A blog by Kerri Cassidy
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) affects over 20,000 Australians and the average age of diagnosis is 30. It is a disease that can stop you in your tracks at what is meant to be the prime of your life when you have everything to look forward to careers, relationships, children, travel, sport and making your mark on the world. That is what it threatened to do to me.
However, two years since I received a simple angioplasty procedure to unblock my jugular veins, my quality of life has improved significantly. Even more it has allowed me to hope for a future full of life rather than one of continual decline.
I have had various symptoms over the years ranging from vertigo, chronic fatigue, bowel/bladder dysfunction, weakness, loss of smell/taste, muscle spasticity and was diagnosed nearly four years ago. I was hospitalised with Transverse Myelitis when my body progressively went numb from my toes to my rib cage. It was at this time I had an MRI which confirmed Relapsing Remitting MS. I was 32 years old.
In December 2008 I began sharing my own MS journey on Youtube, in an effort to identify with others who also have MS, to share information and to seek mutual support. Social online networks are a lifeline for many people with MS who have become physically isolated.
When information about Paolo Zamboni and CCSVI surfaced in November 2009, the word of hope spread quickly. What we have seen is the activation of thousands of people uniting for a cause on a global scale, to see people with MS given access to testing and treatment for CCSVI to potentially alleviate some of their most crippling symptoms.
Chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) is a condition in which the venous system is not able to remove efficiently the oxygen-poor blood from the central nervous system. It is due to venous narrowing or abnormalities of the jugular and azygos veins.
A double blinded randomly controlled trial is due to begin this month at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne to test how removing obstructions in these veins improve the symptoms of people with Multiple Sclerosis.
For more information go to CCSVI
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