After a year of diligent work and follow-through, my Moscow HSCT treatment phase has finally come to an end.  Unlike most patients who receive their entire treatment in 5 weeks, my path was a little off the beaten one.

When I arrived in Moscow, I had 10 enhancing brain lesions. Those lesions were a blessing in disguise being that medical evidence shows the more lesion activity you have, the more optimal your HSCT result may be.  That was the upside to my lesion activity.  The downside was, based on the high number of enhancing lesions, Dr. Fedorenko thought it wise to prescribe an additional 4 doses of chemo over the next year (1 every 3 months) in order to guarantee capping off the monster that had plagued me for over 10 years and disabled me to the point that I needed to use a trekking pole to walk, due to foot drop, and the dexterity in my right hand/fingers was noticeably compromised.

Two weeks ago today, I had my FINAL dose of the Mitoxantrone (the “blue devil”), and decided that it was time to document and share my entire journey in a YouTube presentation.  It’s a condensed version of how it all began, how I got there, the treatment itself, and how it all played out in the end.  There are lots of previously unseen photos and I find that sometimes pictures portray a story better than words alone.  I also wanted to share a Podcast interview that I recently completed with Healthcare Elsewhere, a program that specializes in covering stories about medical tourism.  In that interview, I explain what HCST is, and how it works.  You can click on the pic below or the link above to access the interview.  One of my main goals with this blog is to bring hope to those who may think there isn’t any left for them.  Please feel free to share the link to the interview or my video with a friend or loved one who may be suffering from an autoimmune disease.  It may be the hope they’ve been looking for.

 

 

Until my next blog post…peace and love from the Pennsylvania countryside!