Been to Costa Rica for SCT for my MS

[bertabobbie]

I am an expat from the U.S. living in Merida, Yucatan with my husband and dog. DH and I retired early because my MS was affecting my work and clients. We are/were both lawyers. I applied for SSDI a little over three years ago and was approved in less than three months so I guess I really qualified.

I have four grown children living all over the world, from Chicago to San Francisco [and occasionally Israel] to Shanghai. No grandkids, yet.

After having weird unexplained things going on healthwise for years I had my first definite relapse in 1999 and the second a couple years later. From that point on it has been a gradual decline with no relapses so I consider myself to be Secondary Progressive. I have needed a cane fulltime for about five years and have many other problems that I don't feel like getting into right now.

The important thing is that on June 13, DH and I flew to San Jose, Costa Rica to begin a four week stem cell treatment program. So far, I am a success story. After only two injections of umbilical cord stem cells my balance started to improve and I am now walking fairly well and do not need a cane. I can reach down to the floor to pick things up and stand up again all by myself. I can sit on the floor and get myself back up. My only problems are on stairs but even that is getting better.

I'm sure I will be posting a lot in the future and some of you may know me from other fora.

Roberta

[barbara]

Roberta - Welcome. Your improvements are impressive. What clinic did you go to? This month our Ask the Doctor forum will focus on MS. It will be hosted by Dr. Paz who works in Panama and is associated with ICM in San Jose. I know they are making some wonderful strides and was wondering if you were treated at ICM.

Anyone with questions for Dr. Paz should send their questions to my e-mail.
Go to Member's List, then B, then Barbara (just plain Barbara for me) and then click on e-mail me on the right hand side.

[bertabobbie]

I went to the clinic in San Jose. Dr. Paz was not there at the time. I was quite impressed with everything about ICM, the facilities [inc. the hospital], the staff, the way that everything was scheduled and ontime, and the caring people.