Go Ahead! Ask Me If I Am Angry!

February 25, 2011

I was going to email this to the Minister of Health. Then I realized that that is a horrific waste of pixels because she either deletes my letters or she files them in File 19 (aka the Garbage). When she does respond, she waits until she gets 8 or 10 letters and sends one standard form letter (You probably have one in your email if you have ever written her) and that letter does not address anything I have said. So if you feel she should see this, you tell her.

Regarding the Study on CCSVI in MS at The Ottawa Hospital,  http://www.nationalmssociety.org/research/intriguing-leads-on-the-horizon/ccsvi/ccsvi-study-by-torres-team/index.aspx 

It is, in my opinion, flawed even before it begins.

The MS Society, on their site say, “A total of 100 participants including participants with MS and healthy individuals. Participants will be recruited through The Ottawa Hospital MS Clinic Research Unit. Recruitment number is approximate and is subject to change.”

This is indeed amazing. If we do not know what causes MS and the MS Society say that on their site –“While the cause (etiology) of MS is still not known” and if a person can live with MS for more than 20 years without ever being diagnosed and, Oh My God! Those diagnoses are made in part by anecdotal data collected from and supplied by the patient who is rarely a scientist, how on earth can Dr. Torres and his colleagues know whether the people involved with his study have MS or not? However do they determine a “healthy” participant from an affected one? Perhaps 20 years down the road, based on anecdotal data about things like a strange one time bout with double vision that ophthalmologists cannot explain, they will indeed be told they have MS and have had it for decades. Diagnosing MS, for those not in the know, is not as easy as, say Lyme Disease, which can be discovered with a blood test.

Lyme Disease brings to mind another question. The symptoms of Lyme Disease and MS are very often very similar. In fact, many people who have Lyme Disease go around thinking they have MS – for decades! Why? Good Question! But there is a reason – sort of. Canadian doctors, for the most part, do not test for Lyme Disease and when they do, they usually use a test called the Canadian Elisa. They call it the gold standard. It would be more accurate to call it the Fools Gold Standard because it misses 99% of the bacteria forms that cause Lyme Disease. The more accurate test is hard to find in Canada – The Western Blot. ** To me, and I have to admit I am not a doctor so this is just a opinion, we should all be tested first and properly with the Western Blot for Lyme Disease before being labeled with MS. Lyme Disease responds pretty well to antibiotics and can be put behind the patient very quickly if they in fact have it. Presently, the people with Lyme Disease are walking around thinking they have MS. Their doctors are treating them like they have MS. Again for those not in the know, that may very well mean being given drugs such as tysabri (it has killed people but still they prescribe it!) or one of the C.R.A.B. drugs. Some of those drugs cost $3,000.00 or more per patient per month. Gee whiz Guys! It does not take a rocket scientist to see there is no logic in their methods. You eliminate the possibility of the common cold before you diagnose pneumonia. Similarly, you eliminate other possibilities like Lyme before you diagnose and sentence a person to hell with MS.

The ‘hell of MS’ is more than just the symptoms. Lord knows they are bad enough. MS truly is a label, a scarlet letter on your forehead. If my kidney fails and I need dialysis, I will probably be given vascular angioplasty more accurately called  venoplasty. If I happen to believe that Dr. Zamboni is right and that a good number of the people diagnosed with MS are in fact not suffering from MS but have a vascular problem called CCSVI (chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency) I cannot get the treatment. The reason? I have MS on my file. It is not safe?? Then why are they doing it for everyone else who needs it?? The Scarlet Letters are written all over my file and the people trained to do this have been threatened with loss of license if they even try. In fact, just about anything I, an MS patient, complain about is ignored – I have MS so it has to be the culprit??  I can’t suffer the same things other people do?? Because I have MS?? Not even a little bit logical.

It is also assumed that I am stupid. I get spoken down to the same way that white plantation owners spoke to their black slaves. It has since been very well established, on this Continent anyway, that that type of behaviour is discrimination, based on attitude, not facts. It ticks me off even more because of all the people I have met with MS, there is not one person with a lower than average IQ and indeed many who are above average. My IQ tested at 129 for most of my life. Go on any CCSVI/MS chat line or blog and you will meet very intelligent people, many are professionals like Dr.Bill Code. That attitude may have worked in the past but the days of it carrying on this way are numbered. We are no longer isolated. It does not take month or weeks or days or hours to get news anymore. It takes a fraction of a fraction of a second.

Those “experts” the Health Ministry uses re MS are “experts” at what?? It sure a hell is not MS. It is not CCSVI. It is not Lyme Disease.  No one – not even a spouse or parent – really knows what MS fatigue is because you really have to experience it. The experts are the MSers. The best even a spouse or a parent can do is empathize. Empathize. Now that is  a good word for all you folks on Parliament Hill to learn. Even better – try practicing it. Regardless of what Ministry you are in.

Have you ever watched the news where CCSVI is being talked about? One Ottawa MS neurosurgeon suggested on National TV that they needed to do blind studies to be sure the improvements people had were not a placebo effect. Guess he missed the day Placebos were discussed in med class. A placebo is “An innocuous or inert medication; given as a pacifier or to the control group in experiments on the efficacy of a drug”. Vascular angioplasty is a procedure, not a drug. New procedures are performed all the time. Remember heart transplants? Do you really think Dr. Barnard cut a second patient up and pretended to transplant a heart so he could compare the two? Or the first patient to ever have a severed limb put back on? Did they cut a patients limb off and pretend to reattach it to see if there was a placebo effect?  This guy is too unreal! But I see he is still on the list of doctors at the Ottawa General and I see he is still on the list of doctors at the MS Society.

I was just looking at the MS page again. They plan to spend $102, 866 over 2 years. The MS Society spends more than that on their big salaries and on office equipment every year. How bloody big of them! NOT!! If you are thinking that by giving to the MS Society you are helping us poor MSer, think again. They do not help us. They do not diagnose us properly. They stuff us full of drugs that cost big time and do nothing that they can prove. They consider anyone who thinks they may be mistaken about the autoimmune hypothesis (a hypothesis is only a theory) is a cultist. Mostly they make big bucks at our expense and yours. So take my advice and stop giving to them. If you have money to give away, give it to the Salvation Army who’s CEO makes a just above poverty line income. Give it to someone trying to get a real Lyme disease test. Give it to one of the organizations that have sprung up to help people get vascular angioplasty in the USA. Give it to the Angioplasty For All group who are putting together a legal case to help us get Angioplasty allowed in Canada. There have been more than 12,000 angioplasty procedures carried out worldwide. Not all have been the magical cure but we all know it is not a magical cure. It is a viable treatment though for those who should have been diagnosed with CCSVI and not MS. You can read about them on the Internet; you can watch their before and after videos at UTube. Being mobile a year after the procedure without the use of a wheelchair is no placebo effect.

Something I learned as a little kid – If you make a mistake, own up to it. You still might get a spanking but chances are you won’t. Chances are, also, that you will be given an opportunity to fix the wrong or at least try. It might have something to do with when I grew up – the late 40s and early 50s. My Father was a war vet; my Mother opened the house to war refugees. They all talked about the war and good old Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, When I was older the war became a big interest of mine – a chance to make sense of the stuff I heard but they didn’t think I paid any attention to. I learned a lot but mostly I learned that control and greed and hurting others leads to infamy instead of fame. It leads to horrid things happening to you. At the end of  WWII that meant being hung by your feet and paraded through the capital or dying in a bunker or spending the next 60 years being hunted down and hung or imprisoned. But this is Canada so I do not expect anything that desperate but I do expect that those who are keeping us sick when wellness is available; those taking our money for themselves and giving pain and suffering in return and those who are bullying us into capitulating are going to get theirs in the end.

Ms Aglukkaq, you were voted into office by your people to help your people. What have you done for them? As Minister of Health for Canada, you are expected by the Canadian people to do positive things towards helping the sick and disabled and to help the healthy stay healthy. Measuring the height of the lettering on cigarette packages is not impressive. Giving us 100 doctors for the outlying areas in a country the size of this one is not impressive. Not having a plan to keep them there by way of contract etc. is even less impressive. Listening to “experts” who are experts at nothing useful to MS patients is the least impressive thing you have done. I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em and his is how I see you and your Ministry. That’s my opinion. Now exactly what will you do to change my thinking? What are you going to do to stop this study and the waste of more Canadian taxpayer's money? My suggestion:1. Upgrade the testing for Lyme Disease and 2. Lift the ban on venoplasty for MS patients and 3. Fire the “panel of experts” you use on MS related matters – they are not experts in MS.

 Sincerely

Karen Copeland

MS Dragonslayer

**  From Terri - Actually , that lyme  test sucks to, ( Western blot ) the most accurate is by many this -

IgeneX, Inc.
Palo Alto, CA
800-832-3200, www.igenex.com
PCR test: $55, dead or alive. Can test for 5 things @ $55/test. MY choice
Turn-around time: 10 to 12 business days; ziplock bag.

Some light reading!  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/02/24/lyme-disease.html

The Pressure is on!

February 21, 2011

The Pressure is on and the Steel is beginning to Bend!

Look what I found when I opened my email today! I think I now know how Egyptians felt a few days before President Hosni Mubarak gave up the fight - Knowing it wasn't over yet but seeing the sunrise becoming  visible on the horizon! My thanks to Wayne Feaver for sharing this with us.

Wayne Feaver21 February 2011 at 13:46

Pressure on province to allow MS treatment



Pressure is increasing for the Ontario government to allow a procedure to treat multiple sclerosis.

Four Chatham-Kent residents, who have each spent thousands of dollars and traveled abroad for the procedure, met with Chatham-Kent's mayor Friday.

All four said their health has improved immensely after having the costly out-of-country procedure, which involves widening a vein in the neck or chest.

Sheila Clements, chair of the local MS chapter, said she is "very impressed'' with the results in those who have had the procedure.

"It should be available here at home,'' she said. "And it is for people that don't have MS.'' Sandra Kniffen, 57, spent nearly $15,000 to travel to India for the treatment in August.

"I can now walk without a cane,'' she said. "I'm less fatigued and I have good balance. Also, both my hands work. It was worth the trip for the treatment.''

Paula Brown, 50, of Chatham, took a second mortgage out on her home to pay the $18,000 for her procedure in Mexico.
Like Kniffen, she has experienced major improvement in her health.

"I don't have the fatigue that I had before the procedure,'' she said. "I used to have to lay down flat during the day. Now I hardly sit down and my balance has improved 70 per cent.''
She said the weakness on her left side has also disappeared.
Wendy Primeau, 46, spent $10,000 for the procedure in India in July. "Before I got around in a wheelchair,'' she said. "Now I use a walker.''

She said she is no longer fatigued and feels bright. "It's too bad we have to travel half way around the world for treatment,'' she said. "And most MS patients couldn't afford it to begin with.''

Rick Francis, 50, spent $12,000 for his procedure in Poland in July.

"My balance is much better and I have the use of my right hand and arm,'' he said.

Francis said his quality of life has improved immensely.
"My fatigue is fixed and my heat intolerance is fixed,'' he said.
All four MS patients said there is no reason why the procedure couldn't be offered at home.

"It's all about politics and dollars,'' said Clements. "Doctors can and do perform the procedure here at home provided their patients don't have MS.''

Mayor Randy Hope said he plans to arrange a meeting with the province's health minister at Queen's Park to push for a veenoplasty procedure that is not available in the province or Canada.

"It doesn't make sense that people have to borrow money and mortgage their homes to get treated out-of- country.''

** Just so we do not end up being called plagiarizers, Wayne tells me he did not write this and I didn't either. My best effort to find its origin - Chatham Daily News (I think).

February 20, 2011

The Canadian Dilemma re MS

My experience - most things are not that difficult - until you let a politician mix in. 

My Opinion - Unfortunately, MSers in Canada have the politicians even though we did not invite them. Doctors  we trusted, forced them in in order to keep the money train running for themselves and for the drug companies who make money from illness, not from wellness. Control the income at all costs, even if the cost amounts to a few lives.

People have taken what I have written to the Ministers and taken it as a completely anti drug stand. Not So! I take drugs when they are needed and when they do what I expect them to. Like antibiotics - take them often for bladder infections brought on by the need to self catheterize constantly. Some people have taken it as a rant about the specific drug, tysabri. Not really. I have no personal experience with the drug. I do take exception to being denied the right to have a procedure I believe will help me as it has helped other MSers on the grounds of safety while a drug with a rap sheet for killing or making more than 100 people ill with brain infections has no such restriction put on it.Perhaps people who feel I am somehow being tough on Tysabri will understand better after they read this.

The question of the value of tysabri to some people is not the point. And the question of how many people have died is also not the point. The point is that here in this country - Canada - we are denied a perfectly viable treatment and the grounds used by our government for denying it is one of safety. Supposedly, it cannot be performed as it's safety has not been proven. The one case they love to throw at us MSers is that of Mahir Mosic. Mahir did not die from the procedure. In fact, he was doing pretty well a couple of months after the procedure was done in Costa Rica. Then a blood clot formed around his stent and he went to his Canadian doctors and was refused help. He then had to get on a plane in that condition and fly back to Costa Rica for help. Perhaps there are some conditions where waiting and flying for hours help the condition but I cannot think of any. In my opinion and that of a good many others, Mahir died of neglect at the hands of the Canadian medical practitioners he went to for help. And they were pushed to behave in that despicable manner by the government and the College of Physicians and Surgeons who had threatened to lift their licenses. Why they did this is anyone’s guess and most of the people I have spoken to guess that the Big Pharma - the ones who sell those expensive MS drugs that work for the few rather than the many - paid them off and threatened them. In the four months since Mahir died, no one from either the government nor the pharmaceutical companies have come forward to prove us wrong in our thinking. They have not opened their books to public scrutiny. Indeed the digging done has been from this side of the fight and the evidence found shows that, with some doctors at least, there is a definite conflict of interest. Our Canadian government uses the services of these conflicted doctors as a base to their ruling that Vascular Angioplasty is not safe and therefore cannot be allowed in Canada.

Meanwhile, Canadians with the money to do so have been flocking to the US locations, to the European locations – to every location imaginable where vascular angioplasty is offered. A good many have returned with few MS symptoms left while another group come back to notice changes happening though more slowly. And a third group notice no improvements at all. All, as far as I have heard, knew there were risks involved and that one of those risks might be that there would be no improvement. In medicine this is not as unheard of as some people like to think. I had breast cancer in 1990. I was operated on, accepted radiation treatment but refused chemotherapy and decades later – no further cancer. A gal in the same room had the same operation and the same treatment as well as the chemo. She was not as lucky as I was.

About the Tysabri. It has been approved. Compared to our one death – lets be wild and call it 5 deaths just in case I missed the news on 4 others- there have been 20.  At least there have been 20 that the manufacturer is willing to own up to. Where are all these safety fears?? Where was Leona when Tysabi was deemed safe to use. And 95 cases of a rare brain infection??? That one is 95 to 0. Assuming that Tsabri is safe and useful to some, where is that list of criteria so that a doctor can safely prescribe it to those who it is good for and avoid those who it is not good for? Where is the test like the allergy test for penicillin?

If a patient walks into a doctors office and the doctor says, “Whoa! You have MS. Here’s the choices you have. You can take this wonderful drug Tysabri that we tested you for and that is safe for you  or I can send you to a vascular surgeon and his tech staff  and arrange  for vascular angioplasty or you can do nothing but take the vitamin regimen you are already on. It’s your life and your body so it’s up to you. Do a little research on all thee choices and get back to me.” That’s one thing. As it stands right now that same doctor tells you what he is going to give you. Period. If you question him like I did, you get an ego trip to end all ego trips. You will get spoken to like you were a mental retard with an IQ of minus two.

The present situation in Canada is not decent. It is not humane. It is not ethical. And if the order were coming from anywhere but The disHonourable Minister of Health and her provincial counterparts, it would be illegal and unconstitutional. In my opinion it IS illegal and unconstitutional.
Some say, “It also injures or kills a small number of patients.”  Gotta warn you. I get right hostile when people discount death like it was nothing but a number on a sheet of paper.  Would you be so calm about it if one of those few were your Mother or your Wife or Sister or any relative you care about? This treatment was looked into decades ago and buried by the drug researchers. At this point in time, had they not buried it, MS would be like polio – rarely heard about anymore or part of a reminiscence of decades past.

Do you live in the USA?. Not far from where I live as the crow flies but eons away on the subject of MS treatment. This letter is not to American Health Officials. It is to Canadian Health Officials and its point is to show that their argument is not logical, not humane, not legal and not constitutional – up here. At the moment, I daresay there are a large number of Canadians who are more than happy that this is not the case in the USA. They are the ones already treated south of the border or about to be treated there.

Now They Know!

February 19, 2011

Now They Know!

While wandering around on Facebook this morning, I found an article on Tysabri.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110217-718604.html

To say it made me mad is a huge example of understatement. It made me furious! So furious that I sent the following letter to the two women in my life who have the power to do something but who do nothing. Sent a cc to my on MP also.  Here it is:

    NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) disclosed 10 more cases of a rare brain infection among multiple sclerosis patients taking Tysabri, a medication it sells with Elan Corp. (ELN, ELN.DB), bringing the total number of affected patients to 95 as of Feb. 2.

    The Weston, Mass., biotech company reported that four more of those patients have died, bringing the total to 20.

Are you two ladies still listening to your "Experts"?  If you are, I hope the family of the next Canadian that dies because they were treated with Tysabri on the advise of your experts sues you and your party and your useless experts and the pharmaceutical company. In fact I hope the families of anyone who has ever died from taking this "safe" drug sues you. Ms. Matthews, I know you are only responsible for things that happen in Ontario but I include you because the odds of an MSer in Ontario dying from this legalized drug pushing is quite high due to the number of people you represent here (and because you and Leona appear to have the same standard letter writer). There is a precedent for suing the government. Mr Mulroney did quite well doing it didn't he? And his case was a tad questionable. Ours is not so questionable I don't think.

Knowingly prescribing a lethal drug - Hmmm I would think there is a case for the homicide division of the RCMP here, don't you think. It should not be that hard for them to find a money connection for a motivating factor.

Are your experts telling you that tysabri is safer than Vascular angioplasty? Come on, girls. You both cannot be this brainwashed or is this just stupidity? We voters do expect you elected representatives to use your own heads.

One other thing - Have you noticed there is a total lack of respect here? That is because it is impossible to have any respect for people, especially fellow females (We female voters do expect more heart and less greed or stupidity as the case may be, from females), who have upheld my death sentence by MS. You insult my intelligence. You treat me and my fellow MSers with a total lack of respect. Be happy Leona that I call you Leona. The only other option for me is to call you The Dishonourable Minister.

I think it is time for me to go have a little daydream. My favourite day dream? Why it is where you two ladies find yourself suffering from MS and find yourselves broke from all the law suits and stuck having to live with your own rulings.

I have sent you the news item. Do not say "I didn't know."

Sincerely

Karen Copeland
MSdragonslayer

Another Verbal Go-round with the MS Society of Canada

February 9, 2011

Last week I endured yet another flare-up. If I ever wished for a fast death it was then. So I wrote the MS Society. Well I tried to but the hands would not cooperate and the concentration was out to lunch so I ended up copying and pasting a blurb from their site about drugs and told them I thought they were disgusting. That letter took me close to two hours to put together and two days to get it corrected and sent. Ask me if I was frustrated!

Today I got an answer. Today my body is working better too so today I wrote them a much longer letter. Took the same amount of time. It is all laid out below.

Me to the MS Society of Canada
Six drug therapies are approved in Canada for the treatment of some forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). Five of these medications — Avonex®, Betaseron®, Extavia®, Copaxone® and Rebif® — are immune modulating medications. The sixth — Tysabri® — is a selective adhesion molecule inhibitor. In large clinical trials, all of these drugs have been found to have a direct influence on altering the course of MS. They are sometimes referred to collectively as disease-modifying therapies.

One of these days, you are going to regret putting lies like this up on the Internet. In my opinion,you aught to be charged in criminal court for fraud and negligence. I live for the day.
Of course, you could start writing truth. This is disgusting!

Karen Copeland

MS Society of Canada's Response

 Thank you for your email.

 Please provide us with your full mailing address so that I can forward your inquiry to the appropriate person.

Sincerely,

Celine

Celine Weeling Lee| Receptionist


My Response

Celine

You are a receptionist. As such your job is to pass messages on to your bosses. You can put a copy of this message on everyone's desk at the MS Society. They, if they so chose, can respond by email.

Pushing drugs on the internet should be illegal if it isn't. Making money off of other people's misfortunes is usually called a scam. And it is disgusting! There is a procedure that actually helps people with MS but the MS Society continues to bury its head in the sand in that regard, continues to deny us access to this procedure and continues to push drugs that have little effect on the condition and in fact, have proved dangerous to some. There is nothing ethical in this, in my opinion. There is nothing charitable in this in my opinion.There is nothing intelligent in this, in my opinion.

I have had two flareups in two weeks. MS, it appears, is going to get me. And it is going to get me because the MS Society, which is supposed to help people like me, is only helping themselves. Eventually, the MS Society will have to change its position drastically and accept vascular angioplasty as a viable treatment or it is going to come crashing down in a ball of fire. Either way, I hope it happens before MS has totally destroyed me and the 75,000 other Canadians who suffer from it.

Bringing a bad professional down is very difficult. But it is not unheard of. You may want to read a bit about Ontario pathologist Charles Smith. That, by the way is not a threat. I am too broke to take you on in any other way but by letters like this one. But it is a warning of what can happen to those who get too cocky.It is a warning to those who allow their little bit of power control their lives instead of them controlling their little bit of power.

I do not know specifically where your research efforts are presently, legitimately going. If it is stem cell research, I am a firm believer that this research can help many (MSers and others), including those for whom Vascular angioplasty does not work. No one has called on researchers in MS to stop that research. They have only asked that you allow those of us who can be helped with angioplasty to have access to that help.

They say that "Pride Goeth Before a Fall". Do not let your pride be your downfall. Most especially, do not let your pride be my downfall.

Sincerely,

Karen Copeland
cc: MSdragonslayer blog spot.__

Judy! Judy! Judy!

February 6, 2011

Hi All!
Just had a look at Judy Filipkowski's video on UTube. WOW!
Judy is also from Ottawa and is one of Canada's CCSVI pioneers. She started off in worse shape than I am  and less than 6 months later, she is walking and she is walking without needing a three hour nap to get back up. She can tell you herself Just turn up your sound and trip on over to this link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME7OIqIaQ64

We need this procedure brought to Canada so go back a page on this blog and sign the petition and/or trip off to http://www.angioplastyforall.com/content.php?doc=3 and join the $20.00 a month club. This club is going the legal system route to have CCSVI's angioplasty brought to Canada

BUYER BEWARE!!

February 6, 2011

You know something is good when people start to imitate it! Including medical procedures , I suppose. But if you are an MS patient looking for a place to get the vascular angioplasty treatment, do your homework! There is, at least one outfit misusing the name of a good, reputable doctor. I have copied this from Facebook for you.
Edit: I received a letter from one of Dr.McGuckin's patients about this. That letter and the response are below the Facebook item. Please read them also before you decide where to go if you have not already decided.

Dr Michael Arata is NOT operating out of VAC Locations for CCSVI
by Michelle Walsh on Sunday, February 6, 2011 at 6:28am

 "Sadly, Dr McGuckin is disingenuously using my name to garner ccsvi patients. I do not operate out of a VAC facility. Additionally, I have not trained any of the VAC physicians including Dr McGuckin.


Sent from my iPhone

Michael Arata MD

Pacific Interventionalists "


This is a BAD misconception that Dr Arata is working out of the Vascular Access Centers across USA with Dr James McGuckin and this is a falsehood. Dr McGuckin has said this on his website at VAC to get CCSVI patients in his door. Says alot to me about his lack of integrity when you have to steal or use another very reputable doctors's name to get patients through your doors.

 http://www.vascularaccesscenters.com/PublicPages/AboutVACPhysicians.aspx

 Keep spreading this around so we can put an end to this misconception please:-)

Thank you everyone,

Michelle Walsh
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 The Letter:
I am pissed that this is being brought over from the CCSVI Seattle page. In a nutshell - Dr. McGuckin from VAC has Dr. Arata listed on his site as a doc associated with his clinic - he has several clinics around the country. Dr. Arata first said he wants his name down as he has nothing to do with VAC. Dr. McGuckin said Arata was at his Downey CA clinic. Dr. Arata came back saying he has left and went to a clinic that has state-of-art equipment, blah blah blah. Insinuating his new clinic is better. SO he was with VAC and left? They were in talks that went bad? I don't know the story, and neither does dragon slayer who is trying to slam Dr. McGuckin. Sounds like an ego battle to me, and frankly I'm not interested in seeing dirty laundry aired. I personally know people who have been treated by both to utmost success. I saw them both speak at a CCSVI Seattle meeting, they both know their stuff, I feel completely comfortable seeing Dr. M in Seattle, and don't like this internet war that has started. It's childish.





The Response: 
I was going to take this off (and I may still do that later) but I think with your response, Lori, the situation now has both sides of the argument which is probably a fair way to deal with it at present. I copied this from a Facebook site I belong to and I know it has gotten copied many times.  Doctors advertizing themselves on the Internet should follow the same rules that everyone else is required to follow. Misrepresentation is against the rules of advertizing. That does not make him a bad doctor but it does make him a person who is playing with fire.

I would rather think one or both of the doctors will put up a retraction or something along those lines.If that happens and you see it before I do, let me know and I will post that too. I hope they do it soon. We need all the good and trained in vascular angioplasty doctors we can get.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The other issue I would like my Canadian readers to work on is getting signatures (Canadian) for the petition going to the Quebec Legislature. This is definitely a place to put aside political prejudices and language prejudices!  Please get over there and vote. English translations are available at the January 26th, 2011 edition of this blog.

Canadian names have weight. Quebec names have more weight as they are going to the Quebec Legislature. Unfortunately, non MSers often do not know anything about our fight so if you know anyone not presently involved, please spread the word. Encourage everyone to sign. If you know anyone in Quebec, be sure to get them to sign too. This fight is about what is good for MSers. A win in any other province or territory is a win for us - pwMS - and one step closer to getting the procedure accepted in your province or territory.
The URL is  https://www.assnat.qc.ca/fr/exprimez-votre-opinion/petition/Petition-1297/index.html