I got a lot of sun today

Today I worked a long hard day of landscaping. I work my butt off, literally, my pant sizes are falling.

After work and all that jazz, I hung out with Shorty. Shorty is my buddy.Shorty is pretty much amazing. She has really created an awesome job of making this benefit show happen. It is called Mikey's Second Chance, it is going to be held at After Dark. I am excited to see how awesome it is going to be. We were chillen, looking over all the details, and sharing stories. We were also waiting for merideth, we waited, and waited, and waited for what seemed like hours. Finally mer showed up. lol.

Then "O" and Katie came over.

"O" is to the left, and Katie is to the right. They are awesome too. Very sweet people, very funny too. LOL. I love being with Merideth when she is with her friends. They have a unique relationship with Mer. They "get" her, and thats awesome, cuz it took me a while. But i get her, and love the crap outa her.

I got an E-Mail today.

I am going to share it with you, I am not going to explain it. You can just read it for yourself.

Scott Bushell
to me
show details
8:31 pm (3 hours ago)
Dear Mikey,Hello from Australia. My name is Scott Bushell (son of David Bushell) and about 2 years ago I was diagnosed with MS. Although only diagnosed then I was feeling the symptoms for along time before that. I had visited the optometrist and was given a set of glasses. When they didn't seem to help I returned and was issued with another set. I had lost my balance whilst working and had a fall cutting my wrist on a rock and luckily, narrowly missing my vein.My mental clarity hasn't felt that good for along time and for that reason I visited the doctor and was put on anti-depressant medication. I was on that medication for a couple of years before I was finally diagnosed with MS. Whilst this was some relief in having an answer to my problems, it definitely was not the answer I was hoping for.Due to the ridiculous diagnosis process I had visited the neurologist about 2 years before I was actually diagnosed and left his surgery with no more answers than when I went in. I then returned about 2 years later to which I was diagnosed with MS.The funny thing was I had visited one of those Internet doctor sites (out of frustration) and after submitting my symptoms was told that it may be MS.My dad passed on your details so I hope that you don't mind. My life in my 20's has been a comedy of errors thus far with me having been at university for about 4 years and only having completed 1 year. I am really at a point of frustration and need to find an end to all this. That was so enlightening to hear your story and to know that help may be out there. I just struggle to understand why countries such as yours and mine (USA and Australia) are not following China's lead and, if they truely are 'pro life' then why are they not doing all they can to cure these 'incurable' diseases?I'm sorry if this email has sounded whingy and whiney but I thought that you may have felt the same way at some point.I write to ask you as much as you can tell me about the process of repair in China? Any light you can shed on the process would be greatly appreciated.Many Thanks.Kind Regards,
Scott Bushell

Here is my response:

Scott!!
Wow, I have been patiently waiting for the day that your sight would allow you to write me personally. This is so awesome, and a total God send. You feel alone, you feel confused, you feel like your being pushed aside because most don’t understand anything about your disease. I can relate to everything you are going through in a very real way. I have been waiting for the day I can be of assistance to someone else who is walking in the same shoes as me. I lost vision completely for about 4 weeks in my left eye when I was only 15 years old. I remember it so vividly, I was sitting in my 9th grade geometry class when everything started going blurry in my left eye. It scared me, but just like you, I was misdiagnosed with having “optic neuritis” BUT, the doctor I saw told me that the symptoms I was having were typical for early MS. There just wasn’t enough neurological damage done yet to show up on an MRI. Well, 3 years later, there was. To this day, the typical care therapies haven’t worked. I refuse to sit and wait for the next horrible thing to happen.
So, what did I do? Well, without getting to religious on you, I had to give everything to God. I had to admit to myself, that there was nothing I COULD DO. And ever sense I have given my disease to the Lord, I have been blessed left and right.
Why are our countries so stubborn when it comes to the stem cell research topic? Well, for one, there is a lot of ignorance involved. The big debate comes down to this, embryonic stem cell research takes the life of a baby fetus. In my eyes, and the eyes of many, this is wrong. OK, I agree with this. BUT, the procedure I have chosen in Shenyang China, utilizes stem cells harvested from an umbilical cord. The umbilical cords are taken from a full trimester pregnancy. After the baby is born, the mother and the new born are tested. Once they pass inspection (testing negative for any kind of disease, std, respiratory problem, etc.) the umbilical cord, and umbilical cord blood containing the stem cells is cryogenically frozen.
I will try to explain with some pictures.

That square picture in the middle is a picture of an embryonic/umbilical cord stem cell. The thing they have in common is the ability to generate or grow into all systems of the body. This ability is called pluripotency. The Chinese have created a process where they can harvest the specific genetic growth factor from the stem cells. This is the “Chinese Stem Cell Explanation” in a simplified form. See, when the embryo is first forming, it has a lot of work to do. Think of all the systems that have to be created. Your bones, your skin, your muscles, your respiratory system, your neurological system. SO

many systems. In MS, our nerves are slowly being destroyed. We have an auto-immune disease. Which, in short means our police task force/white blood cells are actually attacking the protective coating on our nerves. This is called demyelination. This is bad. So, naturally the best option would be to re-grow the myelin. BUT, my country (USA) doesn’t believe in this. Even though China has proven time and time again that it works. IT IS NOT A CURE! But it is a treatment. We are both young, we haven’t suffered much physical disability. So, healing the myelin could offer a certain amount of time, where the MS would lie dormant, or inactive. If this could be done for, ohhh say 5 years, that would be far greater than any other treatment currently available.
NOW, you were curious in your E-Mail why our countries aren’t jumping on the Stem Cell Research band wagon. Well, sadly it all comes down to money. The multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies can’t make money off of stem cells. Stem cells aren’t a drug, they can’t be mass produced, and bottom line, they make billions and billions and billions of dollars every year off of the current medications, which by the way only work in 1/3 of the patients currently prescribed to them. And, they don’t fix the problem, they just slightly deter the exacerbation rate. SO, the disease is still on it’s hellish rampage, it just isn’t noticed earlier in the MS game.
I think the best thing to do with the Chinese treatment is to study it, understand it, ask questions, and do your homework. I say again, it is not a cure, but it could very likely get your vision back to where it was years and years ago. For me, I hope it will stop my tremors, fix some of the cognitive issues, and hopefully put my MS to sleep for years. You can always go back for another treatment, it’s all natural too, there is no chemicals, no anti-depressants, YUCK! I hate chemicals, and they are prescribed way to easily in our world who wants quick fixes and the simple way out.

I feel like I am ranting on now, I hope I have answered some of your questions at least. Please feel free to write me back at any time! Seriously, any time. And if you can get a calling card, or something, feel free to call me on the weekends. My cell phone is (260)433-1543. you probably have to type in some more numbers to get to America, I am pretty sure. See, I love Australia, I love the people, I love everything about Australia. I got a chance to go there, swim in the great barrier reef, go to the opera house, visit the out back, all the tourist attractions at a young age.

The doctors in America tell me I could possibly be in a wheel chair by the time I am 30. This is unacceptable, and pardon my language, I’ll be damned if I let that happen. You can’t accept negative for your reality, life is what you make of it Scott. On May 17th, I will leave to stay in China for 30 days. It is going to work, and once it does, I am going to tell as many people as I possibly can! I don’t look at Multiple Sclerosis as a negative thing in my life, in all actuality it is the best thing that has ever happened to me. God never gives us anything that we can’t handle, and if we take the things that seem bad, with a positive mind set and learn from them. They will only make us stronger!

God bless, ask me questions any time!
-Mikey