MS patient travels for experimental surgery

A Moncton woman is travelling to Poland to take a chance on an experimental medical treatment that she hopes will stop the progression of her multiple sclerosis.

Melissa Robertson will head to Poland in July for a controversial procedurestill considered experimental in North America.

The surgical procedureis intended toincrease blood flow to the brain. Thetreatment is based on the theory that MS is linked to a condition where blocked veins in the neck or chest prevent blood from draining properly from the brain.

Canadian doctors say the procedure that Robertson is about to take isn't proven but she said she's willing to try anything.

Debate about the procedure's effectiveness is raging on, but Robertson, who was diagnosed in 2003, said she's willing to take a chance.

"If it can stop the disease where it's at I'll be fortunate because I'm still quite functional and if I get a two per cent improvement, that will be great too," Robertson said.

"If it buys me a month to be able to run and play and maybe go for a bike ride that would be my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

The procedure will cost about $9,600 but the total bill, which includes travel and other expenses, is likely to cost Robertson $15,000.

Diagnosed in 2002

A month after her daughter was born in 2002, Robertson said she started having strange symptoms. It took a year and an appointment with a neurologist in New York before she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Although she is doing better these days, at one point Robertson lost her vision and had to crawl.

She said she's hopeful the treatment in Poland will be a success. Robertson said she's been taken off her multiple sclerosis medication because it caused her liver to shut down.

"I have autoimmune liver disease. So I'm just kind of going from day to day and hoping it stays stable," she said.

"But I just have one of those deep down belly feelings, the ones that you follow. And I just know that it's going to work and bring me good results."

Study needed

While Robertson said she's confident the experimental treatment will work, Canadian researchers believe it will take more time to study its effectiveness.

Dr. Jock Murray, a neurologist and the founder of the Dalhousie Multiple Sclerosis Research Unit, said he understands the frustration of many people who suffer from the disease who are eager to find a treatment.

"Patients get disappointed over and over and over because every few years there's some new cure for MS which turns out not to be," Murray said.

Robertson said she's heard all the arguments against taking the surgical treatment, but she's still willing to give it a try.

As of April, more than 20 Canadians have gone to a private clinic in Poland in the past two months alone.

The Polish clinic is one of a handful of locations worldwide offeringthe operation.

A 2008 report showed MS strikes 133 out of every 100,000 people in Canada, the fifth highest rate among countries surveyed between 2004 and 2005.

The Canadian prevalence statistics were higher in the United States, Germany, Norway and Hungary, according to the World Health Organization and the Multiple Sclerosis International Foundation, which released the report titled 2008 Atlas of Multiple Sclerosis.

Some people with MS experience little disability.

However, up to 60 per cent of people with the disease are no longer fully able to walk two decades after MS hits, which has major implications for their quality of life and costs to society, the report said.

MS symptoms appear around 30 years of age on average.