Week after week Canadians are taking the trip of a lifetime. Some may simply be driving a few hours south of the Canadian border, and others
may be heading to California, Costa Rica, Mexico, Poland, Germany,

Bulgaria, Egypt, and as far away as India.

Essentially once you leave the country for your CCSVI treatment, you are basically
embracing medical tourism in one form or another.

Do you just get on a plane and you're done? Is it all really that simple?

It is vital to have Doctors lined up back home to provide care for you
after your CCSVI angioplasty. Medical tests and even a CCSVI Doppler, to

check if you are not forming a clot is critical follow-up care. If you

don't have this arranged, you could get into trouble.

Since I wrote the “Compassion Denied” story about Costa Rica. Many of the
CCSVI groups are hearing stories from people who have run into serious

complications when leaving Canada. Emails and phone calls have been

coming in. Sometimes Canadian Doctors refused to help them when they get

back from various CCSVI treatment centres around the globe.

Doctors have told some people that if you go for angioplasty and get into
trouble, don’t even bother coming back to the clinic for help, because

they will not help them.

I personally heard of several in Montreal who nearly died after their CCSVI treatment in Poland. They
ended up in Hospital Emergency with life threatening complications.

Their regular Doctors and neurologists in Montreal refused to offer them

any help or guidance, even though their doctors said they would be glad

to help them before they went for treatment. They were now left on

their own!

In St. Catharines a man who had the CCSVI treatment was told: ”You have MS. Go home there is nothing we can do for
you.” Sadly he died in Costa Rica seeking follow-up care that he was

denied back in Canada.

You can get blood clots from simple angioplasty even while on strong blood thinners. If you had a stent the
clot risk is even higher. It’s so important to have your follow up care

arranged before you seek treatment abroad. Dr. Simka recommends you

have a follow-up Doppler after a couple months. But are people doing

this?

I asked one of the administrators of a medical tourism Facebook site about what happened in Costa Rica and the lack of
follow-up care. They never had the courtesy to even respond to my

concerns, or point me in the right direction for answers. People booking

their trip should ask the same questions. What can they do for

follow-up care? Do they have Doctors in Canada that will help?

However, when you go on their Facebook site, you will see posts about of how
wonderful the tropical plants are. You will see people talking about how

“dreamy” their Doctor is. But what about follow-up care?

I read one person talking about how they couldn’t get their jugular valve
fixed, because they said: “have a valve issue and until further studies

show how to resolve it, it will continue to be an issue (this could

explain his leg mobility decrease, as well as some ataxia).”

Their Doctor may be “dreamy” but valve issues are very common CCSVI issues,
and if they are not able to address this, then their doctor is not fully

trained. Also, their leg mobility could also be May-Thurner syndrome,

but was that checked during their venogram?

Frankly if you are going to pay 2 to 3 times more than treatment in the USA, I would
expect a lot more than “I don’t know how to treat CCSVI valve issues.”

In the last week, people on the medical tourism and various CCSVI Facebook
sites are now starting to express concern over follow-up care. Here are

just a few from one site:

“My Treatment is just days away and I am feeling a lot of anxiety over the whole thing. Anyone
experiencing the same feelings? I am afraid of needing follow up care in

the United States. Being an American with a pre-existing medical

condition, I cannot get health insurance.”

“Mine is on the 20th and I am freaking out here; I think i need some Xanax!!
LOL.... I am also worried to see if my Dr. in Canada will provide me

with followup care”

Also people are self-medicating in droves. They are playing doctor because they apparently do not seem
to have any follow-up care. They are asking people about blood thinners

to use after CCSVI treatment. Here are a few quotes from people who are

playing this deadly game:

“I can't seem to find the name of the blood thinners (2 different ones, I think?). Did most of you
all buy the remaining 2 weeks worth down in C.R. or back at home?”

“When we finish taking the blood thinners, is there anything we have to do like take aspirin or some other blood thinner?”

“I took Aspirin but stopped after a few days. It made me dizzy and my ears ring.”

“I wonder why we weren't all given the same follow-up instructions... Dr.
didn't tell me I had to do anything once the blood thinners are done.”

“How often do you take the baby aspirin? I was not told either.”

The lack of follow-up care is not being fully addressed and potential complications are growing.

People from coast to coast are getting blood clots after their CCSVI
treatment, and because many are receiving zero CCSVI follow-up care,

they may not even realize they are at great risk. Simply put, people are

playing a fatal game with their health and they don't even know it.

Blood thinner treatments must be monitored. People are experiencing serious
medical complications right now, even though they are already on

stronger blood thinning medications. This has to be monitored on a

regular basis. The dosage may have to be adjusted several times. But if

you don’t have follow-up care, you will never know until it’s too late.

I hope this note makes you think about the big picture. Please make that
phone call to your Doctor. Arrange for follow-up doppler testing now,

before you go. If you don't have follow-up care in Canada, do you have

the resources to make a 2nd trip back to where you had your treatment?

Simply put, if you do not have extensive CCSVI follow-up care back home, you shouldn’t go for CCSVI treatment abroad.

As Joan Beal says “go local.” The more I think of that statement, the more I realize she is dead right.

WaYnE

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