AMERICA

3 countries, 5 cities, 4 hotels, 4 treatments, 10 airplanes, 5 buses, 4 limos, a zillion taxi cabs, a ton of turbulence, 0 sleep, and 18 days later.... I am officially back in America!!!

Thank you everyone for following my journey, after I get a little more sleep I will post some of my favorite photos of my journey...

Next week follow me to Cabo as I celebrate my birthday and a much needed time on the beach. But for this week you can enjoy me working extra hard to make up for the time I have spent away.

Your Miss America?... you shouldn't have been

Well yesterday was my last full day here!!! I woke up early after a late evening walking the streets since I got kicked out of my cab.

We were picked up by Mr. Lee, he is awesome!!! He took us to RNL where we went to a church service which was really nice. I really enjoyed it. Even though it was all in Korean, there were parts you just knew what they were talking about. Dr. Ra introduced us to the RNL Bio Research team as VIP guests of his, and talked about our diseases and everything wrong with us.

After church, we went down to receive our last treatment, I couldn't have been more ready. We ran into a lady who absolutely loved the Jones, but I found incredibly rude, she was the first person I had met on my entire trip to be soo blantanly rude. Telling me that I was basically not pretty enough to have ever been in pageants and completely talking over me and pushing me aside, like I have no feelings. I really hope Dr. Ra doesn't use her anymore because I have never found someone so rude, she really hurt my feelings.

Finally, after she was gone, I got to get my treatment. Then Mr. Lee, Ms. Woo and Dr. Ra came in to tell me I was getting facial injections. I kind of freaked, I was not prepared for this. But they assured me that they felt with my condition it would help my skin on my face with all my crazy breakouts so I agreed.

It was an interesting feeling, kind of like pins being stuck into your face, they used a local anesthetic to help numb your face. I am a little bruised and swollen here and there but anxious to see the results.

Last night, Geanna and I decided to go back to the shops, only to arrive and it felt like it had all been a dream. It was all closed down, we found some other ones but they were not the same. Needless to say it was an interesting evening. We finally caught a good cab that cost $7 to get back, which it what is should cost not $200 and made it back safely.

I am packing up, getting my bus ticket, and saying goodbye to my beautiful suite and delicious chocolate ice cream and headed on a 24 flying journey...

Because I am American....

I am EXHAUSTED!!

We got a late start to the morning, had a nice breakfast, then Kathi and I got pedicures. Which were overpriced and not as great as I get home...kind of disappointing ya know....

After pedicures I did some work, and laid in my sunroom as I read and almost completely finished my new book.

Then we all met up in the lounge for some drinks and snacks, I was super excited to see whipped cream and stawberries, I ate a huge bowl. Then we decided to walk to this restaurant for dinner... lets just call the restaurant " not very helpful"

After dinner Ganna and I went to the market for some shopping, we got everything we wanted and needed. Found a cab, made it half way back to our hotel and got kicked out of the cab because we refused to pay him the $200 he wanted. Instead we gave him $20 and we hiked our 5-10 mile up hill hike back to the hotel. Luckily I am really good with directions in foreign counties and got us back safely, well 15 pounds later!!

Tomorrow is final treatment day!!!

Geisha Girls....

Yesterday was a lot of fun. The Jones surprised us girls by taking us to Kyoto. Where we got dressed up in traditional Japanese dress (kimonos) and walked the streets of Kyoto. We were going to do a traditional Japanese tea, but opted for starbucks instead. We had decided that Starbucks was more our cup of tea.

It was quite interesting however, how many people stopped to take pictures of us, or with us, it was kind of like being a celebrity. However, I was dressed not the way I would have dressed if I knew my photo was going to be taken a million times.

Today, we flew back to Korea, it is just a lot cheaper here and the people speak better english and are a lot more welcoming than in Japan, who knew? They upgraded me at the hotel, I have my OWN FLOOR! How weird is that? It almost makes it more lonely, super cool, but a little lonely!!

I am excited for my pedicure tomorrow, and then Saturday we get our last treatment of stem cells. I am also going back to Doota tomorrow to buy my final gifts and probably a duffle bag, my family has gotten too large and everywhere I go I think aw I should get so and so this!!!

Almost home, just a couple more days....

The heart won't be denied

Song of the day : The Heart won't be denied by Colin Devlin

Its just how I feel today.... not much to catch up on, had breakfast, had lunch, went to dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. So I ate all day....bread and cheese literally I had pancakes, toast for breakfast, cheesy bread for lunch, and chips and cheese for dinner. I am officially off meat.... yea me!

Downloading American TV shows via Itunes to make me feel at home.

It does taste similar to Benihanas.....

Tonight's dinner might have tasted similar to Benihanas...but still very far off on the same token. As I ate it, I was soo excited thinking "finally food, I love it", however bad news shortly came after as my stomach did not agree with my taste buds....I am pretty sure the 2 times I have tried to eat meat this entire trip I have gotten sick... I think I have to become a vegetarian, however I am not big on veggies... maybe I can be a carb-a-terian. I person who only eats bread and bread products, however, I am allergic to wheat/oat products. Can I be a fruit-a-terian? But then I will get a lot of canker sores and since I don't have a gallbladder I am not sure that will work out. I guess I will be a peanut butter, goldfish a terian! I think this will get old quickly... I know they told me my stem cells would change my taste buds I just didn't realize it would make me hate food all together.... Whats a girl to do?

On a side note, I had a terrific massage today ( BIG SHOUT OUT TO DADDY, THANKS!!!) It was much needed, you can even ask the massage therapist her words were " i have never seen someone with some many knots throughout there entire body, your body was so tense" she even told me it hurt her fingers to try and rub them out. AWESOME! Thank you Lupus for another wonderful symptom!!!

It looks like we might be headed back to Seoul soon, rather than staying here in Osaka, I will know more in the morning and be able to update you all. Hope everyone had a terrific mothers day and I can't wait to come home!! Miss you ALL!!! XOXO

Food World.....

Today we did pretty much NOTHING!!!

I finally slept, so that was good, and I ate pizza last night for dinner and it was very good. Tomorrow, Dr. Jones is headed back to Korea to speak to doctors. I created his powerpoint presentation for him. Kathi and I are going to go get massages, I desperately need one, my body just doesn't ever stop hurting.

I think The Jones are wanting to go back to Korea, they are going to talk to Donna Lee and the RNL team to see if we can get our last treatment in Korea and go back there on Wednesday. I don't really care one way or the other. However, our hotel is a lot nicer here in Japan and the food is better, but I will do whatever I am jello.

That was pretty much my day, I read a lot of books to Sophie and we all had breakfast and lunch together, and I ordered ice cream for dinner via room service.


I would like to get out of the hotel some tomorrow. We will see.

Happy Mothers Day to all!I hope you all have a wonderful day and a very special Mothers Day shout out to my mom I love you and miss you and wish you were here, eat lots of yummy food for me at the 4 seasons I am jealous I am not there.

Please continue to pray for my grandma, I know tomorrow will be a hard day for my family.

Enjoy the photos of the food I have seen, eaten or just stared at, it will explain my thinness and paleness.

R...N....L....

Today was another BUSY day. My dad left this morning after breakfast, which made me very sad. I cried. However, Dr. Ra's pastor did pray over me,my father, and Dr. Ra. It was very sweet, I cried the entire time. I couldn't understand a word, it was all in Korean but it still was very sweet.

After my father left, we went to the hospital for round 2 of treatments. Its a beautiful new hospital. One of the doctors is even a magician so he entertained us. He was very good.

After the hospital, we went to lunch, but on the way to lunch we stopped off at McDonalds - you can say we were nervous. And thank goodness we did, lunch was all tofu, another beautiful place but I was not feeling the food.

After both lunches, we went to the palace. It was huge and very beautiful, this is what I expected Japan to be like, very quite, very polite and very zen.

After the palace, I had to say goodbye again to Dr. Hong and Donna Le. I was very sad to see them go, Donna Le and I became BFFS and Dr. Hong always made me laugh with all his funny jokes.

We have just arrived at the Ritz in Osaka and boy is it different from the one in Seoul. I think its going to be a long 8 days.

I miss home, I miss my family and my puppies, I miss the food and Jameson. Wish I was there.

Ichiban....

Oh, EE, DO!!! Some words and movements to a popular Japanaese rock singer who fuses rock with traditional Japanese music. Yesterday was exhausting, we headed to Japan. We flew from Seoul to Osaka, took a 2 hour bus from Osaka to Kyoto, met everyone at a temple for lunch. It was beautiful. Went to the ribbon cutting and got a tour of the brand new hospital. I was interviewed and shown all over the t.v. both in Korea and in Japan talking about my disease and so forth.

We rushed to the hotel, changed very quickly and went to the celebration. It was a very long day. My dad is now about to head back to the states which makes me very sad. I am headed to the hospital for round 2. I will update later

6 pounds later....

Yesterday we took a city tour with everyone. First, we went to Seoul Tower, which is very similar to the needle in Seattle. It is the highest point in Seoul. You take an elevator up and you can overlook the city. At Seoul tower they had Cold Stone Creamery, I didn't get any even though I wanted it. We shopped at the gift shops and got a few gifts. After Seoul Tower, we went and ate lunch.

Dr. Hong asked who would prefer not to eat Korean food and I was the only one to raise my hand, he told me I would just have to suffer through it, even though no one else wanted the Korean food either. It was also a holiday yesterday here in Korea. All the children were out of school and parents off of work for Childrens Day. I was very jealous that we never had that holiday in the states when I was a kid.

I took lots of pictures of the meal we were served, which I chose not to eat. After you see the pictures you will see why. At traditional Korean meals, they eat like 12 courses of food, it never stops its amazing. My camera had died so I have to go buy a new battery or something so that it will work.

After lunch, we were taken to the blue house, which is like the white house in America. It is where their president works and lives. We got a tour and went to the gift shops again, I did not buy anything.

After that we took an hour long bus ride to the lake, where we met Dr. Ra and his team for dinner, it was also a traditional Korean dinner, the food looked very similar to lunch. I did not eat again.

The stem cells from the day before had made me very weak, very tired and nausea. The smell of food, the thought of eating all made me sick to my stomach.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel. I have lost a total of 6 pounds since arriving in Korea. Today I am getting a facial and a massage at the RCC I am VERY excited! We are also going shopping at an underground mall, where they have American shops and food. Then we are going to the largest Duty Free Shop in the world where you can get designer goods for half the price. Soo excited, I dreamed in Louis Vuitton last night, and that is no lie.

Missing home, missing my family, and missing Mexican food! Happy Cinco de Mayo, very sad I can't drink a margarita and eat fajitas right now. Today is our last day in Seoul, tomorrow we head to Japan!!!

World Peace.

Yesterday, Cecily picked me up and took me the National Museum of Korea. It's a 4 story museum with basically a huge history lesson. She had some business phone calls do, so we got me an audio and I walked around. I was approached by a man who worked at the museum (seen below), he asked me a lot of questions kept telling me I had a pretty faced, asked to take a photo with me, gave me his number and asked me to dinner. I politely explained to him I was there for business and had no time but I appreciated the offer. I continued through the museum. Once I finished I went to the museum shop and bought some gifts for my family and friends.

After that, Cecily took me to lunch at a French-Asian restaurant. Here we had a 5 course meal. We had a panacota, a cucumber tomato fruit vinegar salad, then a tomato pasta- which included every seafood imaginable including octopus, scallops, mussels, shrimp, fish, oysters and other things I did not know existed nor wanted to know what they were. Then I was served a soybean chicken sticky rice mushroom bannana leaf. The chicken was pink which was weird to me. Then we were served raspberry sorbet and green tea (my favorite part).

After lunch, Cecily took me across town to the hospital where I received my stem cell injections. This took a little over 2 hours, then I received a tour of their facilities and learned how the stem cells are regrown and banked and so forth. Dr. Hong (seen below) also interviewed and followed me around with a camera to document my journey. He also kept asking me about pageants and how my lupus has affected me competing. He was quite funny in that every time I would answer he would say " and World Peace". We told Dr. Hong he missed his calling in being a comedian.

I was very tired and weak after my stem cells, they took me back to the hotel where I got very sick. We ordered room service, where the chocolate ice cream was the best thing I ate. We also ended up switching rooms because our room was very hot and I was very ill. Now we are in a suite which is pretty cool.


Now I am off to get ready and then head to breakfast, however I am just not hungry anymore the smell of food makes me nausea, I can't wait to get home. We are going on a city tour today and we found a TGIFridays so maybe that will be good.

Missing home a lot, continue to keep my family and your prayers and pray time goes by quicker.

First Day of my Life....

It is 6 am here in Korea, and Dad and I could not sleep. Been awake for hours tossing and turning. I hate it when I can't sleep.

I want to follow up on yesterday, even though things were a little different than I am used to, I still had a wonderful day and was greatly appreciative of Cecily and Sue's hospitality, they were very kind, very helpful, spoke great English, and beautiful women. Plus I really liked there style and they used to live in one of my favorite towns NASHVILLE!!!! So I do want to give a big shout of to Cecily and Sue and say Kam Sa Me Da (not sure on the spelling but pretty sure it means Thank You)!!

Last night, we had dinner with Dr. Ra and his staff, I heart Donna Le, she works in his Maryland office and is AWESOME! She even has an IPAD!! I told her my brothers would be soo jealous, those things are pretty rad. We went to a buffet restaurant here at the hotel, they had a lot of different food options. I opted for the pizza and the sticky rice. I decided to shy away from the meats for the day. I told Donna Le about my burger and she laughed and told me that Korean Beef is not good, it is really expensive and really fat and that I should just stay away. I haven't yet seen chicken yet though, kind of sad I love chicken!!!

Dinner went well and Dr. Ra's team is amazing, they are all very kind and gracious. They told me a story about mice that had lupus (didn't know mice could have lupus) and that mice with lupus, died much quicker and faster than mice without lupus. They gave human stem cells to the mice with lupus and they lived much longer. It did not cure there lupus but it did treat it. I thought that was a good story. However, at first when they mentioned giving the mice stem cells, I thought they meant the mice had stem cells and gave them those, but it turned out it was human stem cells which I found very interesting.

I also met a painter who lives in Hawaii, so JEALOUS!!!! And he is here for his second round of stem cells to help his rheumatoid arthritis and his life has been much better and seen much improvement. Also a good story.


One thing I do find interesting that we have here at the hotel.... heated toilet seats, I am not sure I find it a good thing, it makes me feel very awkward.

Well I am off to have more waffles... then Cecily is picking me up this afternoon to take me to get my stem cells. Wish me luck. I will post photos later.


Please keep my family in your prayers: grandma, grandpa, mom and her brothers! Very tough time and I am very sad I am not at home with them.

Pretty sure I ate a domestic animal....

Well today has been an interesting day to say the least, was woken up at 5 am by father e-mailing. Tossed and turned for a little while longer, til he left to go work out. I of course did not work out, well because I am on a "semi-vacation" and have boycotted the whole eating healthy, working out thing. Plus since all the food is icky and smells here, looks like I will loose weight that way.

We went down to breakfast where I did eat one thing that tasted normal WAFFLES!!!! They were good seems to be staple food item for the duration of my trip. After breakfast, dad had to go to some press conference with an artist who had been healed by the stem cell therapies. So I skyped for awhile, and then received a phone call from Juan June (pretty sure that is not how you spell his name, however that is how it is pronounced), he called a couple of times and then his wife called. She (Cecily) came and picked me up with her friend, we will call her Sue, since I can't spell her name nor remember how to say it, so Sue it is. They took to my lunch first.

The lunch place (seen above) was a 3 story very modern building called Passions 5. It was very nice, and it had a bakery, which smelt good, so naturally I was excited. Of course however, I sit down and look at a menu that was all in Korean so Cecily and Sue helped me order. There was a hamburger on the menu, 2 different types, one was called the Dynamite burger but also had pork in it, and unfortunately I do not eat pig. The other burger was called the Ratatouille Burger, which they told me was all beef. I asked them to ask the lady to have nothing on it but the meat and the bread, because lets face it I had no idea what to expect. Well the meal came, and my burger had some sort of white spicy sauce which covered the entire thing, Sue got the dynamite burger which looked much better, it even had onion rings on it. I was also served 4 exactly french fries and a squirt of ketchup. I was polite and tried to eat the burger, which I chewed for about 5 minutes and there were really hard pieces in there that were similar to bone. Needless to say, I thought the Ratatouille Burger might have actually been Rat. So now I feel like vomiting.


After lunch, they took me to Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was really cool, and really big. I got to see the changing of the guards and was stared at quite a bit. This is where the Emperor and his wives lived. We walked around and I took lots of photos. I wanted to go to the museum, but Sue and Cecily were in heels and their feet hurt. So we left and they took me to a traditional Korean tea house and antique district. Here we ordered some tea, they recommended a tea for me that was very sweet and citrus, I was expecting better but it was still good. We also had a traditional Korean dessert that was a rice type cookie, very similar to rice cakes. After that we walked around into some shops where I bought my mom a gift.



Now I am getting ready for dinner with some business people and praying I like the food or else, waffles will be the only food I will be eating.

Missing home and everyone!!!

Arrival in Seoul....

Well we have officially arrived in Seoul... and I already miss the USA....

It is already sunday May 2nd here 7 pm while back home it is 5 am, and I have yet to go to sleep yet, I lost a whole day. Everything is so different here, lets just say based on my plane ride, the menus I have seen and the smells, I will be posting lots of food pictures!

But for now, I am going to try and eat something, take a shower, some medicine and keep myself up for the next 2 hours so hopefully I can get on a schedule. Just praying these 3 weeks go by quickly, or else I think I will cry everyday.