Help Oliver Get Regenerative Stem Cell Therapy

Hello. My name is Anya Moorhead.

As I sit down to write this, my heart aches trying to find the words to describe just how difficult and unusual this situation has been. My partner, Oliver, is facing a debilitating disability, and we need your help in what could be the beginning of a renewed life for him and our family.

When I first met Oliver 6 years ago, he was hands-down the most radiant and exciting person I had ever met. A brilliant mind with a generous heart, and more passion and energy for life than I could comprehend at times. He loved to perform on stage, make music and content with his friends, snowboard, hike, camp, exercise, run laps around festival grounds, and he walked with a pace that left the average person struggling to keep up- a direct mirror of the intuitive foresight he possessed and led with that I watched inspire so many around us, not least of all myself.

Not long after we met, he began complaining of pain in his hips and back. This complaint progressed steadily and quickly to sleepless nights and widespread unexplained pain in most of the joints and muscles in his body. It took several doctors to come up with contraindicating diagnosis including fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and a connective tissue disorder that was exacerbated by several injuries he acquired in his former career as a snowboard instructor. He was prescribed every pain pill under the sun, but the pain only continued to get worse, particularly in his hips and low back.

Many specialists later, he received another diagnosis: Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a hypermobility disorder that presents a condition in which the ligaments and tendons fail to retain their integrity enough to stop pain and injury from occurring with even common movement and degeneration of every joint in the body.

At just 35 years old, the strain on his joints has caused an alarming multitude of issues, such as trouble walking, driving, bending down, standing and sitting; and an inability to run, jump, dance, twist quickly, or lift heavy objects. It has inhibited his ability to work a even a work-from-home job, do housework, care for himself, or adequately care for and play with our 3-year-old daughter Lillian.

In addition to these supremely difficult challenges, over the past 6 years Oliver has developed spinal cysts, a precancerous polyp condition in his colon along with several other serious GI issues, a concerning spot in his left lung, scoliosis, multiple disc issues in his lower back causing nerve pain in both legs so severe that it often leaves him bed-ridden, addictions to doctor prescribed pain medication that he is now working through recovery for, steep mental health decline, and has exhausted himself in the pursuit of trying to find a solution to the issues he faces every day that almost always begins with him waking up before dawn, screaming in pain.

This multi-layered condition has perhaps most notably resulted in large tears to his hip ligaments and cartilage on both sides, resulting in two labral hip repair surgeries in January 2021 and May 2022. Imaging has now confirmed both hips have re-torn likely due to the compromised connective tissue’s inability to regenerate itself. 

Doctors are now looking towards several other surgeries to try to repair the damage. However, these procedures come with a much more grim possibility of success due to his underlying issues, and a much higher possibility of future problems.

After countless doctor's visits in multiple counties, a list of different diagnoses, two unsuccessful surgeries (with more on the horizon), tens of thousands of dollars spent on medical and holistic treatments, piling medical debt, years of physical therapy, countless different pills, multiple steroidal injections in multiple joints, continuing degeneration, precious days and long nights lost to widespread agonizing pain, and the recent onset of an unknown sickness that has come over him and is now jeopardizing his newly found work opportunity, he is deciding to receive stem cell therapy in conjunction with several other regenerative medicine treatments as a hopeful last resort.

Stem cell therapy is a type of medical treatment that introduces special cells to the body to promote the regeneration and repair of diseased, dysfunctional, or injured tissue. Stem cell treatment has been proven to improve the condition of hundreds of different diseases and disabilities, including spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, cancer, burns, osteoarthritis, multiple sclerosis, cartilage defects, and many other seemingly incurable conditions.

The success stories from these treatments are nothing short of miraculous, but because this type of therapy is still considered experimental in the eyes of insurance companies, the out-of-pocket costs in the United States can range from $15,000 to over $100,000 depending on the severity of the condition and the intensity of the treatment.

Oliver has had several consultations and specialized doctors are quite certain that he would benefit greatly, if not fully, from these treatments. He has been accepted as a patient at a highly renown medical center in Mexico, and is told that he has a very probable chance at avoiding more surgeries, and achieving a level of functionality, health, and decrease in pain that would make his life not only liveable, but enjoyable again.

We are humbly asking for the assistance of our community to help Oliver cover some of his treatment costs and give his body a fighting chance for a normal life. We can expect the entire treatment will not be more than $10,000, and will permanently fix the majority of the issues at hand. No donation is too small. We will come up with the money one way or another, but any help we can get is beyond appreciated, and every dollar raised goes directly into an account used only to help pay for this specific medical treatment and travel expenses. Life has become absolutely grid locked around Oliver’s physical state, and progression will be greatly hindered until something changes. 

These unsuccessful surgeries and the parallel conditions that have presented themselves have been the worst sequence of events that has ever happened to Oliver, and watching him endure them has been the worst thing that has ever happened to me. The chance of not having to endure more surgeries, more pain, more lost opportunities, is the greatest hope our family has had yet. If you have ever known the brightest side of Oliver, please help us to bring it back.

We're overwhelmingly grateful for every person that has empathized with Oliver's story and connected with our family along the way. Oliver and I have so much love for you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts. We know that there is always a way through the dark nights and into a brighter day where, as Oliver likes to say, the grass is always greener. 

www.bioadvancedmc.com