From Under achiever to Over Dose!!

[Dwayne]

When I came to Costa Rica in June for the mini-lipo I was diagnosed as a cronic underachiever. Only 14 million MSC's.
I made the decision to stop treatment and wait for them to expand my cells.

When I returned to CR in August, ICM informed me that they would have to start my IV injections because my cells had expanded to over 310 million. I was happily surprised to hear the process worked so well.

The head of the lab told me he would sing to them every night. He said "you have to treat them just like babies". He must have a great voice.

At the first session I received 9 million umbilical cord cells + 63 million of my own MSC's without any adverse side effects. Session 2 was 9+ 60 million MSC's with no issues. Session 3 was 9+ 67 million MSC's which apperantly is my fill level for cells.

That night I started to feel a little feverish and generally crappy. I decided to try the typical male strategy of waiting to see if it would go away on its own. 12 hours later I felt like I had full blown flu. High fever, lethargy, I could not walk or keep my eyes open. I figured my stategy had worked so well so far, that I would wait a little longer. After another 3 hours with my fever rising and me wishing someone would shoot me, I finally called the front desk and asked if they would call ICM. They asked if they could give me the phone #. I could not even dial the phone so they had to call for me.

DR. Lara came to my room within 10 minutes and checked me over. He stated that there is a possibility for menengitis when you get a lumbar puncture. After he determined that it was the stem cell flu. He disapeared to the pharmacy then returned with steroids and ibuprofen. An hour later I was feeling much better and within five hours I was feeling pretty normal. All that just for being a male.

After my self imposed drama ICM staff concluded that they would pretreat me for the 4th session and split the dose of cells in half. I received 9+ 30 million MSC's with no drama. The next day I had to go to ICM offices for the remaining 30 million MSC's.

Really is a long winded way of saying that 36 million CD34+ and 250 million MSC's was an overdose. ICM did warn me ahead of time and I did not listen. I made it much worse by trying to wait and just suck it up.

One big bright spot was that another patient had a reaction and I was able to tell her to call DR. Lara and not wait. Within an hour she was fine.

Really has shown me that this was stupid, not scary. Hopefully someone going for ASCT will learn from this.

Everything now feels great. I know I am walking much better. I went water sking again and am going again tomorrow a.m. Muscles that I have not used in 2 years are waking up and getting sore. Work is going great and my attitude is amazing. My wife and I are reconnecting and making up for some lost time and hard feelings. I feel like my life is coming back together. Life is good!!!

Thanks for everyones concern. I am blessed just to have this opportunity.

Dwayne

[Dewayne Kelley]

Sounds great Dwayne. Glad to hear you doing well and have recovered from the cell OD.

[Janice Fuller]

Dr. Lara actually called it 'Stem Cell Flu'? I know I felt like hammered ___ by the time I got home ~ maybe there was an explanation besides TX heat & the touristy thing after all ...

So glad to hear that you are doing so well & great news on the home front too ~ happy for ya, my friend :-) Stay well, stay in touch.

Oh BTW, I really am watching the housing thing around here for ya, just haven't heard / seen anything that seems worth passing on to ya. How's your new house coming along?

[Andrea M Meador]

Dwayne,
You sound better! Keep up the water skiing, you don't have much time left till the water freezes. : ( Then I guess you ice skate right?

[Andrea M Meador]

This is when we were seeing everyone off. The Adios committee.