My New Adventure

Two years ago my life was happier than it had ever been. But tragedy struck in May 2007 when my husband Scott and I were vacationing with friends in El Gulfo, Mexico. We were riding quads on the beach. The tide had gone out and Scott and I hit a sand bar that flipped us causing my injury.

As most of you know, the accident left me paralyzed from the chest down. This has been a huge challenge for us physically, emotionally, and even spiritually. Despite all of the challenges we continue to push forward and make the best of our situation. While I have tried not to let my injury slow me down, I have always maintained hope for an improvement to my condition. Until recently this hope was nothing more than a vision or dream. The doctors have told me from the beginning that even though my spinal cord was only bruised, I would never walk again and that there were no more options for me to pursue in order to get better.

I have always believed that people come into your life for a reason. A recent string of events has confirmed this. Seven months after I was paralyzed, my step father Bill was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He passed away six months later. I truly feel that Bill has been looking over me and he is “My Angel.” Through a dear friend of Bill’s, I have been put in contact with a non embryonic stem cell center that is currently performing miracles through stem cell treatments in Costa Rica. These treatments are not yet available in the US.

With a spinal cord injury, it is important to approach any treatment as soon as possible. I have been accepted to the clinic as a good candidate with a high probability of success from the treatment. They have had patients with severed spinal cords who have walked after these treatments. I am praying for a full recovery, but truthfully there are many things that could improve with my condition that would make this “leap of faith” a success.

Because this center is out of the country and therefore not covered by insurance, the cost of this medical procedure is significant. The cost is $30,000 dollars. This covers 8 stem cell injections into my spinal cord, and intensive physical therapy over a period of four weeks. This treatment will be performed by the Institute for Cellular Medicine.

We believe that all of this is coming together for a reason and we need to go forward with it now. This has the potential of improving the quality of my life more than you’ll ever know. I would regret it forever if I didn’t at least try this, while my injury is still young enough to have a chance to heal.

$30,000 plus our airfare and hotel is a lot of money but you can’t put a price tag on the chance to get your life back. If you wish to make a donation to the Stressman Medical Fund we are using the PayPal secure on-line service which provides you a secure method to submit a donation by using your credit card (Visa, Master Card, American Express, Discover). By using this system your credit card infomation is tightly secure. This system will also email you a detailed receipt of your donation transaction. Or, any National Bank of Arizona branch is prepared to accept a deposit into the Trish Stressman Medical Fund. The account number is 0568005203.

We will be leaving to go down to Costa Rica on August 29th. We will be posting new entries on my blog as we continue this journey towards healing.

Thank you so much for thinking of me, and praying for our family. I now have new hope for a better tomorrow.

God Bless.

Trish