. Saturday morning took the kids and all went to the "Original Pancake House" where the kids could order anything they wanted, and they did. They even cleaned their plates which was quite amazing for their ages - 4, 6 and 7.

On the flights back home, and at the airport in Seattle, I met more people and had great visits. One man was from Spain, now living in Seattle while he works on the Bering Sea project. He will be coming over to Twisp for a visit this fall. Met a man "Samson" from Sudan who told me he is grateful and happy to be in the USA and away from the bloodshed and torture in his country. We had a really nice visit and shared lots, including my friends in Uganda, and he knows all about the mess Uganda is in as well. I feel fortunate to live in the USA even with it's own set of headaches.

Arriving at the airport in Wenatchee, one of the staff came out to the plane to meet me, to walk me to the terminal and to find out how the stem cell treatment went. We agreed that when I am walking again that we would have a dance date. How about that? Dr. Ramirez also told me that when I am walking I had to come back to Mexico and he and I would go dancing with some Senoritas!!!

Now it is back to work, between naps that is. Seems for the next month I will be sleeping a bit more then ususal - long hours during the night, naps during the day, allowing the stem cells to multiply and repair damaged tissues in my brain and spinal cord and nerves. I do not have a choice in this as the body just sort of shuts down and I have to get horizontal for an hour or so. Good thing Pam is understanding and willing to keep the business going during this time, she is a gem for sure.

Will end this and will attempt to do better in relaying information in the future. Meantime, here is a link to a Stem Cell Handbook that Dr. Payne has put together. It is full of updated, good information for those of us researching this topic. The 90 page article is in pdf format, so you can save it to your computer, print it out or just read it. This is the link: http://www.14ushop.com/wizard/HB082505.pdf

Peace, Joy, Love, Compassion
Jim

NOTE: Keep checking back to this page - for more updates.

Archive Files

MS Support Regimen  by Dr.A.G.Payne
ALS Support Regimen  by Dr.A.G.Payne
Info Articles by Dr. A.G. Payne

for more info - e-mail - Jim