Today is our 4^th anniversary and wow has life changed since 2005!  Our marriage has definitely started on a different course than most but that's okay.  We had Drew early on in our marriage and it was a roller coaster both in the NICU and out.  I probably don't need to go into detail, needless to say life was pretty tough back then.  Life was also challenging when Drew was discharged from the NICU.  As newlyweds we had to juggle the frequent NG feedings, oxygen, heart monitors, medications, doctors appointments, and therapy appointments.  We had to do this all on our own because we had just moved to Chicago to jump start our careers.

My mother was actually the one that discovered Beike Biotech in January of 2008.  She pretty much just googled treatment for cerebral palsy and came across an advertisement for stemcellschina.com.  She promptly emailed us the website link and we thought she was crazy.  We sort of laughed it off.  A few weeks later it sort of popped in my head again, so I started reading a little bit on it.  Then I started reading and researching like a madwoman.  We hit the contact link on the website and 7 months later we were in China!

Beike is a bio-technology company formed in January of 2005 however the collaborating scientists have been treating patients with stem cell injections since 2001.  Stem cell injections are available for people suffering from Ataxia, Autism, ALS, Brain Trauma, Cerebral Palsy, Guillain-Barre, Encephalatropy, MS, ONH, Spinal Cord Injury, Stroke, and many more diseases/disorders.  The main research labs are currently in Shenyang, Shenzhen, Zhengzhou, and Hainan.  Beike is big on utilizing a double check system to ensure the umbilical cord blood is disease free.

We have had only positive experiences working with this company.  The employees promptly answer all questions and are greatly accommodating.  Everything is organized and we feel safe in their hands.  If anyone is interested in pursuing umbilical cord stem cell treatment, we highly recommend contacting this company.

My Husband and I have traveled to China with our son twice now for stem cell transfusions.  We never saved Drew's umbilical cord and we knew for three days that he would be born extremely early.  I don't even remember having any discussions about this with our team of doctors.  I remember thinking briefly about it but I remember reasoning with Mike that the medical team would tell us if they thought we should save it.  We were definitely not in the right frame of mind to be making these type of decisions.  Looking back on the Spring of 2006 I sure wish we would have screamed "Yes, save it!".  We didn't know anything concerning umbilical cord stem cells and the conditions the stem cells can treat.  However we haven't beaten ourselves up over it, we learned a long time ago that worrying and obsessing over your past only makes your present life miserable.  Anyways, my advice for anyone expecting would be to definitely save the umbilical cord because you can never predict the future.  The potential benefits from doing so outweigh any costs associated with it.

I do know that Duke University located in Durham, North Carolina will transfuse a person's own umbilical cord stem for treating cerebral palsy.  I called in the spring of 2008 and Drew was put on a transplantation list since we didn't save his umbilical cord.  The person I talked with did tell me due to his extremely low birth weight, they might not have been able to do the autologous transplant anyways.  However, if Duke University does contact us and is able to do a transfusion with donated umbilical cord stem cells, I will definitely write a post on here to update everyone.  The ability to do this type of transfusion may take awhile in the USA, so my best advice would be to start conducting your own research on what is available in other countries.

Our son has received 14 stem cell infusions over the past year.  This was split into two visits.  Each stem cell infusion contains between 10 to 15 million stem cells.  The stem cells were derived from donated umbilical cords while we were in China.  Since each umbilical cord only contains between 100,000 to 300,000 stem cells, Drew also had received nerve growth factor infusions.  The nerve growth factor was extracted from the cord serum and it's main purpose is to encourage the repair of neurons.  Also, the nerve growth factor aids the potential of the stem cells.  Whenever Drew would receive his stem cell infusion, it was always followed with the nerve growth factor infusion.

Stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood would fall into the adult stem cells category.  Embryonic stem cells are derived from embryos that are at least a few days old.  These two types of stem cells are derived from two completely different sources.  Most of the information we've researched largely pertains to umbilical cord stem cells.  However, we are keeping our eyes open on embryonic stem cells transfusions around the world.  Our biggest concern would be adverse side effects.

Stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood contain a large reservoir of hematopoietic stem cells.  Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are defined by their ability to form multiple cell types including neurons which is exactly what we were looking for!  Since umbilical cord stem cells are considered to be the most immature type of stem cell, they lack exterior protein markers (antigens), which means the host would not recognize the stem cells as foreign.  This means there are no incidences of graft vs. host disease.  I remember this was our greatest fear with proceeding forward with this treatment and we spent a long time scouring the Internet for adverse reactions to the treatment.