Regained Mobility and Independence After Ten Years of Parkinson's Decline

I don't think that I would be alive today. I was that debilitated that quickly, and I continue to get better. I mean, I-- day by day, I get stronger. It was like, "Oh, gosh, I forgot I couldn't do that." My kids would say, "Mom, did you just see what you did?" And it was like, "What did I do?" My name is Linda Larson. I live in Holiday, Texas. I was a behaviorist, and I'm retired. My life was nil. I had helicoptering tremors so bad that I really could not function. I almost could not eat by myself anymore. Lot of imbalance, no sleep, forty-five minutes at a time, tops. I really was down the rabbit hole. You know what? The neurologist told us it was either levodopa/carbidopa or it was nothing. So ten years, nothing. I couldn't take the medication, made me too nauseous, too much vomiting, and no relief from any of my symptoms, just more symptoms on top of. So I really had given up. It just kept getting worse and getting worse and getting worse. We had a farm, eighty acres. I was active. I tried to stay as active as I could, but it just got to the point where I just couldn't do. It was just a slow decline. I just happened to see a thing come through my phone feed about Dr. Echols' clinic in Portland, and at that time, we were living in Washington State. I'm kind of a holistic gal by nature, and so it just seemed like it was gonna be the right fit. I'm gonna tell you, within fifteen minutes of having the stem cells, I stood in his office and touched my toes the first time in ten years. I don't even know where that came from, but I just had this overwhelming sense of feeling good. The tremors were better, almost instantaneous, and certainly, uh, like I said, I was able to bend over and touch my toes. I'd have fallen on my face. I had absolutely no balance. I can walk without a walker. I can run. I can go out in my barn and be with my horses again. I can eat. I can go out into a restaurant and eat and not feel foolish. I didn't go to the restaurant anymore. I mean, it was too embarrassing to try to eat on my own. I could ride in the car. Ten minutes in the car, and the pain was so bad I'd make my husband pull over so I can get out and walk. And I'd walk for a block, get back in the car, and so we can get to town. That's how we got to town, and by the time I got home from town, I was exhausted. So all of that is one hundred percent. I've been to festivals. I can get out and move around. Those things are amazing. I get a little anxious, and so my tremors come on, but I have very few tremors during the day. I would lock-- my gait would lock, not just in doorways, just anywhere, and I would just be stuck. I couldn't back up. The-- that's a big thing. I could not back up. So all of that is gone, all of that. He cared. He cared. He listened. He didn't have all the answers, and he'd tell you, "I don't have all the answers, but let's go to work." If you're sitting on the fence thinking about working with Dr. Echols, get off the fence. Push that piece aside completely. If you're worried about the financial part of it, they hooked us up with some very good programs. We've paid-- all that paid off. Don't worry about whether it's gonna work. Just say, "I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna go for it," and go. I, I think that the program is amazing, but what's more amazing is that it's three years later, and here I am talking to you. I go to the meetings that he has, the Zooms, and they're not asking me to pay for anything. I'm gobsmacked by that. But there he is, still caring, still sending me the stuff, not giving up, you know, and that's wonderful. I mean, that's a wonderful thing to know that you have somebody there.