Fort Wayne MS Patient Back from China

Riley's last day with the landscaping company is Friday.

Riley thinks the physical demands of his job caused his tremors to come back.

Sep 26, 2007 06:33 PM

(Fort Wayne - WANE) In May, Mikey Riley, 20, traveled to China for a controversial stem cell treatment in hopes of stopping the progression of his multiple sclerosis (MS).

"I think what surprised me the most was the acupuncture," Riley said. "But the treatment itself was astonishing with all the people it was helping."

Riley got four injections of 20 million umbilical cord stem cells and a bone marrow transplant in the five-week treatment in China. The transplant is supposed to help his myelin re-grow and slow the progression of MS.

MS makes the body attack the central nervous system, and the protective tissue around nerves called myelin get scraped away and replaced by scars.

Riley said his transplant went well in China, but it's too early to tell if its working.

"I'm going on eight and a half months since I had a bad MS attack that landed me in the hospital," Riley said. "That the longest I've gone since I was diagnosed. Can I equate that to the stem cells? Maybe. Time will tell."

Riley hasn't experienced any new symptoms which is a good sign, but his tremors in his legs did come back. The went away while he was in China and for the first month back home.

But in July, Riley went back to work for a landscape company, and the physical work, may have brought the tremors back.

"My doctors told me physically tasking jobs make it hard especially for me because the stress on the body is such a big factor that with MS it's just too much," Riley said.

Then Monday Riley had a close call when he blacked out at the end of his shift.

"When I came to and realized what happened, it made me stop and think. I need to get a new job because I don't want to hurt myself or someone else. What if that happened on the mower," Riley said.

Friday is Riley's last day with the landscapers. He hopes with a different, less physically demanding job, his tremors will go away again

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