1 Week Post Stem Cell Treatment at BioXcellerator Colombia

Alright, so I have completed my treatment on 150 million MSC stem cells at the BioXcellerator stem cell clinic here in Medellin, Colombia. Hoping to start seeing some progress here fingers crossed. I have stated to notice some effect, which I mention in the video. Each day I seem to be improving a little bit. I created this video to share my experience with the clinic and to start documenting the progress I see. Sorry the video is so long (27 min)... but there was a lot to cover during the 1 week stay. I will be actually living here in Colombia for 3 months, this is my 4th time living here in Medellin, so it's kinda like my second home. I will be posting another update next week.

Mesenchymal Stem Cell Video Update #1 - 1 week before treatment!

A week before getting Stem Cells! As you can see I am not doing the best with pretty red skin and flaking! But in the video you can learn a little bit about my research into stem cells and what I am kinda expecting at BioXcellerator in Medellin Colombia! Keep me in your thoughts a prayers :)

On my way to get stem cells!

So big news, I am going to try out stem cell therapy! In short, I have created a Go-Fund-Me account to help cover costs. It's going to be an expensive treatment, like over $20,000 and will be doing it through the company BioXcellerator. They are based in Arizona but have their clinic in Medellin Colombia and I will be receiving the treatment August 18 through the 25th.

There are a number of reasons why I think umbilical cord stem cells could help my condition, but this is one of the main clinical studies to reference for stem cells and atopic dermatitis if you wish to read the results: https://stemcellsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/stem.2401

I will be explain more about my research into stem cells and why it is going to be such an interesting journey! I am looking extremely forward to the procedure and will be documenting my trip as i go here on the blog!

Stay tuned :)

BIG MISTAKE - Never go back to steroids!

Hey all,

Thought I would do a quick update here. So if you read my the last blog post I did a year ago, you can see that I caved in and went back to the steroids! Basically I was really struggling and wanted some relief. And I wanted to see what happened if I tried only really low doses of prednisone.. But boy, was that a huge mistake...!

Don't do it, do let the doctors talk you into going back to the steroids. I was on low doses of prednisone for about 6 months, plus using hydrocortisone here and there and it f'ed me up big time... I stopped the low dose steroids around July 2017 because I just kept getting worse and worse. Way worse then when I was 3 years into my first withdraw. So I knew steroids is not the answer and never will be the answer...

So I stopped the steroids (again!) July 2017. I knew I needed to go through withdraw again, so I moved to a tropical environment in Medellin, Colombia for 5 months because I know I do better where there is sun and humidity. And boy, did I go through total withdraw again. The oozing started again, then bright red skin, the intense flaking, the pain! Oh man fuck steroids...

Again it took months before my skin started showing signs of healing again. Around December things stated to improve for me again and I moved back to my parents house in Seattle. This is 6 months after stopping the low dose steroids. I then decided to take a trip to Miami Florida where there is plenty of sun and salt water. I wanted to try swimming in the ocean because I have been doing epsom salts baths at home and it seemed to help quite a bit. You have to make sure they are pure epsom salts and not mixed with any fragrance or anything. Also rinsing off with cold water helps a bunch too.

And boy, the salt water and sun here in Miami is freaking amazing! It has practically cleared me. My skin is no longer bright red and I feel the best I have in 5 years. It took about 5 swims and laying in the sun for an hour or two. The first swim freaking burns like hell... but after that it's bearable the next times.

I was looking at myself in the mirror the other day and couldn't believe this was my body. Not a scratch, with regular tone skin and no flaking. And even started crying and thanking god for this temporary relief.  I could literally feel the salt water burning the eczema out, and my lymph nodes getting smaller and less swollen. My energy returned, I felt alive again! So I think I need to live on the ocean here in the tropics somewhere. As the salt water/ ocean is a miracle worker.

I will try to post pictures here soon.

Good luck all, and swim in the Ocean!