'Never give up' -- Woman heads to Panama on quest for cure

July 08--Martha Phillips is no stranger to the word "pilgrimage."

She has organized pilgrimages for her church, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, in which members traveled to Rome searching for spiritual significance. She wrote about one such pilgrimage in an issue of Explore magazine.

But it is a personal pilgrimage that is her primary focus today. Phillips is on a quest for a "cure" for her Multiple Sclerosis, and her destination is Panama City, Panama.

Living with the disease

Phillips was first diagnosed with MS in September 2010. According to the Mayo Clinic, the cause of multiple sclerosis is unknown. It's considered an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks its own tissues. In the case of MS, this immune system malfunction destroys myelin, the fatty substance that coats and protects nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord.

"One medication made me gain a lot of weight," Phillips said. "I could not tolerate heat of any kind whatsoever. At the time, I didn't know there was anything I could do to make myself better."

Approximately a year later, Phillips began seeing Dr. William Davis, "Doc," in Ennis on a regular basis. For five and a half years, she did exceedingly well by following his protocol, which included a wellness plan and diet change, for starters. After losing 72 pounds and eating a cleaner diet, acupuncture, adjustments and regular massage helped immensely.

"During that time I only had two prescriptions," she said. "When I started with him, I was on 10."

She was able to travel (pilgrimages with church to Rome), go kayaking, work out at CrossFit Corsicana twice a week, worked part-time (she is an occupational therapy assistant), and she and her husband James went on a cruise. Since working full-time would not have left Martha with enough energy to do anything else, she chose to scale back to part-time.

For nearly six years, she was doing great.

Stress takes its toll

In December of 2016, Phillips' life and those of people around her went sideways. Her father-in-law was diagnosed with brain cancer, and the very next day the family was told it was terminal. He only had weeks.

The following Wednesday evening, Martha's brother dropped dead in the Walmart parking lot in Red Oak from a pulmonary embolism. That same day, James' father was admitted to the hospital for treatments. The Phillips' eldest son Andrew flew in from Louisiana where he was in State Police Academy. It was decided they would discontinue Jim's treatments and take him home, where family members took turns caring for him.

The next Wednesday, her brother's funeral was held. She and her sisters did the planning, and it was held at Immaculate Conception. On Sunday, Jim passed away. They planned another funeral and held it at Immaculate Conception that Wednesday.

All throughout this ordeal, they had little time to consider Christmas. Fortunately, her little sister had one big non-traditional Christmas and invited everyone from both sides of the family.

"I went back to work after Christmas, and found my body was just exhausted," she said. "I was not sleeping, I was irritable, and the muscle and nerve pain was getting out of control."

None of the methods she had used previously would make any difference. Phillips was forced to go on short-term disability in January. Her neurologist said she was not having a relapse, it was a pseudo relapse -- where the disease looks stable from an MRI, because there was no new damage. But the damage that had already been done and symptoms were worse, and medication was not managing them.

"The Tysibri I was having infused regularly has a black box warning," she said. "I had to sign paperwork when I started taking it, that I knew it could kill me."

The neurologist offered several other choices of medications, but all were either equally as risky with not as many good results, or more risky with even worse results.

"To me, it felt like my only choice was going backwards, and to me that was unacceptable," Phillips said.

Leap of Faith

About that time, a friend posted on Facebook that she, Sam Harrell (football coach in Ennis) and others were testifying in front of a health committee in Austin about stem cell treatment. They were going to vote on making this type of treatment legal in Texas beginning Sept. 1.

"I talked to my friend, who went down to Panama City for her rheumatoid arthritis about three years ago," Phillips said. "She's been symptom-free and medication-free for three years."

Harrell had also seen success enough with his stem cell treatment to return to work in Ennis, and was recently hired by Southwestern Assemblies of God University.

"Nobody says the C-word -- cured -- but does anyone really care if you have no symptoms and no medications?" she asked.

Phillips went to the website, filled out the application, and left it alone. Within 24 hours they had replied to her. The clinic in Panama City sent her the treatment protocol, as well as the cost, which was right at $25,000. That included the hotel, escort from airport to hotel, and treatment. All she had to come up with over that was airfare and food.

"I emailed people who had gone on pilgrimage with me, explained the situation, and asked them to pray about God's will for me concerning this," Phillips said. "Then they started asking me when we were going to start fundraising."

On Mother's Day, a youcaring page was launched on Facebook by Martha's three sons. (They chose youcaring over other funding pages because it does not take any percentage off the top.) Thomas, who wrote the story, had a hard time doing it, because he felt like he was asking for help for his mother so she would not die.

Humbled by generosity

A few donations came in quickly, and then slowed. Before Martha paid her money down, she prayed about it, and felt a sense of peace that God would provide the rest, and He was telling her to take a leap of faith. She'd been watching airfares online, and when they started to rise, she took another leap of faith and bought two tickets (one for herself and one for her sister).

"Then someone from my life who I'd not seen in 30 years contacted me out of nowhere and began asking lots of questions," she said. "They wanted to know if I had bought my plane tickets, and how much they were. That person covered the entire cost of our airfare, and sent enough money to cover the food while we're there."

Martha had no doubt that tithing at church is what got them through the time when she was not working. And now she was seeing prayers answered daily, sometimes several times a day. The money began flooding in, and the church ladies began to plan a fundraiser for the end of July. It is no longer on the calendar because the money came pouring in.

"What blew my mind is the people who donated who don't know me," Phillips said. "Or just barely knew my kids. Our guide from our last pilgrimage in Italy sent me a nice check. People from James' company donated."

She said people who do know her, either from church or wherever, would call and say, "Are you home?" Then stop by, visit, and leave her with a large check. That has happened three times.

"I'm just so blown away that people care that much about me," she said. "Every time someone does that, it makes me cry ... this is not a guarantee, but they're willing to fork out a sizable amount of money just to give me the chance."

In her heart, Martha feels like God would not have brought her this far on her journey, her pilgrimage of faith, to let it fail. She has never worried there would not be enough money, because she felt confident God meant for her to go.

Her money must be wired by Aug. 1, and she is to be there Aug. 14 for treatments to start Aug. 15. There will be six IVs, four subcutaneous injections, and two physical therapy treatments. They use adult stem cells from healthy live birth umbilical cord blood, and are even doing some stem cell work in Southlake with orthopedics now.

There are no negative side effects.

"I had so many people telling me I needed to share the journey," she said. "I was just going to share the journey to Panama, but it dawned on me it might help more people if I start this at the beginning."

To find her story, search for Martha's Stem Cell Story on Facebook. She chronicles things like what symptoms led her to go to the doctor before diagnosis, why is stem cell treatment not available in the U.S., and is it still experimental.

"If I could say something to others with MS (or autoimmune diseases) who have lost their hope somewhat? she said.

"Never give up. God's got this."

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dkirk@corsicanadailysun.com

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