Where we are

Many thanks go out to Barb who was able to create a concise email of the stem cell treatment she is planning to receive at the same time as Jeannine in NH on April 5th:

I had my talk with Dr. Feinerman this morning. My computer was on the fritz and I just got it going. I have made up my mind that I am going to try San Diego. I put a call into Casey Nabavi requesting an appointment. Dr. Feinerman is very brilliant in my opinion. He is the brains behind this. He has been working on this type of thing for many years and he is also working with Mayo to establish some protocols. He asked me to fax him all of my recent medical records and to mail him a chest X-ray if I could. He said he was not pleased about earlier procedures where little medical information was gathered and he is now working on the people in San Diego to do a better job of it so he can document this research better. He said in the last 18 months, there have been 10 COPD patients who got the procedure. 100 percent of them are off of all oxygen and within 3-6 months most are off all medications. He is not working with the Minister of Health in Mexico. I gathered he felt that was just a nuisance (much the same way I feel about our FDA sometimes). He said the umbilical cord blood for stem cells was better than our own stem cells (like Argentina does) because they are 1000 times more powerful. The Canadian lab programs the umbilical cord cells to select and manipulate that only the lung cells we need are obtained. They are checked for HIV and hepatitis, etc. They cannot cause a reaction because they do not stimulate the immune system. He is currently at work on two patents. He moved to Kihei because Miami Beach got too crowded for him. He hooked up with Casey undoubtedly to fund the company. He said we should see a great improvement in our PFT's. The doctors that will be in the hospital where we get the procedure done have been trained in the US. There are doctors in charge of the lab in Canada also. Since this is just an IV that is administered in Tijuana, he says a nurse can perform it very easily. He said you could do it at home yourself if you had the cells. It is that simple. There will be no need to have additional treatments with COPD. He said additional treatments are needed for more complicated things such as spinal cord injuries. He said COPD is a fairly straight forward disease to treat and the lungs are one of three organs that regenerate the best.He said they only have two goals at the company - one is that the procedure is completely safe and two is that the procedure works. He says these goals have been met with COPD patients.He was convincing enough to me that I am going as soon as they can get me in. I have nothing to lose except this damn hose that is hooked to me day and night and my SOB.