HEALTH: Unfunded treatment for MS works wonders for Lyn woman

LYN After 12 years battling symptoms of multiple sclerosis, Lyn's Kathy Francis says the shackles have come off. Francis says since a $7,000 vascular treatment to unplug neck veins she received in Philadelphia one year ago a procedure known as CCSVI that is unavailable in Canada she has had a new lease on life. It's freedom, said the 60-year-old mother of two and grandmother of two. When you get an improvement in the quality of your life, no matter how small or big, it's freedom. In her case, Francis has experienced improvements she says are life-changing. Gone is the brain-fog, chronic fatigue, headaches and unsteady balance of the past dozen years. In its place, she has resumed driving, following a regular exercise routine and rolling on the floor with her grandchildren. Francis said a change in her energy level, strength and dexterity was almost immediate after receiving the procedure in September 2012. I woke up in the hospital and I thought, Oh my God, I've got warm fingers and warm toes. They've been cold for 12 years. And my skin was pink. Not white or gray like it had been. Just days after returning home from hospital, Francis found she could stand on one foot and walking heel-to-toe, backwards and forwards. It may not seem like much but if you have not been able to do that for 12 years, it's a big deal. She is fed up with resistant politicians and medical professionals preventing the treatment from being given to MS patients in Canada. As noted often by proponents of CCSVI (chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency), the procedure treats MS symptoms but is not a cure. Not all people with MS who receive the treatment can expect symptoms to subside, both facts Francis acknowledges. But she said her own case and those of many others is evidence of some benefit of the vascular procedure, which is commonly done for people with other ailments but is specifically not available for those with MS. You don't have to convince her son Jason, who has seen both his sister Megan and mother restored to health after having the treatment in the U.S. It's been a complete turnaround for my mother, said Jason. Before the procedure, I used to come to check on her and she was flat on the couch, sometimes she hadn't moved for two days. She was depressed and couldn't get up or down the stairs. Now she's taken over the gardens, cutting the grass and getting the weed-whacker out. It's a complete turnaround.

nick.gardiner@sunmedia.ca

Fast Facts: CCSVI proponents stay positive Supporters of the CCSVI treatment for multiple sclerosis remain upbeat despite recent Canadian studies showing no co-relation between blocked veins and the disease. Brockville's Amy Preston, who has had mixed results from the treatment herself, said they were enough to convince her blocked veins are a piece of the MS puzzle that needs further examination. Preston, who organized local concern into a CCVSI Brockville online group, attended a national CCSVI conference in Sherbrooke last weekend and was inspired by the dedication of volunteers and physicians who are intent on determining the relationship between MS and blocked veins. I was excited before the conference and even more excited after by the things discovered by people working on this.

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HEALTH: Unfunded treatment for MS works wonders for Lyn woman