Chicago or Bust Series - Day One CCSVI Adventure

My sister Betsy and I had a great trip to Chicago for my CCSVI medical procedure! We met at the airport and took a taxi to our hotel conveniently located across from Rush Hospital. First lesson in Chicago - taxi drivers don't mess around. We learned it was a $50 fee if you threw up in the taxi (glad that didn't happen) and that the medical procedure may be irrelevant given the taxi drivers seemed to have a death wish!

After checking into the hotel we were off to my first appointments: the doppler ultrasound and consultation with Dr. Arslan. The hotel had a shuttle but I wanted to see if I could do it on foot since we were just across the street, or so we thought! We ventured off to the first intersection and made the decision which way to cross first. Negotiating an intersection when you're disabled takes on a whole new meaning. The light changed, the walk signal illuminated and cars were everywhere. Let the race begin! Hobble, hurry, lift and drag, lift and drag . . hurry, it's counting down . . 5, 4, 3, . . we made it! Barely.  And that was just the first crossing. The professional building was much further down and involved two more crossings. The entire situation was so funny we had to stop several times for laughing breaks.

Dr. Arslan is the head of the Interventional Radiology Department at Rush and is in high demand. We waited for a couple of hours for him to arrive. In the mean time, we got a little goofy. 

Marjorie & Betsy get silly waiting for the doctor.

Notice I wore my lucky cockroach belt. More waiting.

Once Dr. Arslan arrived and we talked for a while, I knew he was worth the wait. I told him one of my cockamamie theories of why I thought I had a "vascular" issue and he looked at me politely and nodded not realizing I have a bizarre sense of humor.

He was full of great information and I'm not qualified to properly relay the medical details but for those of you with Multiple Sclerosis who may be considering this treatment I'll throw out a few things that come to mind.

1. Over 30,000 people with MS have now had this procedure world-wide. It's not a cure and it's not a sure thing. From Dr. Arslan's experience, approximately 1/3 will have significant results, 1/3 will have some results and 1/3 won't notice much of anything. Additionally, the procedure may have to be repeated after about 18+ months.

2. He is a very busy doctor and originally did the ccsvi treatment for someone he knew. He doesn't advertise doing the procedure because quite frankly it's a "headache" due to the controversy surrounding it. He does the same procedure about three times a day for other conditions. It's been done for years without any of the scientific studies being required for treating MS. He was very careful and upfront about what to expect and discussed in great detail the couple of cases that have reported problems and what they know now to prevent those problems from occurring again (about 3% of the 30,000 cases). He's personally done about 300 ccsvi procedures and has been involved with about 500. The doctor who he replaced at Rush also did the CCSVI procedure so the medical team was very experienced.

3. I was impressed with his bedside manners by thoroughly explaining the procedure, asking me questions about my experience with MS, testing my strength, and not being in a hurry.

After the appointment, we wised up and called for the shuttle.

We ventured to Little Italy for an amazing last meal at DaVanti Enoteca. It was a quaint local restaurant with amazing food!

Betsy at DaVanti Enoteca after a great meal.

Once back at the hotel, I gathered up all of my prayers and Bible verses and words of encouragement that I printed off. I read over them several times, tucked them under my pillow and called it a night.




*Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency (CCSVI) - Go to this website for more info:  http://ccsvi.org/