Jonathan had his appointment this week with Dr. Kendal Stewart in Austin Texas http://www.neurosensorycenters.com/index.html . For those of you who haven't heard of Dr. Stewart, he specializes in healing the nervous system of viruses, toxins, bacteria, etc. He uses machines that test for the inner ears reflexes, to access the health of the nervous system. Jonathan has never had normal function of these reflexes. We have, however, had some reflexes work better when he was on antiviral medication but never all of them and never consistent across the board. Yet, this time ALL of his reflexes were NORMAL!!!!!
Dr. Stewart was very pleased and told us the only thing that caused this were the Stem Cells Jonathan received in Costa Rica!!!! For the first time in Jonathan's life he is receiving consistent input to his nervous system!!! So all of the small changes we are seeing are because his brain is finally learning to process the information he is receiving from his 5 senses. This is AWESOME news for us. All of the minor changes we are seeing are the building blocks for bigger things to Come!!!!
Some of the changes we are seeing are: better attention to items in his environment, better attention to tasks at hand (such as, he can now drink out of an open cup!! He`never had the attention before), following directions better and faster, he seems to understand more things that are said to him, enjoying being read to while being calm, and paying attention to what is being read. He is able to relax, stim less, sleeping better and more soundly, not stimming while riding in the car but looking at things. His feet are not toeing in as much and his balance is better, lastly, he can communicate his needs and wants with nonverbal cues more consistently.
We are very excited about the changes and are looking forward to seeing more.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Changes after Stem Cells???
Well I am not sure if this is because of the Stem cells or not but I did want to share a change.
First we have all been sick this week with a very nasty cold. My husband and I started first then my 6 year old started with it about 3 days later Then Jonathan started about 12 hours after his little brother. My husband had a high (102-104) fever during the first few days of the virus my youngest also did. Jonathan hasn't run a fever since he was 3 1/2 not even when he had pneumonia but he is running a fever. His has been between 101-103.5 so I am not sure what to make of this. This is the kid who is never sick or only has a virus for a couple of days with hardly any symptoms and now he is responding to illness like the rest of us.
The other odd thing with this is that he has not had one seizure while sick with this. On the occasions when he would catch something he would always have seizures at the onset of the illness. When he was little and did get fevers and react to illness normally that was the only time he had seizures. So I am wondering if the stem cells have normalized his immune system? I guess we will have to wait and see.
First we have all been sick this week with a very nasty cold. My husband and I started first then my 6 year old started with it about 3 days later Then Jonathan started about 12 hours after his little brother. My husband had a high (102-104) fever during the first few days of the virus my youngest also did. Jonathan hasn't run a fever since he was 3 1/2 not even when he had pneumonia but he is running a fever. His has been between 101-103.5 so I am not sure what to make of this. This is the kid who is never sick or only has a virus for a couple of days with hardly any symptoms and now he is responding to illness like the rest of us.
The other odd thing with this is that he has not had one seizure while sick with this. On the occasions when he would catch something he would always have seizures at the onset of the illness. When he was little and did get fevers and react to illness normally that was the only time he had seizures. So I am wondering if the stem cells have normalized his immune system? I guess we will have to wait and see.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Pictures from Costa Rica
The Volcano Irazu Crater with lake
Poas Volcano
The Lagoon Botos (old crater) at Poas Volacno
A Howler Monkey at Arenal
A suspension Bridge on the trails at Arenal
The Arenal Volcano
The Pacific Ocean in Quepos
An Iguana on the beach in QueposTuesday, December 4, 2007
Costa Rican Adventer part 2
Well today we didn't have to be to ICM until 6:30pm so we went and saw the Volcano Irazu. It is not an active volcano right now so nothing spectacular. We did see the crater and the ash fields. The crater has a lake in it. It was very beautiful.
At 6:30 we went and got our first treatment with the stem cells. They used 2 syringes full of the 2 different kinds of stem cells which they injected through the IV line. It only took a few minutes. Jonathan wanted to take one of the nurses to go with us. He always has liked pretty girls. Tommorow we will go back at 2:30 for our next treatment. Now I guess we must wait and see what happens.
We have met quite a few people both children and adults with varying disorders all hoping for a wonderful outcome. We hope the same for them and us.
At 6:30 we went and got our first treatment with the stem cells. They used 2 syringes full of the 2 different kinds of stem cells which they injected through the IV line. It only took a few minutes. Jonathan wanted to take one of the nurses to go with us. He always has liked pretty girls. Tommorow we will go back at 2:30 for our next treatment. Now I guess we must wait and see what happens.
We have met quite a few people both children and adults with varying disorders all hoping for a wonderful outcome. We hope the same for them and us.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Costa Rican Adventure
Well our Costa Rican Adventure began on November 28th. We left RDU at 7:15am. We landed in Miami at 9:15am. Left Miami for Costa Rica at 12:15pm and Arrived at 2:00pm in San Jose. Everything went well at the airport. There was a Sky cap waiting for us as we got off the plane. We did have to wait for Jonathan's wheelchair and get the stewardess on our plane to explain to the skycap that we had it and get the baggage handlers to send it up to the Jetway. We then proceeded through the airport with the skycap who escorted us to customs. We didn't have to wait in the very,very, very long line but were taken to the handicap lane and only had to wait for 2 people in front of us. Next was baggage claim. It took a long time for our luggage to come out and our luggage sustained a lot of damage. Next we had to go through and have it xrayed. We then went out of the airport and met the car rental rep. He made a call and a few minutes later our car came and we were taken to the car rental office to sign all the paper work. They gave us a map and directions to get to the hotel. After only a minute or 2 of driving we got honked at. People are not very patient on the roads here and the roads have no names on them. We arrived at the hotel after a difficult drive (because of no road signs) and settled in.
November 29th we left San Jose for Quepos. We knew it would be a very long drive so we left early in the morning. All was going well until we went through a little town North of Colon an ended up on a smaller road that then turned into a very windy dirt road that did s's up and down the mountain side. The phrase now for our adventure is "bus to Carthagna" from the movie Romancing the Stone. We finally made it to Quepos around 1:30pm and had lunch before checking in to the hotel. After checking in we went to see the Pacific ocean. We came back and went for a swim in the pool. It is very hot and humid in Quepos. We then went to eat at a neat restaurant that had as its bar a C123 from the Iran Contra scandal. We got up early on the 30th to take a nature walk. Well we found the trail to be a bit dangerous!!! (Bus to Carthagna) Surviving that we left for Arenal Volcano.
November 30th we drove to the Arenal Volcano. We found a much better route there than to Quepos. We also found a policia (police) yes we were pulled over for speeding in a foreign country. Well we didn't get a ticket because we explained in very broken Spanish to the cop who only spoke very broken English that we were here visiting for medical treatment for Jonathan. He very nicely warned us to slow down and we did. we arrived at the volcano about 3pm and got settled in. There were clouds covering the top of it so we couldn't see much. But just after sunset the clouds cleared the volcano rumbled and proceeded to erupt for several hours. Our youngest son said it was "God's fireworks". The next morning we went for another nature walk this time with a guide to look for wildlife and at a waterfall. This was not as dangerous as the day before but proved to be difficult for Jonathan. We all finished safely and took the ride back to the hotel. We had not seen much wild life but our guide spotted a howler monkey so we stopped to take pictures. The next morning the volcano was erupting again and the clouds were letting us see the top and the hot rocks rolling down the side. We then left for San Jose. We arrived around noon. We got settled in and went to a Rosti Pollos (roasted chicken chain here) for lunch. After lunch we thought we would be a bit adventurous and check out the local shopping areas. We drove to them but there was no place to park (think downtown in a big city with roads only wide enough for 1 car) so we went back to the hotel.
December 3 we went for our first appointment at ICM. They put Jonathan to sleep and proceeded to put in an IV line in and take blood. It took 4 tries before they got the IV line in. they then drew blood from it and it blew the vessel before they got all the blood they needed. 2 sticks later they got another line in. They then got blood from his other hand which they had to stick several times to get any. After waking up we left the clinic and went back to our hotel to get Jonathan his breakfast. We then left for Volcano Poas. We arrived there around noon and ate lunch. We walked to the top of the crater only to see clouds. We decided to go to the Botos lagoon (used to be where the volcano erupted). We were able to see that and proceeded to walk back to the crater. When we got there the clouds had cleared and we were able to see the mud bubble and even spout like a geyser.
Tomorrow we go back to the clinic at 6:30 pm to get our first stem cell infusion.
November 29th we left San Jose for Quepos. We knew it would be a very long drive so we left early in the morning. All was going well until we went through a little town North of Colon an ended up on a smaller road that then turned into a very windy dirt road that did s's up and down the mountain side. The phrase now for our adventure is "bus to Carthagna" from the movie Romancing the Stone. We finally made it to Quepos around 1:30pm and had lunch before checking in to the hotel. After checking in we went to see the Pacific ocean. We came back and went for a swim in the pool. It is very hot and humid in Quepos. We then went to eat at a neat restaurant that had as its bar a C123 from the Iran Contra scandal. We got up early on the 30th to take a nature walk. Well we found the trail to be a bit dangerous!!! (Bus to Carthagna) Surviving that we left for Arenal Volcano.
November 30th we drove to the Arenal Volcano. We found a much better route there than to Quepos. We also found a policia (police) yes we were pulled over for speeding in a foreign country. Well we didn't get a ticket because we explained in very broken Spanish to the cop who only spoke very broken English that we were here visiting for medical treatment for Jonathan. He very nicely warned us to slow down and we did. we arrived at the volcano about 3pm and got settled in. There were clouds covering the top of it so we couldn't see much. But just after sunset the clouds cleared the volcano rumbled and proceeded to erupt for several hours. Our youngest son said it was "God's fireworks". The next morning we went for another nature walk this time with a guide to look for wildlife and at a waterfall. This was not as dangerous as the day before but proved to be difficult for Jonathan. We all finished safely and took the ride back to the hotel. We had not seen much wild life but our guide spotted a howler monkey so we stopped to take pictures. The next morning the volcano was erupting again and the clouds were letting us see the top and the hot rocks rolling down the side. We then left for San Jose. We arrived around noon. We got settled in and went to a Rosti Pollos (roasted chicken chain here) for lunch. After lunch we thought we would be a bit adventurous and check out the local shopping areas. We drove to them but there was no place to park (think downtown in a big city with roads only wide enough for 1 car) so we went back to the hotel.
December 3 we went for our first appointment at ICM. They put Jonathan to sleep and proceeded to put in an IV line in and take blood. It took 4 tries before they got the IV line in. they then drew blood from it and it blew the vessel before they got all the blood they needed. 2 sticks later they got another line in. They then got blood from his other hand which they had to stick several times to get any. After waking up we left the clinic and went back to our hotel to get Jonathan his breakfast. We then left for Volcano Poas. We arrived there around noon and ate lunch. We walked to the top of the crater only to see clouds. We decided to go to the Botos lagoon (used to be where the volcano erupted). We were able to see that and proceeded to walk back to the crater. When we got there the clouds had cleared and we were able to see the mud bubble and even spout like a geyser.
Tomorrow we go back to the clinic at 6:30 pm to get our first stem cell infusion.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Stem Cell and our Texas Doctor
Well we had an appointment with Dr. Kendall Stewart (http://www.neurosensorycenters.com/). He is in Austin Texas. We trust and value his opinion very much. He is very cutting edge when it comes to Neurological issues. We told him we were planning to take Jonathan for the Stem Cell Therapy and he was very supportive and helped us with Jonathan's supplements so that our Stem cells have the best environment in his body to thrive. We were very happy that he was all for this. If there was one Doctor I would want to approve of this it would be Dr. Stewart. He said we had done everything in the right order to prepare Jonathan for this. So I am Super Jazzed!!!! Boy if I couldn't wait before for our visit now I really can't wait!
Now some of the things Dr. Stewart told us. First it was good to Chelate before getting the stems cells. Heavy metals are toxic to stem cells so they will die if you have heavy metals circulating in the blood. So we will not be doing anymore chelation for a while. We have addressed Viral issues and bowel issues which will help his immune system. We also will be taking 10 mg 2 x a day of cortef for a week before through a week after receiving the stem cells to help the immune system not be over active.
Now some of the things Dr. Stewart told us. First it was good to Chelate before getting the stems cells. Heavy metals are toxic to stem cells so they will die if you have heavy metals circulating in the blood. So we will not be doing anymore chelation for a while. We have addressed Viral issues and bowel issues which will help his immune system. We also will be taking 10 mg 2 x a day of cortef for a week before through a week after receiving the stem cells to help the immune system not be over active.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Stem Cell therapy trip Plans Part two
We I believe we have done everything we need to for our trip. We have booked a flight, hotels and rental car(for sight seeing outside of San Jose). We have secured a loan from our credit union to finance our trip. We plan to arrive a few days early and see a volcano, rain forest, and the pacific ocean. Now we are waiting for our passports to come. We expedited them so they should be here in 3-4 weeks instead of the usual 8 weeks. We will start checking on them on the 23rd. We are eagerly awaiting our trip and hoping it helps our son.
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