Everyone knows it's a small world, after all. And once you've entered into whatever subculture your life places you, it gets even smaller. One of our subcultures is epilepsy. Another is stem cell treatments. And now and again, these two collide.
We had to set up a special needs trust--a trust that would make sure any money Soren inherited at our death would be safe and that his services wouldn't be taken away due to this money.
We got the name of a lawyer who does this from our friends George and Azita whose son Clayton used to have seizures and is doing so well with the stem cell treatments.
When we met David (the lawyer) we discovered that his daughter Bella also has a seizure disorder and that they had been to the DR twice for injections. Feeling discouraged that her progress was not what they wanted after these injections, they chose to do a 3rd injection in Tijuana. While it's cheaper and much closer to home, the stem cells are older than 12 weeks, thus they could have less potency. This is why we haven't gone there.
Then, on this trip to the DR, we were boarding the plane to go home and Dr. Rader introduced me a man in a baseball cap who looked very familiar. It was David. I had seen him in a suit previously and in my home, not in a foreign country dressed for travel. I finally met Bella, who is a lovely girl who lives up to her name.
In an email exchange, I found out why David and his wife decided to bring Bella back to Dr. Rader and the DR.
"Her progress has been significant--more behaviorally than anything else, but she has progressed in many different ways. Isabella had some test results in the past that showed she could not break down/digest fats properly, and she also had levels of toxic metals that were off the chart. The first two treatments in Dominican Republic we thought didn'’t do anything because we were only looking for the seizures to stop, but we later found out, from a second round of toxic metals tests done after those 2 treatments, that the cells went to assisting her internally in her digestion and also in the natural elimination of her toxic metals. Her tests showed that she was breaking down fats now, and the metals were well within the normal limits. The doctor had never seen 2 test results so different before, especially when nothing else had been done in the interim to address it.
I think the word that best describes her now is that she is maturing into her age nicely, and steadily. The seizures have definitely decreased too, in number and severity. I am looking forward to the day she has a typical EEG.
If you have not seen much yet, don'’t fret. Believe that the cells know where to go first, where they are needed most. It will, soon after that, be a snowball effect. It will seem like his 4th or 5th treatments did the trick, when in reality, the first 3 were 'prepping' him for healing from the next treatments."
These words were very encouraging to me and Aaron. We're already seeing some subtle changes. Soren is more expressive. But we want the big stuff. Crawling, sitting, walking, talking. All those things typical kids do. But as David said, what needs to be done is being done first. The other stuff will follow when those repairs have been done.
Good to hear. And I'm trying my best not to fret.
Amy
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