My Stem Cell Experience (Chronic Fatique Syndrome)
Each day my body was wracked with pain in the muscles, joints, and connective tissue to the joints. No amount or type of pain killers relieved the pain in order for me to get restorative sleep. I soon forgot what it felt like to feel “rested”. Each morning, upon waking, I experienced severe nausea which worsened upon any activity such as talking or sitting up for more than 30 minutes. Standing was difficult, and a wheelchair was necessary.
I am very thankful for this treatment and for the doctors who worked so hard to make this possible for people like me who need a respite from the suffering.
Because I am a musician, I continued to play the piano or organ, but that effort caused me to spend a minimum of two days in bed asleep in order to recover from the expenditure of strength and energy. At my best times, I could spend an hour talking with a friend, but the result was a day in bed in order to recover. Riding in a vehicle always increased the suffering I had to endure, and many times the planned activity had to be cancelled due to the brief car ride causing me to be too sick to sit up any longer. Eating food made me sick within ten minutes, causing me to return to bed for hours. Talking on the phone while in bed was too fatiguing, and it wasn’t long until that activity ended.
As the years passed, my days were spent sleeping or trying to get sleep in order to escape from the terrible sickness I felt inside my body as well as the pain. While I tried on a small scale to participate in life going on around me, enduring the resulting suffering which always came afterwards was more than I could tolerate.
In August 2010, my daughter, Miranda Hebert, took me to Panama for a stem cell treatment with the hopes of finding a way to “knock the edge” off the suffering I was having to endure. The doctors at the Stem Cell Institute told me that it would be 30 days or more before I would be able to tell a difference. What a pleasant surprise it was to feel a difference in my pain in just 3 hours after my first infusion!!! In one week I was running up a flight of stairs at my hotel! All of my friends and family could see a difference in my face, the way I held my body, and most especially in the way I moved! I could run!!! Not only was the pain diminished, but the symptoms of the illness disappeared. It was truly a miracle, and I am very thankful for this treatment and for the doctors who worked so hard to make this possible for people like me who need a respite from the suffering.
This month, Feb. 2012, I had a second stem cell treatment and noticed an additional benefit which I never expected. My cognitive abilities have healed in the most remarkable manner. Chronic Fatigue patients typically experience a “foggy” feeling in the brain. That went away after my first treatment almost two years ago. This second benefit is in addition to the “foggy” feeling being healed.
I am presently working as an Accompanist at Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC and am accompanying an opera as well as playing other works for piano. Before this second stem cell treatment, I was struggling with the process of learning the music. However, when I returned from Panama and sat at the piano to begin working, the music just flowed! My brain was able to comprehend the music so much easier than I expected, and my playing showed the results! Those people who hear me play on a weekly basis could hear the difference.
Other benefits have included a strong increase in concentration and reading comprehension. Before stem cell treatments, I could not tolerate reading a magazine article which is less taxing than a book. Not only did the reading process make me nauseated, but the sickness in my body increased the more I read. The difference these two treatments have made has changed my life! No one ever mentioned to me the neural benefits of the stem cell treatments! This was definitely a most unexpected and pleasant benefit for which I am very grateful.
Kathy Hebert