Valerie MacNeil, 39, plans to go cycling with her 11-year-old daughter Bhreagh after controversial surgery in Poland gave her renewed energy.Victoria mom Valerie MacNeil says going to Poland for a controversial treatment for multiple sclerosis has given her life back to her."I'm a human being again," MacNeil said. "It was worth every penny for me to feel the way I'm feeling now."
The treatment, developed by Italian Dr. Paolo Zamboni, involves opening blocked jugular veins to increase blood flow to the brain. The experimental treatment is not available in Canada. Last month, researchers from the University of B.C. joined a $2.4-million study involving 200 people to investigate Zamboni's theory. Zamboni says a condition known as chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI, causes a buildup of blood and iron deposits that results in brain lesions.
Canadian MS sufferers have been lobbying for national research and clinical trials of the treatment. one Vancouver woman with MS has said she intends to file a human rights complaint claiming discrimination. MacNeil says she will add her name to the complaint.
But MacNeil wasn't willing to wait for Canada to approve the treatment. She paid $7,000 to travel to Tychy in Poland and says she is now looking forward to going bike riding and hanging out at the beach with her 11-year-old daughter Bhreagh.
"I told her: 'I'm going to rest up and she'd better be prepared for a new mom when she gets back from camp because we're going bicycle riding and to the beach,' all sorts of things I haven't done for two years," said MacNeil, 39.
"The change that I'm noticing is that I have much more energy than I had before and my mind is clearer. Because of that, I have much more motivation than I've had in years." Doctors found "both sides of my neck -- my right and left jugulars -- were blocked," she said."They did a successful angioplasty on my left jugular and recommended I have a stent put in on the right side."
MacNeil didn't notice any immediate change. But after resting for three days, she left Tychy to go touring in Krakow. That's when she started to see a radical change.
"I was able to do things I haven't been able to do in 10 years, even though I was only diagnosed with MS two years ago," said MacNeil.
"About five or six days after the procedure, in 30-degree weather, I went on a 2½-hour walking tour of Krakow," she added. "Halfway through, I stopped myself and said, 'Wait a minute, Valerie can't do this but I'm doing it.'
"It just dawned on me, I'm doing the impossible here."
She said she realizes the changes may be only temporary and there are no guarantees that her veins won't collapse again or close in a different area.
She's on blood thinners for at least a year and will be taking coated Aspirin for the rest of her life.
"My results might be gone in a month, in three months, in three years," she added. "But I would go through the same thing again to get the same result. I wouldn't think twice about it. "I'm not an invalid any more. I'm a normal person."
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