First Year Liberated Book

Someone is gathering a book of testimonials from people who have been liberated.  This is my posting:

Hi, All. I was diagnosed SPMS in 2004. By mid and late 2009 my symptoms were such that my life was filled with many "Probably the last time"s: Probably the last time I'll be able to go sailing, probably the last year I'll be teaching, probably my last time my wife and I will be able to travel together overseas. In fact, it was while we were away on what we figured would be a last trip overseas that the CTV story broke. On our return, we had many phone and e-mail messages saying "You've GOT to watch this!". At first skeptical (I was not one to follow forums about the latest fad diets or "cures" for MS), upon doing some research, I soon realized that there was a decent scientific underpinning to what Zamboni was proposing. In December 2009 I got my name on a list (actually, at that time, the ONLY list in the world) for testing and liberation in Poland. In the meantime, while waiting for my April appointment with Dr. Simka, I continued to research the theory and the results of the first of the "liberati". In the end I didn't bother verifying that I actually had CCSVI before I went to Poland because there was nobody in Canada that I could trust to do the testing properly.

On April 29th, 2010 I was diagnosed with CCSVI and on the same day I had the procedure done. I didn't notice anything different for a couple of weeks (though my wife and friends said that my eyes and face "looked brighter, more alive"). After several weeks I noticed improvements in my energy levels, strength, balance and mobility. These improvements mostly plateaued after 2 months, though there continued to be continuing, slow, tiny improvements since then. For example, I recently noticed that my bladder function was better even after going off my pills for that, and also am having continuing tiny improvements in mobility and balance. My progress results can be seen as numbers on www.ccsvi-tracking.com (I'm the only Canadian at 11+ months on that site) and in words amongst my postings on my blog (www.my-darn-ms.blogspot.com).

However, perhaps my biggest change is that I don't talk about "last time"s any more. If I retire from teaching, it will be because I want to, not because I have to. I look forward to traveling overseas again, sailing again... I can look forward, with reasonable hope, to a decent quality of life rather than to a life of rapidly diminishing expectations and the likelihood of being a burden on my family and on society.

There are other interesting stories being gathered on that Facebook site: Facebook group site.