Hello and welcome to another week at Humbly Courageous. If you are new here, I’m glad you stopped by!
Today I received my 9th stem cell infusion. It’s crazy that it’s been 3 years now since starting these treatments. One of the most asked questions I get is, “do you think the stem cells are helping?” To which I say, “well, they definitely aren’t hurting, and I honestly don’t know where I’d be without these treatments at this point.” I know when I started the treatments, things were not good and they were trending downward, physically speaking.
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| Snowy stem cell day! |
The thing with me is that I’m a fighter. I don’t say that in a bragging way, but when you live life with a disability you are backed into a corner, and like it or not, if you want to live well, you’ve got to fight. Every single day. It’s exhausting. To me, to not fight, is to not live. I’m constantly seeking out things that will help me in any way possible. Fighting against a progressive disease is no joke.
For the critics, I suppose they would tell me I’m throwing away my money by receiving these treatments and not having a miraculous recovery. I never expected a miraculous recovery from the treatments though. Hoped for, of course. As a woman of faith, I believe that God can always step into our situations if He chooses, and heal. I also don’t hate Him when he doesn’t. I don’t feel that I need to defend my decision to do the stem cell treatments. They are cells from my own body, and I’m hopeful. That’s why I call them hope infusions. They give me hope of improvement.
At this point, all I can do is seek out my own treatments. Whatever you choose to try to help you cope with a disability should be respected. Especially when you are left to do it on your own. I learned many years ago that in order to get anywhere, I had to advocate for myself and learn and try new things that not all my doctors would be in support of because they are outside of the box. They aren’t the ones living with the disability. They see me a few times a year and move on. I’m actually living in this body. So…
When the professionals who do my different types of bodywork tell me that they definitely notice a difference in how my body is responding to their treatments, I call that a win. These are people I’ve worked with for years and trust. They know my body well. They would not tell me something that’s not true. It makes me happy to hear that on the inside, my body is responding well to the treatments and becoming healthier. So, yes I think the stem cells are working.
I also do things to help the cells work by doing several workouts a week. Workouts that I have experimented with through the years and walked the fine line that those who live with Muscular Dystrophy have to walk with workouts. It’s really easy to quickly overdo it and cause more setbacks than good with our already damaged muscles. It took me a very long time to tweak that and get it just right where I could still function “normally” after a workout. A few months ago, I crossed the line and it was a two month setback because my left leg was damaged. Frustrating when that happens. The graph below is a graph my husband made of my water workouts the past 3 years, which is just a piece of my exercise routine, since starting the treatments. I think the encouraging thing it shows is consistency, which is meaningful for someone living with a progressive muscle disease.
Living with a disability is a job within itself. It adds a lot of extra work to one’s day. I guess that’s understandably hard to grasp if you don’t live disabled. It takes humble courage to get up and choose each day to fight, so that a life can be lived well. I personally know many others who get up and do the same thing each day. I admire their strength, perseverance and tenacity. Whatever battle you find yourself in, I hope that you too choose to fight for yourself. You are worth it. 💚
Inspiring!!! Keep fighting.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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