I apologize for not looking very far. my mistake.

As for the story it's pretty remarkable. But she was diagnosed such a short time. in fact she only had symptoms a short time.

My name is Cat, short for Catherine. my daughter is Megan. she was 35 last summer and all summer she seemed to be stricken with severe fatigue. not a little tried, severe fatigue. My daughter is pretty tough, I mean not tough tough but strong. She was in the Army for 5 years and served in the middle east back when we weren't at war there. She works full time and is raising a very active 12 year old son.

Now back to her symptoms, headache, sometime bad, some numbness, but fleeting, electrical sensations down both arms, impaired balance and gait was clumsy at times. She had some vision impairment but was thinking that it was age. she complained to me that she fell in the shower and then about a week later she complained of the fatigue being unrelenting. She told me that she felt depressed. ( I thought it was because she was now single for a long time)!

Then she mentioned the shock like sensations and I told he that this could be serious and that she should see a Dr. She complained that she just had a gynecologist. I told her that it was about time that she get a PCP.
So she found one and was seen promptly. He was great. He ordered an MRI and gave her a neuro consult. The neurologist saw her and the MRI AND and wanted an LP done. He told her they were ruling out MS that she had a couple of lesions on her brain.

While she waited for that Appt. She got a sudden onset of complete facial paralysis. And that was scary! Luckily it only lasted a few hours and started to abate on it's own. They did give her steroids but the facial weakness had already started to leave.

The next week was the LP and it was positive for Oligoclonal bodies. The next Appt they told her she had MS and " what drug do you want?) referring to the DMDs.

She asked me to help her choose after all I am her mother the RN.

So I went on the Internet. And I was shocked at the drug sponsored websites and the freebies they gave her....mugs, backpacks,pens etc etc.
That's when I found all the research and info onCCSVI. Particularly the statement of Dr Zamboni that the earlier the treatment the better the outcome.
I knew venous angioplasty was pretty darn safe. I had been a critical care RN.
So I was hunting for a treatment center. We live in FL but I am from NY, so we were thinking Albany. But then I saw that you should try to get treated close to home. So I called all the hospital in central Florida
Most had not heard of CCSVI. But the nurse at Shand's Hospital at university of FL at Gainesville knew about it. they had treated a few. Dr Caridi the Interventional Radilogy chief was treating people. He had 17 years of experience with angioplasty and venoplasty. he knew about Zamboni.

So in Sept just 33 days after her MS diagnosis Megan got her venoplasty.
SHE HAD A DOUBLE CANDYWRAPPER TWIST OF HER AZYGOS WITH VIRTUALLY NO FLOW. No wonder she seemed to have unrelenting symptoms, no wonder she was getting sicker and sicker. she also had a partial occlusion of her left int jugular vein. Which was the opposite side from her paralysis. could sweeping on her over taxed RIjv cause pressure on her facial nerve? Seemed logical to me.

The incredible part was just post op.....she went from being an ice cube, always complaining of being cold ( hands and feet) to being flooded with warmth. Her vision improved that day ( it's now better than 20/20) and her headache left.

She got nauseatEd from the pain medicine but she said she otherwise felt great. Over the next few days all of her symptoms left. But she had some new ones, she seemed to have trouble spitting out the correct words at times and she had numbness of her anterior thighs. Pre op she had numbness of a much larger area and trouble with her memory. Both of these started to improve.

The expressive aphasia abated over 3 months. The numbers left too.

Her only symptom left is occasional pinkie numbness upon arising. This is more of an annoyance but it's e only residual reminder. Hr fatigue left, and every other symptoms, balance, gait, etc etc.

Now is it a cure? No. But shoot, it's darn close. Her MRIs will tell. SHe is due to have one in July. I year from her last ones.

she is not on any DMD. she takes a baby aspirin and vit d, she works out at the gym 3 x week and eats a healthy diet ...... Dr John Cooke has a good diet for endovascualr health he wrote the book the cardiovascular cure.

My advice. Find out if you have blockages. Then make your decision.

Blockages cause you to have lower than normal brain oxygen and glucose, this in turn can damage the brain tissue over time and with increased iron deposits well.......to me it was a no brained.

My best to all of you that have suffered the insults of this terrible condition.

At least now you have hope.

Thanks for the ear.

A very grateful mom.