“There were days I would visit the bathroom 30 plus times,” says Toronto woman Leslie Cote.
Leslie started dealing with bladder pain and urgency 30 years ago.
She says it was incredibly challenging to get help for her condition and nothing seemed to work.
“I suffered in silence for many, many years. About 10 years ago when things got worse, I tried to see a urogynecologist in Toronto. There was only one at that time, and they were no longer taking new patients. I then started down a long path of seeking help in alternative ways,” shares Leslie.
Leslie even left the country to try and find some treatment, which included a trip to Nevada for ozone therapy. Sadly, the symptoms returned in a month.
She had also completed endless hours of pelvic physiotherapy, received nerve blocks, cortisone injections, tried different diets, and had also done a lot of spiritual work around it.
Sadly, the symptoms continued to worsen. There were flare ups that sometimes lasted three weeks, where she would visit the bathroom 30 plus times a day. The symptoms were always worse at night. This condition made it difficult for Leslie to do the most basic things.
When Leslie reached out to Dr. Adeel Khan for help, he was confident he could help her.
“We get some of the most complicated cases from all over the globe and because of that I have to work with other top specialists,” says Dr. Khan.
Dr. Khan brought in Dr. Hasnain Haider-Shah who is a Consultant Neuro Interventional and Interventional Radiologist with Eterna Health. He is one of the few interventional radiologists who does intra-arterial stem cell injections.
Leslie made her way to Eterna Health’s Los Cabos clinic to get treatment this past December.
“We will be doing intra-arterial injection of stem cells into the area of the bladder and her pelvis. She has inflammation of the pelvis,” explains Dr. Shah. “What we’re going to do is inject stem cells intra-arterially into those areas of the blood vessels, which supply the bladder, supply the pelvis, supply the area around the rectum and other areas of the pelvis.”
“Dr. Shah looked at two of my pelvic MRIs and saw inflammation, which was never mentioned by the other radiologists who reviewed my scans. He felt the stem cell treatment was my best option,” says Leslie.
Dr. Shah says that by putting in stem cells, he hopes to regenerate the normal cells so the abnormal cells (the ones that are causing inflammation) will go away and normal cells will re-populate where there are abnormalities.
The procedure went smoothly and Leslie returned home to Toronto just a couple days afterwards.
Leslie began to see real change three months following her stem cell treatment. We tell our patients to wait at least 4-6 months following a stem cell treatment to see major improvement.
“I no longer have any bladder pain. For me that’s kind of a miracle because I lived in so much bladder pain for so long. I almost lost hope whether I would feel pain free ever again. Well, that moment is finally here!” says Leslie. “I just want to give a huge thank you to the entire team at Eterna Health for changing my life.”
You are so welcome Leslie.
