Already Some Improvement

We got home on Saturday the 2nd around 2:30 pm. We were so excited to see the boys! I missed them so much, but enjoyed talking to them on Skype each morning while I was gone. They are on October break now for two weeks. I’m looking forward to hanging out with them. When I was swimming with them the day after I got back I was sitting in the pool on a step and I was able to kick my right leg out about 8 inches without recruiting any other muscles for help. This was very encouraging since before I could only kick it out an inch or so with out using other muscles to help do this. Stay tuned for more updates as I progress. Again, remember that it can take up to 6 or 7 months to see all the effects of the stem cells and my hard work.
My first day back at therapy I was able to do sit ups with only about a 4 inch wedge behind me, all on my own. Before Panama, I needed that wedge plus a pillow and my therapist had to hold my fingers as I was coming up to help me some. I’m so excited to do them on my own now. I want to work on not even having the 4 inch wedge behind me at all. Then it will be a normal sit up all the way.

Now during the neuro which is when they shock my muscles to help my legs move and contract well, my legs kick out straight at only a level 6. Before I got more stem cells, they needed a level 10 to do this. I hope these are all signs of even more good to come. It’s exciting each day to see what will happen next. I feel very strong and it feels good. Again, I am so thankful for any return and I believe more will come!

On October 7th I went to the Grand Opening of the Celebration Stem Cell Center that just opened in Gilbert. It’s located by Mercy Gilbert Medical Center off the 202. It was a great event. I was excited to see Sherry Lund there. She is the one who originally introduced me to the idea of stem cells and the Stem Cell Institute. She is such a wonderful lady who has always believed that each life is precious. This is the facilities mission statement.

Mission Statement
It is to provide the highest quality of viable stem cells for transplant and regenerative medicine and to increase awareness of the healing effects of stem cells. There is a medical necessity to establish a diverse and global inventory of cord blood stem cells to offer hope to patients who suffer from a life threatening disease or injury. Through a comprehensive public awareness campaign, we will reveal the facts about stem cell therapy.

If you want to learn more you can contact them at http://www.celebrationstemcellcentre.com/

As she was giving the presentation with her family and the Mayor of Gilbert was talking too, they asked me to speak. I wasn't expecting this but I was happy to share my story and people were very touched. I met many wonderful people and doctors. How exciting that a umbilical cord blood bank and stem cell processing center is right here in Gilbert, Arizona. It’s still too bad that they can’t use these stem cells here in the US yet for spinal cord injury patients. But, it is a huge step to help the US get further along in this amazing medical treatment.

I am so grateful that Cell Medicine in Panama is there for us now. They were wonderful, caring and honest people. They can’t promise that it will work for everyone, but through their patients they are seeing many amazing results. Please keep me in your prayers as I continue on my journey.

Our Last Day in Panama

Well Friday October 1st was our last day here in Panama. I went to physical therapy and worked out then we said good bye to the new friends we met. We hope to keep in contact with them to share our good results along the way.



My last injection went well. I said goodbye to Dr. Herrero my anesthesiologist. She was great! Each time that I got an injection into my spinal fluid, she would always say. “Good Job Trish, One less” Now I’m all done for this treatment. Yeah!

I am excited to get home and start working out again. I am very optimistic and hopeful to see what will return this time. I’m also very excited for the future. With how things are going in the medical world things look very bright for people with spinal cord injuries.

Sorry it has been a few days since the last post, but there hasn’t been much new to report. Tuesday night we went out to dinner with Dr. Ugalde and Natalia, who also works at the lab. We went to a great restaurant that was chosen by Natalia. It was called Jaleo. It had a nice atmosphere, and the food was great.

Wednesday was a therapy and injection day. Between therapy and the injection we met up with Shaun Doss and his Dad Robert. Trish knows Shaun from back home at SOS therapy. He’s a 7 year old with a spinal cord injury. We were excited to meet up with them and take a stroll down the boardwalk. However, it was really hot out and were all happy to finally get into the mall and grab a bite to eat. Wednesday was Trish’s first injection of her own bone marrow stem cells. Everything went smoothly with the injection and the rest of the evening was spent relaxing.

Thursday was therapy and then an IV. At therapy we met another spinal cord injury patient, Bruce, from Iowa. After meeting at therapy we made plans to go out for dinner that night with him and his friend Melissa.

After Trish’s IV we got to go to the lab for a tour. This was really interesting. The lab is located next to the canal on the old US military base. There are a lot of businesses located in this area and several US Universities that have small campuses here. We thought that was interesting. The lab Director, who we met last week, gave a nice presentation of their processes and procedures on how they prepare the cells. It’s a huge process. We loved learning more about it. We also met Pablo, who is the CEO of the clinic. He too was very personable and took time with us to answer any questions we had. While we were there we also saw Natalia again and she was busy working on the cells. We missed Dr. Ugalde as he left the day prior to fly to Minnesota to run a marathon – Good luck Federico! It’s clear from talking to everyone at the lab
(and the clinic in general), they are all very excited about the work they are doing and love what they do. They are so hopeful of even more possibilities for the future. We had hoped to see
Dr. Riordan again, but he was out of the country and was returning later tonight.

After the lab tour we went out to dinner with Bruce and Melissa to another great restaurant it was called Don Patacon. We tried ceviche, an appetizer, which is a dish they are known for here. It’s raw fish marinated in citrus juices (lime and lemon) and then it also had mangos, coconut milk, and other spices. It was great! For dinner we both ordered another fish dish, red snapper this time, which was delicious. We have really loved the food down here. It’s really good and affordable. It was great to have dinner with Bruce and Melissa. They were both really nice and we hope to keep in touch with them after we leave here.

Here are some real cool pictures of mesenchmal stem cells that they shared with us at the lab. Dye has been added to enhance the pictures.

This picture is of the mesenchymal stem cells in their natural form. As you can see they are relatively flat.

As the cells get ready to split they start to get into a ball shape.

Here is a really cool picture of a cell splitting!

Here are a few pictures of some of the rooms in the lab.

Here is Trish and Natalia. We met Natalia earlier in the week and were very impressed with her knowledge and passion for the work they are doing in the lab!

We are not sure why, but there have been fireworks right outside the condo over the bay twice since we have been here, the last one was Thursday night. Check out the pictures!

Friday is our last day in Panama! Trish has therapy and her last injection (Bone marrow again). We will be busy packing and getting ready to leave in the morning. Our flight is at 7:00 in the morning which means we need to leave our condo at 4:30, which means we need to get up around 2:30, which is 12:30 am back home! Saturday is going to be another long travel day, but boy are we excited to get home!!! It’s been nice talking with the boys each morning on Skype but we miss them like crazy!

Catching Up on the Past Few Days

Sunday was pretty low key, we got caught up on laundry, took a long stroll along the boardwalk and then walked across the street for a movie. The movie theater is interesting. They are very modern and they have “regular” movies and “VIP” movies. The VIP movies include leather lounge chairs and there is a waiter or waitress that will take food orders and deliver it to you during the movie! We just went to a regular movie, but might try to catch a VIP movie before we leave. The VIP movies cost about the same as normal movies back home and the regular movies are half price. All in all Sunday was a very relaxing day.

Monday was another day of physical therapy, followed by a trip to the mall and then Trish’s 3rd injection. This time we went to the big mall. It's huge with very high end stores. So, no purchases for us other than a cup of coffee. :)

The injection on Monday contained fresh, non-expanded cells. Typically, the clinic receives the cells and then splits them to produce more cells and then freezes them until they are injected. The cells Trish got Monday have never been spilt, so they were brand new cells. These cells have been shown to work better, but can’t be used more often because of the cost and the overall availability of umbilical cord blood stem cells. The injection went well again and then Trish was down resting for the night, letting the stem cells do there thing! And, no headache!

Here we are working on balance in Physical Therapy. Ivan puts me to work helping out, which I love!

Here is Trish and Ivan her Physical Therapist posing for the camera!

This is a picture of the stem cells being injected in Trish's spinal fluid.

Here is (from left to right) the nurse (didn't catch his name), Dr. Herrero (the anesthesiologist), and Dr. Hernandez (the general Dr.)

Here Trish is with 2 of the patient coordinators, Samantha and Viviane. They are so sweet and Trish enjoys talking with them when she goes in for her treatments. Trish doesn't have a picture with Melisa yet, but will be sure to get one before we leave. It's nice because the clinic gave us a cell phone to make local calls while were here. It's nice because if we ever need anything day or night, they are always there to help.

Tuesday was physical therapy and then an IV. The IV was Trish’s first containing her own cells from her bone marrow. All in all from her bone marrow, she will get 2 bone marrow IV’s and 2 bone marrow injections. All of these will come over the next four days.

Things are going well, but we are getting home sick and ready to come home. We miss our boys, our pets, our family and friends very much! Thanks so much for your posts. It's great to hear from you.

We Love Monkeys!!!

Yesterday afternoon while I had to lay flat after my injection, Scott walked to a different grocery store that was about a mile away. It was open and he got stuff for us to make more of our meals at the condo. He came back with these flowers to surprise me. What a great guy he is!

Well, this morning we headed out to the Panama Canal and Monkey Island. William had his driver Victor drive us there. It's only a half an hour away. On the way there we saw an ant eater on the side of the road. Victor knows the local stuff so he got us a local boat tour guide that took us all around Lake Gatun and through parts of the canal. The canal actually runs through the lake. The boat was a small boat that could hold about 8 people. Our boat had only us 3 and the guide. It was fun going fast across the water passing some huge freighters as we went.

The boat stopped in front of a little island which we could quickly see was “Monkey Island”. The White Face Monkeys came running out to the end of the limbs on the trees to greet us. You can tell that they are used to boats coming up to them with food. They're not shy at all. Quickly about 6 monkeys jumped on our boat. One climbed right on Scott’s lap as we fed them pieces of bananas that Victor brought along. They were so cute! They kept grabbing bananas out of our hands and stuffing their faces. They would let you touch them and they would wrap their soft little hands around your fingers. It was so cool! Then they would jump back to the trees in the jungle. Then we would go a little further and more would jump on our boat. You have to watch your stuff or they will steal it and jump away. One of them took a little bag that Victor had. Their quick. What an amazing opportunity to be this close with wild monkeys. I wish so bad that Hunter and Parker could have been here to do this too.

Next we drove further on the lake and saw some other animals. We saw a big turtle, an alligator, an iguana, and some bigger black monkeys.

Here is the big Iguana in the tree.

Look close for two black monkeys.

Here they are closer.

Next we got back in the car and headed to Miraflores Locks. We went into the museum and watched a video explaining the history and how they built the Panama Canal. In the early 1900’s many different cultures came together to build the canal that would go through a strip of land 48 miles wide and connect the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. What a feat! The locks are necessary to bring the boat from sea level up to the level of the canal and lake. They do this by filling the locks with water, or letting water out. This brings the ships up or down each section. We were able to watch a big freighter go through the locks, which was very interesting to see. There are actually 3 sets of locks along the canal and we were at the one that is the entrance/exit with the Pacific Ocean. There are currently 2 lanes at the locks and boats can go through both ways. There is currently a huge expansion going on in which they are planning on building another set of locks, as well as widening and deepening the existing channel. They anticipate that this will be done in 2014. It was interesting.

Now we are back in our condo for a relaxing evening. Make sure that you click on the post before this. "A Night Out" because we posted that one and this one on the same day. Talk to you soon.

A Night Out

Thursday night out with Dr. Ugalde was great! He is such a caring and fun guy! We went to a nice restaurant called The Market. We were also joined by one of Dr. Ugalde’s colleagues from the lab. The conversation was great. It was very interesting to talk to them about the all they are doing with the stem cells. They’re so intelligent and excited about all their work. We get to go on a tour of the lab next week. It will be very interesting.

After dinner they took us on a tour of Casco Viejo. This is an older part of the city that is being renovated. There are lots of little clubs with live music. It’s also full of history. Mary Laura (this is how you would say her name in English), was extremely knowledgeable about the history of Panama. She took lots of time with us showing us many different parts of Panama’s history. She was excited when talking about how you can discover the magic in a culture by examining their history. It was interesting. Casco Viejo was actually the 2nd main city that was built. It’s over 100 years old. The first city they built was burned down by pirates and this one was built among the rocks so the pirate ships couldn’t get too close to attack.

Friday was full with therapy in the morning and my second injection in the afternoon. The injection went well. Again, the staff at the Stem Cell Institute is awesome. After my injection I laid flat in bed for the rest of the night to allow the stem cells to start to travel up to my injury spot as well as to try and avoid a spinal headache. We watched movies and hung out and I only had a slight headache when I woke up in the morning.

Now for the fun! Saturday we are planning on going out to see the Panama Canal. We will be going to see the locks and hopefully catch a ship going through. We also plan on taking a boat tour on the canal to a place called Monkey Island.

Another Day in Panama City

As expected today was a relatively easy day. Trish had physical therapy in the morning where she spent a lot of time standing and showing the therapist here how she stands in her walker without using her hands once she's up with her knees blocked. He was very impressed and said in his year and a half working with spinal cord injuries here in Panama he has never seen someone injured at her level do something like that! She also worked hard with some new exercises. She had fun and always works so hard.

After therapy we headed back to the condo for a bit and were able to see a couple of ships headed to the canal entrance.




Later we met up with a couple of friends at one of the malls here is town. The mall is very modern and we plan to go back and walk around when we have some more free time.

This is William. He's such a great guy and has been very accomodating to us and very helpful with anything we need. He arranged our condo and will help us plan our tourist excursions!

These are our friends Holly and Raj. Holly is down here for treatments for her MS, and we were also in Costa Rica together last year. It's such a coincidence that we were here at the same time again.

The mall is right across the street from the Stem Cell Institute so we crossed the street for Trish’s IV, which went really well.

The Stem Cell Institue is located on the 1st floor of this building.

This is Dr. Hernandez injecting the stem cells through the IV. Here he is telling Trish exactly what kind of cells, what their purpose is, and how many are being injected.

After the IV we headed home and decided to make a trip across the street to the grocery store (which is in bottom floor of the mall). Now when I say crossing the street, I don’t mean finding a cross walk and waiting for he light to turn. This means risking life and limb to get to the other side. The traffic here is crazy, there doesn’t appear to be any rules. Anyway, we made it across and through the mall only to find out that the grocery store was closed. We asked a worker in the mall when they open and his response was that he didn’t know but that they were closed yesterday too. He wasn’t sure when they would open again! I guess we’ll try again tomorrow!

We are headed out to dinner tonight with Dr. Ugalde, we are really excited to go out with him! He told Trish earlier that they got lots of great stem cells out of her bone marrow and they look great!

Bone Marrow Day

Here's Trish in her cute get up, ready for her bone marrow aspiration!

Trish woke up with a small headache that seemed to last throughout the day. Hopefully her body will get use to the spinal injections and she won’t get any more. The bone marrow aspiration went well. The Doctor who performed the procedure was very nice. After the procedure we headed to the condo and rested for the afternoon. We added a couple more shots of the view from our place. It’s relaxing to look out over the water.

Here is the start of the boardwalk that runs along the bay.

We decided to head out just before the sun went down and took a walk along the long boardwalk that runs in front of the condo along the ocean. It was really nice and the views of the city were amazing. It was also cool to see the boats lined up waiting to pass through the Panama Canal.

It's a little hard to see, but if you look close you can see the ships lined up in the distance.

After our walk we headed across the street to the Hard Rock Cafe. We had a nice dinner and saw a popular singer from Columbia while we were there. Of course neither of us had ever heard of him, but it was fun to see the restaurant abuzz with excitement.

Tomorrow looks to be a fairly easy day with physical therapy in the morning and an IV in the afternoon. We hope to get the chance to go out with Dr. Ugalde to dinner tomorrow night. He is the Dr. that Trish mostly communicated with before we came to Panama. He is very nice and came by to see Trish at her appointment at the clinic yesterday. He mainly works in the lab and research part of the clinic. He’s in charge of the spinal cord injury patients. We are excited to get the chance to get to talk with him more.

Thanks for all the well wishes!