My Final Week of Treatment at Villa Medigrun

The weekend after receiving my stem cells was a little rough. We stayed in for the most part and our weekend consisted of movies, card games, and resting. I ended up not getting that much sleep, but I don’t believe this was a result of my stems.

A week or so before coming to Villa Medigrun I had stopped taking Prozac. This medication takes about a month to become fully effective and takes about the same amount of time or a little less to be out of your system. As a result of my serotonin levels being lower than my body was used to, I was unable to sleep Friday, Saturday, or Sunday night. According to Dr. Micheal this was a sort of withdrawal symptom. He also mentioned that our bodies use serotonin as natural melatonin, so even though I take melatonin before bed my serotonin levels were still not high enough.

Treatment Day 11: October 30th

Having no sleep during all of this was not beneficial. Monday was rough; I was pale, dizzy, and irritable. Dr. Micheal mentioned that it was one of the few days I looked really sick. I was exhausted, in pain, and had a massive headache. Knowing that my serotonin levels were low, Dr. Micheal added an infusion to help naturally increase my serotonin levels and put in an order for 5-HTP, a supplement that naturally increases the amount of serotonin in the synapses between your neurotransmitters, which is what prozac does. Thankfully, with the help of the added infusion to help my serotonin levels I was able to sleep a little even though I was waking up every half hour.

Treatment Day 12: October 31st

I felt a little better, but my veins decided to be stubborn. My infusions moved slow and the vein that was usually quite agreeable with my infusions decided to stop working halfway through my infusions, resulting in me having to be stuck another two times before a new vein was found. The new vein eventually stopped, but I was so close to finishing my last infusion of the day that Dr. Micheal felt it was time to give my veins a rest for the day. It was quite a long day and we ended up getting home around 4PM instead of 2:30PM. I recieved another one of the infusions to help with my serotonin, which helped me sleep better that night.

Treatment Day 13: November 1st

I started feeling a little better. Although I was still tired, I was not as moody. The day consisted of our normal daily infusions supplemented with things based on our needs, as always. We also received another craniosacral therapy treatment from Andrea that helped relieve some of my pain. There was also a guided meditation session that Phil, Fran, and Erika (another patient who had joined us the week before) were able to do. Yoga and meditation are in general a struggle for me and I had a headache at the time of the session, so I decided to sit out. I continued to sleep a little better and feel a little better as each day went on.

Treatment Day 14: November 2nd

I woke up and had to do a saliva test to check my cortisol and hormones levels. Dr. Micheal feels these levels may be contributing to a few things, including my weight and metabolism issues. As per usual, there were more infusions and I had my third and last massage, one of favorite parts of the week! I was able to come home and actually nap, which was a relief because as of last week Friday I could not fall asleep even if I tried to nap, whereas beforehand I usually napped everyday after getting home from treatment.

Treatment Day 15: November 3rd……My Last Day

Thursday night was the first night I actually slept really well since I had arrived in Germany. On average, I wake up anywhere between 3-8 times a night. To my surprise I only woke up twice Thursday night and felt like I actually had a little bit of energy. I’m not sure if this was because we were leaving Saturday and I was excited to sleep in my own bed and see my pups, or if it was due to all the supportive infusions we received during this last week of treatment.

It was probably the latter but I decided to not think about it too much and just go with it.

It was stem cell day for Fran and Erika, which meant Elke was also gone because she was driving them to the stem cell clinic. I was a little sad because Elke spoiled me while I was at the clinic. She knew I didn’t like certain things, so she would make sure to prep a different soup for me or make smoothies without one of the ingredients. She also came back to the clinic after shopping for a few things at the grocery and had thought to get me my favorite German cookies on Monday because she knew I was having such a rough day.

It was a quite day with just Phil, Corinna (our nurse), Dr. Micheal, and I. We got a few infusions and then were given our home regimen. Phil and I had some of the same stuff, but most were different. My program was really geared toward clearing up the massive amounts of inflammation present in my gut. After getting our at home program, Dr. Micheal pricked each of our fingers again to get a little bit of blood to look at under the microscope and use in bioresonance machine. Our results were compared to our results and images from the first week of treatment.

Both comparisons showed improvement. I had smaller biofilms present, less oxidative stress, and my red blood cells were not as clumped together (i will update with pictures as soon as i get them from the clinic, they are swamped right now as new patients have arrived this week!)

My bioresonance test levels had also slightly improved with my percentages being lower, which would indicate them getting closer to the “normal” range.

It was a shorter than normal day, which was good seeing as we had to get back and get things together to be up at 7am to head to the airport the following morning. We said bittersweet goodbyes to Phil and Dr. Micheal and Elke stopped by the apartment after getting back from the stem cell clinic to say goodbye.

To be honest being treated by Dr. Micheal is an honor! He is once of the most down to earth doctors you will ever meet and genuinely cares about the well-being and lives of his patients.

 

As we were packing I received some unfortunate news. My dad’s brother had suddenly passed away, which made my last few hours in Germany and our trip home a little tough.

My emotions were all over the place and continue to be that way. This is due, in part, to my lower than usual serotonin levels, but mostly due to the loss of my uncle and the fact that we had only lost my grandmother in Feburary of this year.

After a 22 hour trip we finally made it home. Our pups were overjoyed to see us and being able to sleep in my own bed had never felt so good! Unfortunately, my mom was only able to get a few hours of sleep before having to wake up at 3:30am to head to the airport and fly back to The Bahamas.

As of right now, I am still extremely tired, emotional, and in pain (physically and emotionally). I will have to turn around and get back on a few more planes soon to go home to The Bahamas and spend some time with my family and mourn/celebrate my loving, caring, lively uncle. Being there for my family will be my main focus for the next few weeks. I will continue to rest up, follow my plan, and listen to my body as best I can.

I will have my first weekly Skype call with Dr. Micheal soon and will continue to update you all when I have the energy and get the chance.

That is it for now, but I would like to end on a positive note. I have officially reached over 1000 individual viewers on my blog. Going from not being sure about even exposing one of the most personal aspects of my life to having all of you read and share my blog is huge and for this I want to say thank you.

THANK YOU for your continued support and encouragement. Please continue to comment and ask questions!

Continuing to push through and think healing thoughts!

-Abby