My mom had a pretty big left side ischemic stroke and has aphasia and weakness on the right side.
She’s currently living jn Mexico which is the epicenter of stem cell and peptide therapies.
I was wondering if anyone here has had experience with these therapies, good or bad.
Main ones they’re planning to do are stem cells, bpc-157, semax, tb500, and cerebrolysin.
Thanks!
My mother had an ischemic left side stroke six days ago in her home about 20 hours south of the San Diego border in Mexico. The health care in the area she's in isn't top notch and the ball was dropped a couple times. First, when she had her TIA ten days prior to her stroke, the Dr. neglected to do an MRI or CT scan and has since admitted that was against protocol. And then also, I'm not sure if she was offered treatments like a clot buster or looking at the possibility of a thrombectotomy I still need to find out. And then another time they actually forgot to give her blood pressure medication and it spiked. I'm glad she's out of there and was released three days later with statins, baby aspirin and blood pressure medicine. As well as an anti biotic called triethoprim-sulfamethoxazole to treat a UTI they discovered. She had two bouts of agitation and what my step dad called psychosis after taking the anti biotic at night. This looked like her grasping at things that weren't there, speaking in a way that couldn't be understood and trying to roll off the bed. I looked up the anti biotic and that's a possible side effect. Thankfully, she took her last dose yesterday.
She has aphasia. The first couple days she could only say "wow and yeah". Since then she can say a dozen other words and maybe even count to three. She also tries to sing along to the music we play. The right side of her body is currently unable to move but she uses her left hand to help feed herself and she responds to asking for help like "please let me roll you over" by doing her best. Honestly, I am really relieved with her current state...when I first heard she had a stroke I pictured her not being able to talk at all. But, she's very much present in her body which I'm thankful for!
We're all dealing with a very steep learning curve and the fact that where she's located in Mexico doesn't have the best health care. My brother and step dad as well as friends are with her giving her round the clock care. My brother is a massage therapist and my step dad a chiropractor. There are friends that are helping too and I'm going to be flying out as well. We're focusing on gentle movement, massage and speech therapy already but of course taking it slow since it just happened. There have been a couple at home Dr. visits and they are also very encouraged by how well she’s doing early on.
My instinct is to get her in front of an American Dr. a specialist in strokes and Neurology but she can't travel yet. I was thinking to setup a telehealth visit. I don't have her actual scans yet but I'm sure I could get them.
I've been reading tons of posts in this group over the last days and I'm inspired to see that many of you have recovered much of your previous capabilities. I've read that all strokes are different...and I'm tempering my thoughts and feelings about her recovery with a positive one day at a time attitude. She is an artist by trade and has been making art and teaching pottery classes for most of her life and it's hard not to be devastated by the idea that she won't be able to do that again. Despite some things not going perfectly in the beginning with her care I don't want to be angry about that and I really just would love any words of encouragement and ideas about next steps.
Thank you!