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Finding purpose through adversity

I believe our stories are the footprints of our lives, and only we have the choice to decide, how and when are they going to define our actions and our future. 

Sometimes challenges will appear to us without any logical reasons behind them, and we often question ourselves: 

how is this even possible?

or what did I do to deserve this?

These were the first 2 questions I asked myself when I received a call from my younger sister 3 years ago. 

And only later I realized that this will be the time of my life where I was about to receive the biggest gift and the greatest knowledge about our human condition. 

As I said 3 years ago I received a call from my younger sister Laura, who lives in Barcelona, she was a type 1 diabetic for 26 years since age 6, she told me she was very scared, she had been to several doctors appointments in the past months, and they all gave her terrible news, she was developing retinopathy a disease that affects the eyes and causes blindness, she had neuropathy, a condition that affects the nerves on the legs and arms and specially her feet, where she could develop ulcers and had risk of infection and amputation, and finally and the worst of all, she had developed kidney disease, and her kidney function was decreasing rapidly.

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In that moment my whole world stopped, and I could think is that my younger sister who I love very much, was not goin to live much longer, I felt a tremendous amount of fear going though my body, and I did ask myself, how is this even possible?? I had just recently moved to New York, and now she was there by herself dealing with all of this… So I decided I was going to do everything in my power to alleviate her condition.

So I found one of the best research doctor on Diabetes and immunology in the country, he proposed to do a new treatment, with stem cell therapy infusion that could potentially regenerate her kidney tissue and improve diabetes complications, I started my first fundraiser event to collect the funds to support this pilot trial for her, she came to the US to receive this treatment in the middle of the pandemic where borders where still close between Europe and America, we had to spend 2 weeks in Mexico, before entering the US. And Finally we got approval by the FDA for her emergency treatment, but through all this process, fear was the king of our life’s.

 
 I Then realized that all our life, had been ruled by fear, since she was a little girl , doctors, teachers even my mom and members of the family keep telling her she had a disease that shortens her life and will get worse overtime… and there is no cure, so she was programmed to believe she was a sick girl and she will get worse overtime. And that was exactly what was happening to her. 

So the treatment really helped with her diabetes complications, blood glucose levels and high blood pressure went down, her retinopathy improved and also her sensation in legs, but the kidneys could not be saved, and her next treatment steps were dialysis and getting on waiting list for a double transplant to save her life.

And a whole new chapter of challenges began. 

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In that moment I felt that we really couldn’t do anything else but to surrender to the process. And then something hit me and I realized  that the more I continued to worry and to fear the more I will attract that, and after doing all and everything possible to find a cure in this material world, I thought  that something had to change and In that moment I choose not to believe that my sister was going to die or suffer, from a disease for the rest of her life, and that we had the power to change our beliefs and to heal our body and that new possibilities should appear to us.  

So I started doing a specific meditation every morning where I will visualize a movie with my sister being healthy , happy , and full of life, I will imagine us together swimming in the ocean, enjoining the summer, going out and dancing with friends and feeling joyful and free from disease. 

After 2 months doing these meditations I had a conversation with her, and it was the first time that she actually opened up to the possibility that this practice could help her too, so just by me believing in her healing, she was starting to change her belief and opening up to the possibilities of her health to change. So she began to do these meditations too, and to study neuroscience and how the law of attraction works, so she was creating a movie where she was seeing herself as if she was already healed. 

And her kidneys keep on decreasing and she went through dialysis, but that young woman was feeling strong and healthy in her heart and in her mind, and she knew her healing will happen soon, because she has seen it in her meditations day after day, so 7 months later , she was called for a double transplant, a new kidney and pancreas was found from a perfect donor, and just to give you an idea, the waiting list on this type of transplants can be three to four years, she was called after 7 months, and she received a successful double transplant that has given her a new life, and now that transplant that gave her life , also gave her purpose, and her purpose is to focus her career in psychotherapy to those patients going through the same health challenges as her, this process has also raised a thousands of dollars in diabetes research, this process has also created a program that works with the governments to implement new laws for mandatory pediatric screening , to detect who and what type of children could develop diabetes, this process launched the Silverstein Dream Foundation, a foundation with the unique purpose to improve our healthcare system, and support the research of new treatments , so we can bring the cures sitting at our labs to our patients beds, this process was not easy but this process has change our life’s forever.  And one thing is sure now… we won’t ever give up on our dreams.