Thoughts on CCSVI and Dr. Paolo Zamboni's Research

I have been reading articles and posts all over the net about Dr. Zamboni's research and Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency. One article by Erika Milvy states, "Dr. Zamboni found that, in over 90 percent of people with Multiple Sclerosis, the veins draining blood from the brain were constricted and this led to a buildup of iron in the brain that, he theorized, causes the neurological symptoms of MS." Dr. Zamboni seems to have been driven to this conclusion by his desire to help his wife Elena Zamboni. Dr. Zamboni performed a surgical procedure on his wife to correct this issue and she was one of his first success stories.

After reading these articles I have tried to stay up on the research being done by different universities across the US and Canada. In February more information is supposed to be released and until then we will wait with anticipation. For the past 14 years I have watched as "miracle" cures have hit the media for Multiple Sclerosis, and I have tried to hold on to what we have learned through our own experiences. One of those "miracle" cures was a drug that my wife was set to take in 1990. Fortunately she chose not to take it because it caused major organ failure in the majority of patients that tried it. We have tried to look at this new finding through the lens of these experiences but feel very excited about the possiblities.

After reading one night I asked my wife how she thought life would change if she didn't have to deal with MS everyday. What would change? We sat and dreamed about no fatigue, no worries about over working her body, no worries about going numb or losing eyesight, no more missing events and activities that we have to miss now, and so many other things that we have made choices about that specifically have to do with her MS. It is the first time in our marriage that I can say that we really wondered what it would be like to have true health together, and actually feel there may be a way for that to happen.

I don't know how successful the trials will be, but I do have hope that it may be the beginning of the end. I know that we have personally tested my wife for iron overload and have been baffled by some of the things that have worked and not worked with the treatments we have chosen. I remember her sitting in a magnetic field chair when she was being treated by our naturopath after going numb from the chest down, and she felt great after the treatment. She tried to use the same treatment a year later and it made her feel ill. We had no idea why it made her feel great one time and made her feel awful the next. We still have no solid answer to why, but iron content was one of the issues we were looking at after the treatment. I will share more thoughts later, but for now I wanted to at least acknowledge that we are watching this play out with anticipation and excitement. Our hope is that this research will truly change the way MS is treated.

Never Ceases To Amaze My Wife And I

Ok, so my wife wasn't able to hold any food down for days and was having some tingling and other issues, and she was becoming very frustrated. The first opportunity we had, we called our Chiropractor and setup an appointment. We drove 2 hours to see this specific Chiropractor and he adjusted our whole family with the Pro Adjuster tool. Even on the drive to see him my wife's stomach burned and she was worried about not being able to make it without bladder or stomach issues. Within minutes of being adjusted my wife started to feel better. After an hour or so she started to have more energy and was able to eat without issue. Since the adjustment she has not had anymore bladder issues or stomach issues. It continues to amaze both of us that with the right adjustment techniques her symptoms go away, and that they go away quickly. I am so glad that we didn't give up trying to find a natural treatment that would help with these issues.

Wife TKO'd Through Holidays

What a rough holiday season! My wife dealt with tingling, numbness, pain, bladder issues, fatigue and many other issues over the last few weeks. Today we are heading to see our Chiropractor to realign her body so we can start to make some progress on her symptoms. The last three days she hasn't been able to eat any solid foods due to stomach and bladder issues. We had some teen boys stay with us for a few days and her symptoms started as soon as we picked them up and still haven't completely gone away. It was hard for her to not be involved with them and have to stay close to home because of the issues. That was a recurring theme for our 09 holiday experience.

Holiday stress, poor eating, lack of rest and just pushing her body too hard sure hasn't helped my wife. It amazes me how MS takes full advantage when your body is worn down and you are stressed out. At one point during Christmas, my wife couldn't even enjoy her family because she was so worn out and fatigued. During another time she started feeling tingling around her torso and was worried that it was spreading and would go numb. The emotional roller coaster alone was frustrating during the past few weeks. This morning she is feeling better than she has in four or five days, but if she doesn't see the Chiropractor today and start to rest and eat properly, none of these symptoms are going to go away. She wasn't knocked out completely through the holidays, but she was knocked down a few times.