Brockville MS sufferer heads south for liberation treatment - facebook prikbord

On Sunday, October 17, teacher and athlete Amy Preston travelled south

to Albany, New York to prepare for Monday's multiple sclerosis (MS)

liberation treatment. She has suffered from multiple sclerosis since

being diagnosed in 1998.

"Albany is the closest location offering this treatment," said Preston. "I found out by our Facebook group. No
referral is required. I booked six months ago."

Preston takes two prescribed medications of which one is to be discontinued five days
prior to surgery. She also takes supplements. Through trial and error,

Preston has discovered natural supplements that work for her.

"They did a really good check of what I was on to make sure I could keep
taking those things before the procedure," said Preston. "Another

ultrasound will be performed. Through a tiny incision in the groin, they

go up to have a look to see what they can find. If they find anything

that warrant ballooning to open it up, they will."

The operation is about 45 minutes depending on the amount of blockages. People who
have Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency (CCVSI) seem to have a

structural problem in their veins. Veins can be narrow, kinked, twisted

(like a cork screw - the jugular vein), or webbed which is a

malformation.

After the procedure the patient has to lie completely still for two hours. Preston does not know what to expect in
her own particular case, but is hopeful that her balance will improve.

Right now she does not know how much damage has been caused over time.

"We have to stay in Albany for 24 hours after the procedure, go back in to
be checked, returning home on Tuesday," added Preston.

COST

The low risk CCSVI treatment is considered as an outpatient procedure in
Albany, New York. The cost is $5,000 with an additional $3,000 for the

venoplasty, $2,000 for angioplasty and for each stent $2,000.

"No insurance covers the cost," said Preston. "The cost that vascular
surgeon Dr. Sandy McDonald estimated would be $1,500, if it was done in

Canada. I'm concerned about the people that can not go out of the

country to have this treatment. It's not fair that only people with

money have this choice. People are mortgaging their homes to do this.

"Even if you do pay to go out of the country, when you get back this is a
blood vein issue. There's no follow up. They will not treat your veins

because you have MS."

DIAGNOSIS

"I had to fight to get a diagnosis in the first place," said Preston. "I had a lot of trouble
walking. I had symptoms before that but didn't know what they were. I

didn't think they were anything significant, they went away."

Preston has not taught since her diagnosis and believes she should have quit a couple of years before.

The first medication she was given was copaxone, an autoimmune suppressant, which she didn't know she was allergic to.

"I didn't see any improvement and I don't remember how long I was on it when I developed hives."

When Preston stopped taking copaxone, she experienced a cascade of chemicals
sensitivities that developed along with tremors and seizures which

occurred due to the anti-tremor medication.

"I still have trouble with walking and I have numbness around my torso which feels like a boa
constrictor. This is relatively new in the last couple of years. It's a

tightening all the time and it makes it very hard to get a breath. Any

trauma to the body, stress, anxiety, the flu and virus can make it

trigger as well. My vision has been affected. I went completely blind in

one eye at one point and it came back. Because of the fine motor

difficulty like putting ear rings on, I need help."

In addition to the chemical sensitivities, Preston's daily diet changed.

"My diet is completely gluten free, mostly dairy free, but I cheat a little
bit on that one. Corn and soy, cellulose in prescriptions make me

itchy," told Preston.

Preston's lifeline has been the online discussion groups discussing daily diets, what works and what doesn't.
Plus the exchange of information on foods and supplements that are

obvious dilators.

Gluten free muffin, chopped up vegetables with rice noodles, apple, chicken, potatoes, turkey and bananas are Preston's
staples. She makes her dishes from scratch and stays away from

strawberries because of the mold.

Her favourite fruit is cherries which have a pain reducing component.

AUTOIMMUNE THEORY VS. LIBERATION TREATMENT

"There's nothing else available for me to take, medicine wise that works for
me," admitted Preston. "Nobody here (Canada) will do the treatment on

people who have a label of MS. They will not open our veins. We are

trying to figure out why they will not do it in Canada. There are a lot

of things at play, it's quite a situation."

Preston believes that there are two sides. One is the old autoimmune theory with various
players and the other is opening the veins.

"The neurologists are part of the old autoimmune theory and are the people in charge of
MS. The MS Society is very much linked to the neurologists," said

Preston. "The drug companies are linked to Canadian Institutes of Health

Research Canada's (CIHR). The president of CIHR is a neurologist who

advises our health ministers. So who is ultimately preventing us from

doing it here could be all together. The drugs are very expensive and do

not seem to be helping a lot of people. Some people claim they are. I

could not tolerate them, for me it was poison. So I have nothing that

these guys can recommend that I can take to help my MS. Even at the

beginning the most they could suggest was that it might slow the

progression. Nobody was claiming to be able to reverse anything."

Preston has impeded blood flow and blood flowing backwards into my brain causing the blood to recycle instead of re-oxygenate.

"The drugs are a very high priced and in some cases a very high risk,"
explained Preston. "In my case, even the low risk drugs seem to be a

real problem, it has changed my life, because I can not eat a normal

meals with my family because I'm allergic to so many things. So it a

whole chemical sensitivity thing and I never was sensitive to anything

before now."

Preston goes on to note that the CCSVI theory is not even news as it was suggested in books in the 1800's.

"I have proof that I have blocked veins, I have CCSVI. To be diagnosed you
have to have two out of the five criteria when they test you with a

special Doppler ultrasound in your neck veins. I was positive for five

out of five."

She felt that if anyone else had blood flowing backwards into the brain they would have surgery right away, whereas
because she has MS, no one will touch her.

An Italian, Dr. Paolo Zamboni pioneered the controversial treatment for CCSVI when he
discovered his wife, Elena was diagnosed with MS.

"Zamboni testing is only done in a few places that have special training that is
Barrie, Toronto and Port Perry. There's a long waiting list to get in, I

waited six months to get into Barrie Vascular Imaging in Barrie,

Ontario, said Preston."

Preston was fortunate enough to find a doctor that would refer her to the Barrie clinic.

"There is worldwide evidence, evidence in other countries that there is a
connection between MS and CCSVI. Canada is choosing not accept the

evidence from other countries and refusing to let the doctors here test

to get that information."

CCSVI BROCKVILLE

"I started a group called CCSVI Brockville and it's actually more than Brockville,
it's for anybody that wants to help us or needs help. We had our first

meeting at Loaves and Fishes with about 40 to 50 people turning out on a

rainy miserable night. We had people from Perth, Smith Falls, South

Mountain, Jasper, Brockville, North Augusta, Cardinal, Lansdowne,

Maitland, Prescott, Ottawa and Kemptville."

Eight individuals in the group have already been tested positive for CCSVI. Amy Preston
cautions people who go to clinics that claim they do the Zamboni testing

but in fact are not. Without the proper Zamboni testing, there is room

for misdiagnoses.

As far as Preston is aware of, there are no other labs other than Barrie, Toronto and Port Perry in Ontario that are
qualified to do this testing and follow the Zamboni protocol.

"I have over 300 people on Facebook and we are all in contact sharing
information, interviews, telling personal stories and researching. It's

phenomenal, we are all united and encouraging each other," said Preston

Reports from doctors in Bulgaria, Poland, United States, Kuwait and Italy
indicate that their finding are consistent in 80 to 90 per cent of the

people diagnosed with MS, do have CCSVI or some sort of issue with vein

abnormality.

"Some people that can not afford to go out of the country for treatment," mentioned Preston. "There are people on the
verge of death. There is no reversal of symptoms in the long term. Here

we are seeing people get out of wheelchairs to walkers, from walkers to

canes."

People are invited to contact Amy Preston should they like to discuss the CCVSI Brockville group at (613) 345-3565, email
amypreston@sympatico.ca., on Facebook under Amy Gaylord Preston.

POLITICALLY

"There have been two protests in Ottawa at the Parliament Buildings and my
daughter spoke at one of them. When I first started to get involved I

contacted Leeds-Grenville MP Gord Brown and Leeds-Grenville MPP Steve

Clark and they both got back to me together," said Preston. "MP Gord

Brown spoke out publicly at the last protest and he said something to

the effect that, this procedure works, that he's not a medical doctor,

but he has seen enough of the evidence that the treatment works. We need

to move forward."

Both politicians are taking petitions to parliament and to the legislature.

"I'm not willing to wait two more years because as I wait there's less that
can be repaired by the treatment," admitted Preston. "There's more

permanent damage being one. The people that are preventing us from

getting this treatment, there's evidence out there that supports doing

this now for people. Before having to collect evidence that has been

gathered across the world, there's no reason to waste time and money to

recollect before we can start treatment."

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