Archive for April, 2010

Started April 13, Ended Today…


h1 Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

So much is going on in the world of CCSVI I am super busy! I made our website and am keeping track of the email list in a spreadsheet and my own address book. We were all over the news on Friday after our protest! I even got in on the action when Global News interviewed me and used about 3 seconds of that interview in this piece. Please note my home care came at 9:30 and my handi-bus came at 10:20 and there was no time for make-up and my hair was wet, and dried out in the wind. Thank you.

Also, the next day W5 aired this brilliant story (after featuring our protest on the National news, that’s right, bbs!) We are making history. We will not stop until this treatment is available for us everywhere. Dr. Freedman can suck it. I could go on and on about his financial interests in Big Pharma and the “experimental” procedures he has trialed that the MS Society funded in which people DIED (”they were aware of the risks”) from all the toxic drugs he put in their systems. Yet THIS is “risky” and “experimental”? Angioplasty is done every day, moron. “Why would you fix something that may not have anything to do with the disease?” I don’t know, Dr. Asshole Freedman, why did they set my broken wrist in a cast, when that has nothing to do with MS? Maybe because when something is broken, you fix it. When veins are blocked, preventing proper blood flow from the brain, perhaps you UNblock them. That’s all.

The controversy surrounding this simple fact is truly astounding.

In other news, my new friend Wendy (featured in the above Global News clip) was just here. She made me a big kale salad! She is ridiculously awesome and planning to move overseas soon. She spent over a month in Ireland before going to Poland for her procedure, and it looks like she will be making Ireland her new home. That makes me sad, I just met her! She can’t leave now!

As for other aspects of my health, the terrible vertigo finally went away so I am back to just plain dizziness and double vision. Which is fun. And the bleeding? Well, I’m feeling some pain and pressure down there so I’m thinking I do have fibroids, after all. My doctor put me on birth control pills but that hasn’t stopped the bleeding. A surgical intervention (hysterectomy) may be the only way. I don’t recover from surgery well, though, so I will try to dissolve them another way. Any ideas?

I also went to the sleep clinic last month, I forgot to mention that. Perhaps because it was a complete waste of time? After spending that night hooked up to all those wires back in February, nothing came from that. I don’t have any sleep disorders/apnea/snoring whatever. I told them I already knew that, it was my addiction to prescription sleeping pills I want to end. First I visited with a student doctor, who gave me all the textbook advice I already know and obviously knows nothing about MS. “Why do you go to bed so early/spend up to 12 hours in bed?” Um… because I listen to my body and I can’t function without plenty of bed rest. I have MS, look it up, DOCTOR. “What would happen if you don’t take your pills?” I won’t fall asleep, at all. “What’s the worst that could happen, if you don’t sleep for a few days?”Um… how about I need to at least function to get myself out of bed to the toilet, and if I don’t get at least a few hours, I won’t be able to do that? I said I’d need to be in a rehab facility where they could give me bed baths and hook me up to a catheter while going through withdrawal. Like they COULD HAVE DONE at the care facility while I was there, but nooooooo. Both him and the real doctor basically said there is nothing wrong with being on sleeping pills for the rest of your life and if I don’t want to be, I’ll have to go through a few nights without sleep, and if I can’t do that, then stay on the pills forever, see ya later.

I think I’ve got a pretty good system worked out with the two pills a night. I head for my bed around 9:00 (depending on my strength), take one pill after I pee around 10:00, sleep for a couple hours, get up to pee, take the second pill, sleep for a couple hours, get up to pee, am groggy enough to fall back asleep for a couple hours, wake up to pee, then I may or may not fall back asleep but will stay in bed until my next pee around 7:00 am. Then depending on my home care arrival time I may lay down for up to 2 more hours. Then pee.

Welcome to a night in the life of the MS bladder.

Wendy says her bladder has improved since her CCSVI treatment and she is noticing little improvements in that area and all over since returning from Poland. I want that treatment NOWWWWWWW!

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The above was written yesterday and already so much more has happened! CCSVI Calgary had a meeting last night and it was crazy. The room was overstuffed with people and everyone is working so hard. I met a woman who is a radiology technician at a hospital here, who has MS. She knows the local Interventional Radiologist I’m waiting to hear back from about getting into his trial. Apparently, he was looking at the veins of his MS patients when this first came out, and found that they all have blockages. So he went about applying for a proper trial, but since the MS Society is dragging their feet and don’t REALLY want to do this, he is just going to go ahead and start testing people. I called the clinic today and was told he is just waiting for the proper protocols and will begin testing the week after next. I am, she said, #17 on the list and they’ll be doing four people a week. So, I may not be leaving town for testing, after all! I should hear back next week with my appointment date. Then I’ll cancel all my travel plans.

Oh, and when I got home last night, there was a big fat cheque in my mailbox from an Angel, to go towards treatment, wherever I go for that. I screamed. It was like winning the lottery! Totally unexpected and takes about half that load off my mind. Seriously. Huge cheque.

Okay! On to other topics. I saw the amazing, incomparable Mr. Peter Katz on Saturday night. He was BRILLIANT. Easily the best show I have ever seen from him or maybe anyone, ever. The Ironwood was packed and there were times you could have heard a pin drop. Everyone was mesmerized. He was given three encores and several standing ovations. I cried three times. It was epic.

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This entry has been sitting open on my computer for over a week! I can’t seem to get around to finishing it. My bleeding has gotten worse and the pain has been unbearable, 24 hours/day, for about a week. I went into Emergency on Friday and that was a waste of a night, they did nothing for me. I finally had an ultrasound yesterday and the results are back but my appointment isn’t until May 1 (my birthday). I can’t wait that long, I want my uterus ripped out of me NOW, this pain and bleeding is crazy!

CCSVI Calgary is keeping me busy and this pain is exhausting so when things get better for me and I’m in better spirits I will post about something besides this.

Oh, carpets steam cleaned on Tuesday, I can scratch that off my 101 list!