Stem Cell & Medical Bill for MS

Hi. My name is Joey Syla. Growing up, soccer was my whole life. I was playing six to seven days a week, between practice and games. If I was not playing soccer, I was at school or working out for soccer. The coaches of my team were getting all of the players ready to get recruited for college soccer. I was really excited and dreamed a lot about playing at the collegiate level. Soccer was more than a game; it was a way of living and it had a positive impact on almost everything I did.  When I was 17 years old, during a soccer practice, I started noticing that I was not feeling like myself. Trying to ignore any discomfort, I kept going until I dropped on the field extremely dizzy. I never felt anything like this and I did not understand what was happening. My legs and hands were tingling all up and down.  My whole right side seemed to suffer a stroke.  I was heavy and partially paralyzed. I was dizzy, off-balance and uncoordinated.  After going to the doctor and getting an MRI of my brain and spine, I was sent to a neurologist who told me that I have lesions on my brain, cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine. The diagnosis was MS (Multiple Sclerosis).  I am 25 now and have had ups and downs since I was 17. I have been to many different types of doctors and specialists and tried many different types of treatments. Unfortunately, my symptoms have gone from bad to worse.  When I first got sick, I lost the ability to run at all, to walk for long distances or to spin (without falling over).  I was dizzy, off-balance and lost some feeling in my hands and feet.  This meant no sports – soccer, basketball, running, etc.  Over the years, I have lost a lot of vision in my eyes. I can only walk one lap around the track now before my body just stops. I am exhausted all the time and have numbness and tingling in my body.  I am off-balance and uncoordinated.  Not having had much success with my treatments over the past 7.5 years, my symptoms have become severely debilitating. I have not been able to work or go back to school. My lack of mobility, energy and vision has made life really hard.  Though some medications are geared to preventing further decline, we have always tried to find treatments which could heal the symptoms. Recently, we were fortunate to find a Stem Cell center (http://miamistemcellsusa.com) that uses adult autologous adipose-derived stem cells (the body’s own fat cells) through mini-liposuction. In April of this year I got my first stem cell treatment in New York City.  Stem cell therapies are meant to help the body heal and regenerate itself.  The procedure was expensive and not covered by insurance. There is also a possibility of having to do another stem cell procedure in the future to augment the positive results. This is one of the main reasons I am doing this fundraiser. Due to my condition, I have not been able to work for a long time.  Additionally, my mother has been working less and less in order to help me with the different therapies. Most of the treatments that we have tried have not been covered by insurance. The expenses of being sick add up fast and with a lot of unexpected events come unexpected expenses. This is also what this fundraiser is for, to help pay the past and present medical bills. Thank you for reading this.

 

 

 

People are always telling me to find things that I am thankful for, so here it goes:      

·    The ocean

·    The beach

·    My amazing friends

·    The summer

·    My family

·    All the great people I met along the way while being sick

·    New York

·    Music

·    Warm weather

Things about me:

·      I am interested in nutrition and exercise science.

·      I graduated from Mercy College.

·      I am a patient at Integrated Medicine of Mt. Kisco under Dr. Wald and Dr Shaw. It is an amazing place. http://www.intmedny.com/

 

Lastly, fundraising and telling my story is not an easy thing for me to do.  I have not really been open about everything with people in my life and now I am posting it on the Internet for the world to see.  It is two extremes, especially if you know me.  In order to do one of these fundraisers, you have to swallow a lot of your pride. I hope I was able to clearly explain myself. If anyone wants to ask me questions about the stem cell procedure or anything else, please facebook me.