Buena Vista resident Chris Martin just wants to stop the progression. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis almost 11 years ago, Martin is set to begin his first round of experimental umbilical stem cell therapy from Denver Regenerative Medicine next month.

Martin experienced his first symptoms in 2006, while running the Super 8 motel in town. He was having difficulty counting money, using his hands and walking.

Initially Martin and doctors thought it could have been a stroke or a tumor, but that was quickly shown not to be the case following an MRI.

While the initial MRI showed some signs of potential multiple sclerosis, doctors cant diagnose patients with the disease until additional symptoms or followup attacks are shown. It took another 2 years before Martin was diagnosed.

Whats terribly frustrating with all these diseases, whether its Parkinsons, MS or Alzheimers, is they dont really know what causes it, why it goes fast, they dont know why it goes slow (in some cases). They dont know if Copaxone is going to be good for you or if Rebif is going to be good for you. They just dont know. It was just a big shrug of the shoulders, Martin said about initially dancing through the minefield of doctors and diagnoses when he was first seeking treatment.

Rebif and Copaxone are both medications used to treat MS, both prescribed to Martin at various times over the years.

In laymens terms, MS happens when your immune systems attacks the fatty myelin materials that wrap around your protective nerve fibers, making it difficult for you brain and body to communicate effectively.

Since the nervous system doesnt work as intended, sufferers of MS can experience muscle spasms, numbness and tingling in parts of the body and trouble walking, among many other symptoms.

It was probably about 2015 that my leg started twitching at night and not really a lot of pain, just discomfort especially in my left leg which feels like it weighs about 400 pounds, Martin said, while manually stretching out the leg with his right arm. At least in this stage of MS, its not terribly painful, but I started to get symptoms of twitching at night time which is pretty common. The only thing that really seemed to calm it down was medical marijuana.

To help sleep, Martin usually takes an indica strain marijuana edible at night to help with the twitching and to get restful sleep, he said.

Indica strains, as opposed to the sativa strains, are know for their physically sedating effects and can help with physical and mental relaxation.

Martin also found some solace in juicing the leaves of marijuana plants, but said it became too difficult because of the amount of leaves needed for the juice.

Doctors do not yet know what causes the disease, but research into various forms of stem cell therapy have shown promise to ease symptoms and to slow or even stop the progression of the disease.

Martin began looking into clinics and stem cell therapy options last year.

Various forms of stem cell treatment exist, including bone marrow transplants and a form of stem cell therapy that utilizes cells taken from adipose tissue, or fat cells, harvested from the patients own body. After talking with several clinics and doctors, Martin decided on umbilical stem cell therapy.

The treatments, however, are costly and Martins insurance provider will not cover the experimental procedure.

None of these stem cell clinics claim to cure anything for obvious reasons. Some people maybe dont get anything from it (treatment), maybe they get a little bit better. So if you get a little bit better and spend $20,000, is the patient happy or not happy? Its a quality of life question, Martin said.

Martin met with a doctor at Denver Regenerative Medicine who explained the process.

A bio company harvests the stem cells and processes them before shipping them to doctors practicing regenerative medicine across the country. Then the stem cells are injected through an IV.

He will be only the third MS patient to receive this form of stem cell therapy from the doctor administering it, Martin said.

The company harvesting the stem cells is Burst Biologics, Martin said.

One patient that had received stem cell treatment from Denver Regenerative Medicine told Martin that the first 24 hours after the stem cell injection, she had a euphoric experience.

She was walking well and had even cleaned her entire house after relying on a wheelchair and cain prior to the injection. After the initial 24 hours, however, she told Martin that the effects from the injection had begun to go away and she felt like she had prior to the injection.

After about a month, she started to feel good again and shes no longer in a wheelchair and shes walking really well with her cane, Martin said she told him. She highly recommends it. She just cant believe how good shes feeling.

Another patient from Denver Regenerative Medicine told Martin that after his injection and a followup injection, he hasnt seen much of an effect.

My gut feeling is the doctors good because hes kind of on the leading edge, but hes not the key to this stem cell. Its the biology company, in my opinion, is the brains behind all of this because theyre the ones harvesting the stem cells, processing it and getting it ready, Martin said.

With around a month before Martin begins his first treatment, he said hes solely focused on getting his body in the best shape possible.

I want to get my body as strong as possible to react to the stem cells the best that it can. And that involves more trips to the gym, getting my hormones balanced correctly and making sure that I dont miss a dose of any of my nutritional medicines, Martin said.

A little over a decade since Martin was diagnosed, he said he can feel the progression of the disease gradually increasing day-to-day.

By trade, Martin is an engineer, making the mysterious nature and complications of the disease difficult to come to terms with since there is no workable or obvious solution, but maybe the stem cell injection will help. Hes optimistic.

Its gotten worse in the last 2 years, so my ability to move in the last 2 years has been hard. Now its been almost 11 years and the last two years, its definitely slid faster than the previous 9. As an engineer, I think about it as accelerating and I ask the doctor why and its I dont know, Martin said. Statistically, the doctor did say in the old days, you either go down relatively quick, like a 25-year-old gets MS and theyre in a wheelchair at 27 or they do pretty well for 10 years and then it starts to drop off. And Im at my 10 years, so yeah, Im concerned about it dropping off. I would like it to stabilize and I would like to get the word out to other people from Parkinsons to MS to neurological mysteries to keep pushing the industry forward. Im excited about it, thats the bottom line.

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Stop MS: Buena Vista's Chris Martin set to try cutting-edge stem cell program - Chaffee County Times