Would like to introduce myself!

[OwensMommy]

Hi, my name is Angela and I am the mother of 4 active boys, ages 6,4,27 months, and 8 months, with my youngest having CP, from what the MD's believe is from a placental abruption at birth. We have known since about 3 months old he was not reaching milestones but now we are actively seeking treatment after waiting a few months to see if he would catch up, per the pediatrician. He is athetoid/spastic quad. He can hold his head up, he can smile and chew and kick, but he cannot sit up, cannot crawl, does alot of hand writhing and tongue thrusting, and has spasms of the arms/legs, and has a wandering right eye. His cognition so far appears age appropriate. My second youngest, who is 27 months old, has mild kernictus from severe jaundice, but that's a story for another day! I am wondering if stem cells might help him as well...anyways, we have been narrowing down our treatment options for stem therapy and have been considering Dr. F in FL with his Lima, Peru clinic and Dr. Ramirez in Mexico, so would any of you have any advice on which one would be the better option? We have found this site invaluable and really appreciate all the info posted on here. I just wanted to say hi and again thank you so much for everything each of you has contributed!

 

[Azriel]

Our research re CP so far

Welcome to one of the most informative places you could find in relation to your sons and what the options are.

I am in New Zealand and our research has narrowed it down to the same two clinics:
1. Dr Feinerman/ Painp - Tampa and Lima
2. Dr Streenblock/Ramirez - San Diego and Tijuana

Interestingly we had our first neurologist's appointment a couple of weeks ago as I was pregnant at the time and they were in a medical frenzy over what Oscar's issues were and if they were genetic and so of concern for the baby. Unfortunately I miscarried so this time the baby was just not meant to be.

However, it has meant that we have gone from a diagnosis of stroke or CP, to development delay, to mild stroke and Autism Spectrum Disorder, back to CP as the supposed definitive diagnosis.

I took the risk with this neurologist to ask his opinion of stem cells treatment given we have had a few well publicised cases in New Zealand (Caleb has a posting on this forum with a link to a great TV documentary covering him) recently going to Dr Steenblock/Ramirez. Surprisingly he said they would help us research and define the best option in terms of protocols around processing the stem cells, procedures, etc but let us make the final decision. I was pleasantly surprised by that and am going to embark on that evaluation with him in the next few weeks who knows where we will get to but my leaning at the moment is with Dr Feinerman simply because one of the children he has treated is most like our son and has excellent results. They can also be found on the CP forum.

Good luck with your research.

Merryn

 

[Kaci's Mom]

Hi OwensMommy,
I have a daughter with athetiod cp as well. I'd like to recommend Dr. Ramirez's clinic for 2 good reasons. 1) Dr. Ramirez has been treating kids with cp using umbilical cord stem cells since 2002. 2) The clinic is VERY close to you as opposed to Lima Peru (which I'm sure is fabulous too).

I have been VERY pleased with the outcome from our first treatment, and will be returning in June with Kaci.

Any way, just my 2 cents. Good luck with whatever you decide!

Kristin