This story is told from the perspective of Adam, Rox’s husband.

When my wife was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis I felt useless; unequipped to provide her with the support and guidance that she so desperately required, and that doctors were not providing. TM did change her life overnight. Rox had always been very active, self-motivated and driven. TM suddenly put a break on all that, depriving her of her energy, focus and enthusiasm. The constant fatigue made even the simplest, everyday things like getting out of bed, and walking to the corner store a struggle.

The words of the doctors provided very little comfort. We were told initially that improvements (if any) in her condition were possible up to two years after the onset of TM, but most improvements were likely to occur within the first six months. Yet here we were 14 months down the line, with little evident improvement and that 2-year .deadline. bearing heavy on our conscious. All I could do was tell Rox (and myself) that there was still hope, thinking that few things are as exact in life and that we could perhaps still look forward to improvements. Our lives were consumed entirely by TM. We had long-stopped making plans, and took every day as it came, given our uncertainty: Would the condition improve? Would the condition actually worsen? Could the TM develop into MS? How does one plan for any of these?

It was all down to Rox’s stubborn determination, despite the fatigue and depression, to unearth the causes of her TM and search for new leads that she came across the research into CCSVI, and Zamboni’s Liberation Treatment. Could this have been the answer that we were looking for? We both started to feel that we had been given the permission to hope for a better tomorrow. I wanted to be as supportive as possible, but at the same time I felt compelled to protect her from raising her hopes too high in order to prevent a crushing disappointment in case the Liberation Treatment proved of no help to her. At the time there had been no record of TM patients undergoing this treatment. My first priority was to understand the risks, knowing that I had to play the .devil.s advocate. to ensure that our desperation for a solution would not draw us to taking unjustified risks with Rox’s future health and well-being.

We found a doctor that had performed the balloon angioplasty on MS patients, who explained clearly the steps involved, and the risks of the procedure from a vascular point of view, but also that the long-term neurological effects were unknown, given that the application of this method in relation to neurological dysfunctions was very recent. We were told that vascular issues were known to be related somehow to neurological symptoms, even though these links were not yet perfectly understood, and that there were no guarantees that the procedure would actually help with Rox’s TM even if a stenosis in her veins was found and rectified. At this stage, we tried to separate the vascular and neurological issues in our minds, thinking that if there was also an underlying vascular malfunction affecting Rox, it would probably be prudent to treat irrespective of its potential link to TM. We therefore proceeded with the diagnosis, and the subsequent treatment given the significant stenoses that were found.

A few hours after the treatment the sensitivity in Rox’s left wrist subsided and unexpectedly she pointed to an improvement in her breathing. I tried to control my excitement, knowing that we would probably have to be patient before we saw an improvement in the symptoms that impacted mostly her everyday life; the migraines, fatigue and painful spasms. It is now 4 months since Rox had the liberation treatment and our lives have just about returned to normal. TM is still part of our everyday life, but Rox’s energy has returned and the spasms have largely subsided, her enthusiasm has rebounded and we now dare to hope for further improvement. We feel entitled again to look further than one day ahead, and make plans for the future. To anyone questioning the benefits of CCSVI, I could in our case just point to the above facts that speak for themselves.