Julia Szabo - Medicine Dog: The Miraculous Cure That Healed My Best Friend and Saved My Life

Medicine Dog

The Miraculous Cure That Healed My Best Friend and Saved My Life

Julia Szabo

For everyone who said I couldnt,

and Susan Ainsworth, who said I could,

and

in loving memory of Sam, Sheba, Eleanor Mondale, and Dr. Katherine Rogers

Copyright 2014 by Julia Szabo

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.

Lyons Press is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press.

Lyrics from Babe, Im Gonna Leave You 1963, words and music by Anne H. Bredon, used by permission.

Last Will and Testament of an Extremely Distinguished Dog by Eugene ONeill used with permission of Yale University.

Project Editor: Lauren Brancato Layout: Mary Ballachino

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Szabo, Julia, 1965

Medicine dog : the miraculous cure that healed my best friend and saved my life / Julia Szabo.
pages cm
Summary: Thanks to her dog and his visionary vet, Julia became the first American to receive stem cells to heal her IBD Provided by publisher.
eISBN 978-1-4930-0795-0 (ePub)
1. PetsHealth. 2. PetsDiseasesAlternative treatment. 3. Stem cellsTransplantation. 4. Veterinary genetics. I. Title.

SF745.5.S93 2014 636.089'602774dc23

2013045435

Contents

I consulted with my two brothers, DR. REASON and DR. EXPERIENCE, and took a voyage to visit my mother NATURE, by whose advice, together with the help of DR. DILIGENCE, I at last obtained my desire; and, being warned by MR. HONESTY, a stranger in our days, to publish it to the world, I have done it.

Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician

Prologue

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,

But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,

And filter and fibre your blood.

Walt Whitman

On January 9, 2013, my dog and I made medical history. We underwent tandem, cutting-edge stem cell procedures, Desiree in New York City (our hometown) and I in Rancho Mirage, California. At forty-seven, I became the first American to receive adult stem cells, derived from my own belly fat, to repair the chronic gastrointestinal disease Id struggled with since 1999. At the same time, on the opposite coast, beautiful Desireea German shepherd just two years youngbecame the first New York City dog to have her own stem cells surgically collected, then cryobanked for future use, until the inevitable future date when they are needed to help her heal.

This was the culmination of a strange journey, one that transported me from New York to Spain to California, with several stops in between. It was an extraordinary day of healing that left me feeling brand new. My technical birthday is May 20; Im a proud Taurus, albeit a cusp baby. But January 9 is my re-birthday, for on that date I felt born again, with a clean slate and a second chance at a healthy, happy life. For Desiree, as for all of her canine kind, every dayeven a rainy oneis a clean slate filled with positive potential. I dont know her technical birthday, because I adopted her from an animal shelter, where she was brought in as a stray. So from here on out, January 9 is Desirees re-birthday, too.

What happened on that day changed both our lives, and Im convinced that it absolutely saved mine. And to think that I owe it to a motley pack of adopted shelter dogsfourteen in all over the past twenty years, plus more than a dozen fosters. Those dogs gave me a sense of purpose, bringing order, peace, and a healthy routine to my chaotic, inconsistent existence. They quite literally saved my life. This book tells our story and concludes a fifteen-year odyssey. On my journey, not only was a dog waiting for me when I arrived home (as canine Argos faithfully awaited Odysseus) but also several dogs held my paw every step of the way. This is a canine memoir in which the lead dog doesnt heel, he heals! Thats why I call him, and the book he inspired, Medicine Dog.

Desiree and Julia, ten days after treatment, 2013 Daniel Reichert

All dogs qualify as Medicine Dogs, because canine healing power is well documented. Dogs reduce our blood pressure and raise our levels of oxytocin just by letting us pet them. They boost our cardiovascular health by taking us out for regular walksthe heart-healthiest exercise there is, at any age. They lift our mood and lower our stress; they relax muscle tonicity in children with spastic cerebral palsy; they alert to attacks of anaphylaxis and asthma, intervening to save peoples lives. The canines amazing sense of smell can be harnessed to detect cancer or dangerous dips in blood sugar. Theyre good medicine, Medicine Dogs.

As a journalist, I can vouch that my Medicine Dogs gave me something extra: the motivation to research and report on the most high-tech healing modalities available to dogs. Finding innovative solutions to extend and improve my dogs lives informed my job as the Pet Reporter and led me to the biggest scoop of my career: the astonishing healing power of adult stem cells for ailing people and pets. I learned about the groundbreaking work of Vet-Stem, pioneer of veterinary regenerative medicine in California, which heals equine and canine patients using the animals own stem cells. I was so impressed with Vet-Stem and its cell harvesting and culturing technology, I arranged for two of my beloved dogs to undergo the Vet-Stem procedure when arthritis robbed them of their youthful mobility.

My dogs amazing success with adult stem cells was, for me, a life-changer that motivated me to seek the same level of high-tech healing for myself. This was easier said than achieved, for the treatment my dogs received was not available to human patients in America when I first went about trying to obtain it. I was shocked to learn that dogs could be cured with adult stem cells removed from their own fat, while humans had to settle for antiquated, risky surgical methods. There was something basically wrong with this picture, something I just couldnt stomach.

But I was encouraged to discover that, elsewhere in the world, it was a very different story: People with a variety of life-threatening medical problems were being cured with their own stem cells. Some of the stories told of healing that was nothing short of dramatic. What was going on here? I resolved to be healed the high-tech way, no matter how far I had to travel to achieve my goal. And I dedicated myself to reporting on regenerative medicine for dogs and people, to raise awareness of adult stem cells healing potential, in the hope that more patients would join me in demanding much-needed change.

The media is rife with stories of human healing modalities being applied to dogs, from high-tech hyperbaric oxygen therapy to homespun homeopathy. But what I was seeking was the opposite: a stem cell procedure that any dog could receive but was as yet not available for humans. Strange as it may sound, getting treated by a doctor precisely the way my vet treated my dogs became my mission. Along the way on this odd and singular quest, I encountered setback after frustrating setback. My dogs tenacity inspired me to keep on keeping on. My hunt for a good doctor took me across the country and around the world. At a time when I despaired of finding one competent, compassionate physician to help me, dogsand only dogsled me to the healer who would finally solve my problem once and for all. Thanks to my tail-wagging Medicine Dogs, I found not one brilliant, caring physician but severaland wouldnt you know, these docs are all dog lovers. Coincidence? I think not.