It has begun...We have now raised $230.
I've come to realise a lot of small amounts make a bigger amount.
Thank you to those who started the ball rolling!!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Sierra Video
To read the article about Sierra in last saturdays The Age please visit http://www.theage.com.au/national/high-hopes-for-tiny-cells-20090313-8xxt.html
Three months to go
Sierra needs to raise AUD$20,000 before June 2009 to get to Germany for promising stem cell treatment whilst it can still be most effective. The procedure is currently not available in Australia but with more examples of successful therapy this hopefully will change. I am committed to bringing the stem cell treatment to Australia and will do whatever it takes.
Until then...
we have three months to go to get Sierra to Germany to receive the treatment. We haven't raised any money so far.
Please help us by donating to our paypal account.
We are also looking for someone to offer to do a fundraiser for us.
We thank you in advance for your support and donation.
A big thank you to Pia Niebel of Light Puzzle Media and James Fleming of Rockmelon Films for their pro bono support in making the clip and helping with the website.
Karen, Shane & Sierra
Friday, March 13, 2009
Obama Lifts Bush’s Strict Limits on Stem Cell Research
New York Times, Published: March 9, 2009
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
'WASHINGTON — Pledging that his administration will “make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology,” President Obama on Monday lifted the Bush administration’s strict limits on human embryonic stem cell research. ...'
'WASHINGTON — Pledging that his administration will “make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology,” President Obama on Monday lifted the Bush administration’s strict limits on human embryonic stem cell research. ...'
Read the full article
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/us/politics/10stem.html?_r=1&hp
Successful 1st Stem Cell Treatment - Dec 08
Hi everyone,
We’re back home now and are pleased to say the trip was our most successful yet. The planning and preparation paid off and the travelling went smoothly. We enjoyed seeing our friends (and family!) in London and the consultations with the specialists we see were very productive and positive. Here’s an update of the results:
As a result of the Stem Cell treatment Sierra has shown some significant improvements.
· There has been a reduction in spasticity/tone (tight muscles) all over her body. Her hands are frequently open and relaxed instead of being in tight fists. We can bring her arms forward to touch her elbows together and can also take her arms behind her in a full range of motion for the first time. We’ve heard the joints clicking as they open up. Both the physiotherapist in London and the one in Prague confirmed the reduction in tone. The best part is, unlike Botox, it’s permanent.
Benefits:
- It’s much easier to move and learn normal movement if muscles are not tight. The arms have especially benefitted as they were the tightest area. This will give Sierra better access to communication at this early stage, by touching picture icons of what she wants, playing with toys and later through a computer. All of which requires the arms coming forward and hands being open
· Sierra’s vision has improved dramatically this year. She has gone from having no ability to focus to having almost normal vision. It’s as good as saying she was blind and now she can see!! In March we introduced +3 glasses and in July, contact lenses. The lens is supposed to entice the brain to learn to focus. This is progressive therapy compared with Australia and the UK but the Eye Doctor in Prague does this treatment with hundreds of children and is very surprised about the progress Sierra has made. When asked by our friend who was translating, “Really?”, the answer was “Really! Much more than the usual improvement, a real leap forward in her vision”.
Benefits:
- The exciting thing about vision is that communication really relies on Sierra being able to see and see well because she may not talk and if she does it may be delayed. With vision she can use a computer to communicate and this gives her access to normal schooling
- 80% of all movement in small children is learned from vision
· Sierra’s mouth has gained better movement and control. Sierra’s type of Cerebral Palsy encourages her to extend. This means involuntarily pushing herself back and at the same time extending her arms and legs as well as her tongue. The tongue was previously in extension a lot of the time which is both unattractive and very limiting for learning to talk. Her tongue would almost always only go forwards in a thrusting motion or back into her mouth. It almost never made an up and down motion or side to side motion which is what you need to be able to talk. The pushing has greatly reduced all over the body and the tongue thrust has greatly reduced also.
Benefits:
- A chance at speech
- Better able to eat normal foods with more adult textures
- Better appearance, not looking as disabled
From working with the Physio in Prague and in London (both coming from different disciplines) we got great input in where to take Sierra next with the physio “home program”.
- We will be focusing on re-learning to roll. Sierra was rolling in October then went into hospital with a virus. At this time she stopped rolling and hasn’t rolled since. It was about this time that her epilepsy became more severe. Every time we tried the type of physio that focuses on rolling and crawling it gave her seizures. Tereza (Sierra’s physiotherapist in Prague) has shown us ways to work with Sierra that should allow us to treat her and not cause the seizures or not nearly as many. We are committed that she has some floor mobility.
- We will also be focussed on Sierra taking weight through her arms and legs, with the emphasis on the arms. If you imagine for a moment that you were disabled and I had to move you, think how much easier it would be if you could take weight through your legs and arms so you could hold your body for a few moments or minutes while I transition you from one position to another or actively push up with your arms to help me take your weight. Anel (Sierra’s physiotherapist in London) has been working with us last week to get Sierra to actively push up and hold herself with straight, strong arms. Serra is doing really well at this and her head holding is improving at the same time.
The fact that there has been a reduction in spasticity indicates that the stem cells found the damaged area and so we should continue to see improvements. Both Shane and I are very happy with the results and what we’ve accomplished. Thank you very much for being part of getting us over there.
Added Bonus!!
Also, while in London Sierra became ill and that usually means a hospital stay. Shane and I took Sierra to A&E with our bags already packed, resigned that it was going that way. However, the doctors looked at Sierra and decided she was hydrated enough to try to get over it at home. We gave her rest, Vitamin C and Panadol and she managed to keep eating and drinking. Usually, I suppose because of the effort it is for her, Sierra’s mouth goes ‘on strike’, she gets dehydrated and we have to get her fed via a nasal tube until she recovers. This time she kept drinking and eating perhaps because of the better mouth control. It was such a WIN to have her turn it around. For the first time she turned an illness around herself!
Warm regards,
Karen, Shane & Sierra
We’re back home now and are pleased to say the trip was our most successful yet. The planning and preparation paid off and the travelling went smoothly. We enjoyed seeing our friends (and family!) in London and the consultations with the specialists we see were very productive and positive. Here’s an update of the results:
As a result of the Stem Cell treatment Sierra has shown some significant improvements.
· There has been a reduction in spasticity/tone (tight muscles) all over her body. Her hands are frequently open and relaxed instead of being in tight fists. We can bring her arms forward to touch her elbows together and can also take her arms behind her in a full range of motion for the first time. We’ve heard the joints clicking as they open up. Both the physiotherapist in London and the one in Prague confirmed the reduction in tone. The best part is, unlike Botox, it’s permanent.
Benefits:
- It’s much easier to move and learn normal movement if muscles are not tight. The arms have especially benefitted as they were the tightest area. This will give Sierra better access to communication at this early stage, by touching picture icons of what she wants, playing with toys and later through a computer. All of which requires the arms coming forward and hands being open
· Sierra’s vision has improved dramatically this year. She has gone from having no ability to focus to having almost normal vision. It’s as good as saying she was blind and now she can see!! In March we introduced +3 glasses and in July, contact lenses. The lens is supposed to entice the brain to learn to focus. This is progressive therapy compared with Australia and the UK but the Eye Doctor in Prague does this treatment with hundreds of children and is very surprised about the progress Sierra has made. When asked by our friend who was translating, “Really?”, the answer was “Really! Much more than the usual improvement, a real leap forward in her vision”.
Benefits:
- The exciting thing about vision is that communication really relies on Sierra being able to see and see well because she may not talk and if she does it may be delayed. With vision she can use a computer to communicate and this gives her access to normal schooling
- 80% of all movement in small children is learned from vision
· Sierra’s mouth has gained better movement and control. Sierra’s type of Cerebral Palsy encourages her to extend. This means involuntarily pushing herself back and at the same time extending her arms and legs as well as her tongue. The tongue was previously in extension a lot of the time which is both unattractive and very limiting for learning to talk. Her tongue would almost always only go forwards in a thrusting motion or back into her mouth. It almost never made an up and down motion or side to side motion which is what you need to be able to talk. The pushing has greatly reduced all over the body and the tongue thrust has greatly reduced also.
Benefits:
- A chance at speech
- Better able to eat normal foods with more adult textures
- Better appearance, not looking as disabled
From working with the Physio in Prague and in London (both coming from different disciplines) we got great input in where to take Sierra next with the physio “home program”.
- We will be focusing on re-learning to roll. Sierra was rolling in October then went into hospital with a virus. At this time she stopped rolling and hasn’t rolled since. It was about this time that her epilepsy became more severe. Every time we tried the type of physio that focuses on rolling and crawling it gave her seizures. Tereza (Sierra’s physiotherapist in Prague) has shown us ways to work with Sierra that should allow us to treat her and not cause the seizures or not nearly as many. We are committed that she has some floor mobility.
- We will also be focussed on Sierra taking weight through her arms and legs, with the emphasis on the arms. If you imagine for a moment that you were disabled and I had to move you, think how much easier it would be if you could take weight through your legs and arms so you could hold your body for a few moments or minutes while I transition you from one position to another or actively push up with your arms to help me take your weight. Anel (Sierra’s physiotherapist in London) has been working with us last week to get Sierra to actively push up and hold herself with straight, strong arms. Serra is doing really well at this and her head holding is improving at the same time.
The fact that there has been a reduction in spasticity indicates that the stem cells found the damaged area and so we should continue to see improvements. Both Shane and I are very happy with the results and what we’ve accomplished. Thank you very much for being part of getting us over there.
Added Bonus!!
Also, while in London Sierra became ill and that usually means a hospital stay. Shane and I took Sierra to A&E with our bags already packed, resigned that it was going that way. However, the doctors looked at Sierra and decided she was hydrated enough to try to get over it at home. We gave her rest, Vitamin C and Panadol and she managed to keep eating and drinking. Usually, I suppose because of the effort it is for her, Sierra’s mouth goes ‘on strike’, she gets dehydrated and we have to get her fed via a nasal tube until she recovers. This time she kept drinking and eating perhaps because of the better mouth control. It was such a WIN to have her turn it around. For the first time she turned an illness around herself!
Warm regards,
Karen, Shane & Sierra
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