Here they are!!!placeholder://

They are spinning my fat as we speak. It takes about 45 minutes to separate the cells from the fat and clean them. Then they will let Henry Earl shoot them into my IV bag. Then hopefully the magic starts. They say it will be a roller coaster ride for six months, good and bad days. At 100 days they assess whether I have to come back for a booster or not. As some of you know, my right shoulder was torn saving my dogs lives. We ordered my records from Jackson. I was supposed to have surgery, but they shot stem cells in it instead!! I’m very hopeful it will correct it.

I can’t believe I’m doing this but here is the liposuction, rolls, plumber’s crack and all!!

Today was a much better day. It didn’t start off that way but ended just fine. I woke up to my ringing phone telling me I was supposed to be at the clinic at 9:00 instead of 1:00. I looked at my phone. It was 9:30. I jumped out of bed, threw on clothes, called Uber, went downstairs to wait. Our Uber driver picked us up, drove away. We said Elizabeth, checked his tag, everything was fine. He said LAX, right? We said no. He put us out, we had to walk back to the hotel (really hard for me) and call another Uber driver. I thought oh boy, this is going to be a great day. We finally got to the clinic and the little nurse Kyla, hit my vein on the first try! And she had been the one afraid to touch me! Hallelujah!!

Everything went smoothly until that idiot Dr Robert Rey got there. Dr 90210 is a complete ass! He is loud and thinks the world revolves around him. He was on a FaceTime call with a patient and walked into the middle of our “serene” penthouse and was yelling and laughing so loud everyone was staring at him which I guess is what he was striving for. I took it as long as I could and at the moment I got nauseous from my medicine, I walked up to his nurse and said this is supposed to be a serene and relaxing setting. Can you tell him to shut up? I thought her well done chin was going to hit the floor but she told him to tone it down. Later I went to the bathroom and he was standing on one side of the small hall, leaning back with his feet stuck out. Some woman was standing opposite him in the same position. I politely said excuse me and neither moved. I YELLED EXCUSE ME and ran over their feet with my pole. He looked stunned. I laughed. 😂🤣 All the nurses were giggling. When my IVs were finished I got my thirteen shots, eight in my chest, four along my spine and called Uber. The guy actually took off with H screaming she’s not in the car yet!! It could have been bad cause I was half in and half out, but he turned out to be a great guy and we laughed about it.

Our hotel is crawling with Latino bands! I’m sure I’m supposed to know some of them, but I’m really to tired to care. I’m in my room now, suffering through the World Series for my hubby.

Tomorrow is my big stem cell day. I’m excited and nervous. I get one more IV Friday and twenty six more shots, oh and the hyperbaric chamber, then I get to come home for my six months of quarantine.

They did leave in my IV so they won’t have to stick me again. Yaaa!

Today was a total bust. I got there early so I wouldn’t be the last one to leave. I don’t drip well even when they find a vein. Today I was supposed to get the very important ozone put in my blood. I got stuck twenty eight times! They found one vein, it looked like it would work but about ten minutes into the treatment, the vein blew and I sprayed blood all over myself, two nurses, all over the floor, the heating pad, and the girl sitting next to me. At this point, I started crying and so did everyone around me. Henry Earl was horrified. The nurse who was an ER nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital said he had never had this happen before. They even tried to get an IV in my foot!

Hollis, the nurse, called the Dr. and was told to stand down. There’s a point when you just have to stop. So, I got nothing today. I’m supposed to get my stem cells Thursday at 10:00am. I don’t know how bad this setback is. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow. I’m really depressed tonight. I can’t possibly do anything easy. I’m worn out. I want to come home.

The Latin music Grammys are happening right behind our hotel and they are closing streets all around us for the rest of the week. It takes us 30-45 minutes to go five miles to the clinic. Now they tell us to give ourselves an hour and a half.

I hate this place!!

Tomorrow is another day….

Today kinda went to hell in a hand basket. I got five IVs. On the fourth one I got really nauseous and light-headed. So here we go with the oxygen. You can tell from this picture I didn’t feel good. Other than that, same old stuff. Just one shot today, thank heavens!

Well today was special. They found a vein on the second try again which was great. I got four IVs and the last one made me feel sick. Just when I thought that was the worst of it, I was told I had to have thirteen shots in my chest and back! Not only did I get them today but I have to have them next Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This machine on my feet is a scanner that gives us all kinds of medical information. It’s really incredible the things they do out here. Cutting edge. I’m extremely blessed to be here. Soooo…that’s all for today. Sore and tired.

I hate to say this cause I’m trying my damnedest to be upbeat, but each day gets a little harder. Today was my worst. I have five IVs. They got me on the second stick! Hooray! But one of those IVs knocked me on my butt. I got light headed, nauseated, and very tired all at the same time. I was given a fabulous massage and just felt like a rag doll. The Dr came around and talked to us individually. She told H and me that Lyme and stress have caused my adrenal glands to all but stop functioning. The number on my test was supposed to get 200+. It was 19. Now we know why I can’t walk across a room without gasping for air. So anyone out there (and you know who you are, but probably won’t read this anyway) that causes me stress, I am now making a promise to myself. You are completely cut out of my life!!! I’m sick of you so just go the hell away. I will no longer allow you to make me sick.

Yesterday was a strange day. We got to the clinic at 1:00. This weird guy dressed all in black, with enough hair product to fry fish in was prancing around all over the place. I took my regular IV chair, got hooked up, and settled in for a long afternoon. When he made yet another pass through the room, I finally asked who he was. “Oh you don’t know?” That’s Dr 90210. Dr what? Dr Ray who has the show on E. Well, that meant absolutely nothing to me so I didn’t think about it again until they told me he was a plastic surgeon. 😂 As most of you know, I had my upper and lower eyes done. My left eye drooped and I had to have seven more surgeries. It finally got alright but it left a flap (for lack of a better word) on the outside corner. I was told I couldn’t see Dr Ray without an appointment but when I saw him come out of the bathroom, I ambushed him to see if he thought my eye could be fixed. He said he didn’t do faces but he would call his partner down the street to see if he could see me.

At this point I dropped it. The nurse said it was time for me to be put in the leg massage suit. The what??? It opens your lymphatic system so when I get my stem cells they flow better. <<
had to put on white paper pants with footies. Then it proceeds to squeeze you like a boa constrictor. I look like I’m having a pleasant enough time but looks are very deceiving. Anyway, while I’m wrapped up like a hot tamale, this very nice new Dr comes in. He was Dr Ray’s partner, Dr Moretz. I couldn’t believe he came to me! He told me my eye could be fixed and spent about ten minutes with me. So, I go back out to the IV area and again it was “Do you know who that was?” Chloe Grace Moretz father!! Again, I’m clueless. I feel pretty stupid out here. Anyway, he was a very nice man.

My IV that has remained in my hand since Monday was having a hard time with my IVs. I wound up being at the clinic until 8pm, had an interesting Uber ride home with a VERY talkative Indonesian driver, drank one martini at the bar, then crashed in my room.

They removed my IV, so I guess today, they will start sticking me all over again. 😩 I’ve never had so many bruises!

I got the morning off today. I think I get to go in at one from now on, which is a really big relief.

A good friend of mine asked me about my first symptoms of Lyme disease and I guess I did kinda leave that out of my blog. This is the short answer to that question:

The first symptoms came when I was building our house. I couldn’t walk across a room w/o gasping for air and with all the saws and hammers, I would fall asleep sitting straight up. I just figured it was the stress of building. It got so bad, I went to a cardiologist who diagnosed me with pulmonary hypertension from which there is no cure. But they found they could control mine with a CPAP and meds. But then came the pain. If you have pain in a joint, imagine that ALL over your body. I sat it a recliner for two years, gained 100 pounds, went from Dr to Dr and was diagnosed with Lupus, MS, Alzheimer’s, you name it. I was even told it was all in my head. 72 insurance claims later, a friend brought me a pamphlet and ask me to look at it. I had had two rashes on my body three years before that the Dr told me were yeast rashes. She gave me salve and they eventually went away. They were about 9” in diameter. I opened the pamphlet and there staring at me were my rashes!! They call them bull’s eye rashes. I contacted the professor at MS St who wrote the article. He had moved to Mobile to be near his Lyme Dr and that’s where I went. Over the years I’ve gone blind, not been able to walk w/o a walker, had bell’s palsy, been on a pict line for a year, seeing double, had malaria twice, could not read b/c couldn’t comprehend….its a new day every day and with each treatment I’d get a little better, then fall right back down the rabbit hole. It’s been eleven years.

They make a big deal out here about your day of stem cell replacement. I think H E gets the honor of pushing the needle. They take pictures and tell you it’s the beginning of getting your life back. After all of the people I’ve seen here who have been cured, I now truly believe! When they were trying to get a vein yesterday, I went back to despair for a moment but H was right there, looking at me, telling me it would be alright. We both teared up. It’s an emotional roller coaster ride for both of us. He has not left my side. I finally know what true love is. It took me long enough!!! 😂