"I said, doctor!! Is there something I can take! Ooohoohoo!!!"

Tuesday I was up early and in pain. I took two more aspirin and struggled to get ready for my morning pick up.  John woke up and asked why I didn't want to call the Stem Cell Institute and I told him because I was afraid they would want to inject something in me. He said they weren't going to inject anything in me, but that I should call to let them know what is happening and so that they could get me the right type of pain killers. I gave-in and called the emergency number and left a message then called the Institute offices and talked to Anna. Dr. Hernandez was in the office and said to have me purchase some Tylenol. I explained that I had just taken two aspirin and he told me to take the Tylenol at noon.

I went to physical therapy and told Ivan I wasn't feeling very well. Ivan worked on gentle stretches and some light lifting. On the way back to the hotel I asked the driver to stop at a pharmacy and went in and purchased the Tylenol. Back in the room I rested until it was time for our afternoon appointment with Dr. Paz.

At noon I took two Tylenol and when the van picked us up at 1:45 the Tylenol had eased the pain. John and I met with Dr. Paz and he went over both our blood work. What a different world it would be if we had Dr.'s like Dr. Paz in the US. He prescribed natural suppliments to bring the levels of various components from our blood work into line. Armed with this information along with the information from the Bio-Fit Center John and I both should be able to optimize our health. Dr. Paz then told John, to take care of more important matters, that he would pick him up for golf at about noon tomorrow. Knowing how busy Dr. Paz is I thought it was nice of him to make time for an afternoon of golf with John.


As we were leaving we saw Dr. Hernandez and John asked about the quantity of yesterday's injection and told him that because I had such a small build that even though that amount might not affect most people that it did affect me. Dr. Hernandez said that the lab did not inject twice the number of stem cells that they just put the regular dose in more serum. Dr. Hernandez called the lab to get more information and he and John discussed this for awhile.  I was ready to get in the van and go back to the hotel and lay down. John finally finished and we left.


Back in the room I lay down and fell asleep for awhile. John and I went across the street to the Pomodoro Cafe and had dinner. Chris, the young man we met in the lobby the day before, called and said that he and Connie would love to talk to us and asked if we could come to their room between 7:00 and 7:30. After dinner I took two more Tylenol and we went to Chris and Connie's room.


We had a nice visit and talked until about 11:00 pm.  Connie was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was ninteen and was in a wheel chair at the age of 21. She is now 35. They were a lovely couple and we had a lot in common. Their son is almost three and was fast asleep on the couch during our visit. Our greatest commonality was that she and I both had this nasty disease and we both have the desire and will power to fight it with everything at our disposal. At one point Connie had tried a common MS drug and found that it only exacerbated her condition and decided from that point to go drug free. They will be keeping a blog of their journey in Panama and I will link on this blog to theirs.