10/14/11 Feelin that way........

Opened my eyes to a new kind of way
All the good times that you saved
Are you feeling,
You feeling that way too
Or am I just,
Am I just a fool......


Journey hit the nail on the head with this one.  I’m now 9 weeks post-op and as has been the case every time I circulate blood like a normal human, I see improvement in my gait and breathing initially, and now that my wounds are all dried out, instead of feeling like a fool, I'm really starting to feel some of the benefits I felt back last October when I had my first CCSVI done.  Walking is improved, bowel is improved, fewer or no morning headaches, cog fog reduced or gone, MS hug is gone, and I have a general feeling of better health from the greater breathing and oxygen intake. 

Anyone who has read this blog will know I am convinced MS is not a neurological or auto immune disorder.  That explanation simply isn't plausible to me.  I think MS lesions on the myelin sheath, unlike cancer cells that are living, are cells or cellular material that have died from a hypoxic condition in the microscopic veins after arterial delivery has been completed.  Veins carry about 25% of the oxygen that arteries carry, but they need that remaining oxygen to keep the drain side of the circulatory system alive.  Because of lower oxygen levels and/or saturation, I think stagnation in the venous flow over time kills cells on the myelin when the microscopic pathways become hypoxic.  I think that restoration of venous flow through CCSVI raises that level of oxygen saturation required for cells to remain healthy, and perhaps eventually even restore.  Remember, nerve cells are the slowest to regenerate.  I think this explains why MS generally doesn’t onset until people are at or near 40, why we feel some type of immediate relief from a CCSVI angio but not fully heal immediately, and why the repeated infusion of oxygen might slowly over time allow regeneration of the myelin.  What auto-immune hyptothesis even comes close?

I've been posting to this blog for a couple of years now as a way to keep myself accountable and to share news with friends and family about my condition.  All of us MS guys and girls know what a hassle it is to answer the old "how you doing" every time we talk to someone.  And of course people care, but I've always wanted to be treated like a normal person since I got this stupid disease.  Thus the blog.  It's easier. 
"Hey, Mike how's it going?" 
"Not too bad, you read the blog lately?" 
"Yeah, seems it's going well." 
"Yep, so let's talk about business, motorcycles, music, or something else more important because I'm not sick today."

Now suddenly, in the past few weeks the traffic on my blog has elevated significantly, and the number of people writing to me has increased tenfold.  Either I'm a great guy who everyone wants to talk to, or my experience at Mayo has lit up some kind of hope firestorm for those MS turned CCSVI turned occluded jugular/DVT patients.  I'll go with the latter.......

Think about it.  How cruel is it that we have MS, get lured into all kinds of magazine article false senses of hope with promises of new drugs and procedures, and then CCSVI comes along promising utopia - until the mighty thrombus takes over.  Can we get a break?

I think so.  I really do.  Re-read what I think MS is.  Then go talk to a doctor who may not agree.  Then form your own opinion.

I didn't invent or discover CCSVI, but I am helping to bring it to mainstream medicine.  I was just another guy who wanted a better future without wheelchairs and had my veins opened.  I had relief initially, but experienced complications of thrombosis clogging up my left jugular.  Since I was already a Mayo patient, I went to them to see what to do about it, and blindly became the first to providing a solution for both myself and for others who have had this happen to them. 

My case was a huge step toward moving CCSVI toward mainstream medicine and out of the illicit, evil world of dastardly people who want to walk to the market (shame on us).  I was the first patient at Mayo Clinic to have a vein bypass for the purpose of relieving well-documented MS symptoms.  I am also the first to demonstrate, from a truly excellent facitlity, that there is a solution for many people who have a CCSVI procedure that results in complications like this.

Now obviously, Dr. Stone is a great doctor and Mayo is a great facility, and the calls they will get just from my blog alone will probably increase.  But really, there are a great deal of vascular surgeons out there who can and will do this once the FDA, insurance companies, and the Canadian health care system realize the vascular component to MS is irrefutable.

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