ANNE MacDONALD feels like a child again, slipping beneath the waves and letting the salt water lick at her skin for the first time in 15 years.
On rainy days, she stays inside, mixing blue and gold paint to mimic the artwork she saw in Mexico in June. MacDonald, 55, stopped painting shortly before she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1992.
“As you can see, I’ve just started dragging everything out again,” she said, indicating a table clotted with paint. “Before this, the MS basically just zapped me. I’d have to sleep half the day just to have the energy to do a load of laundry.”
But since undergoing a new and unproven treatment for her condition, MacDonald said she has been released from the prison of her body and from the fog clouding her mind.
She and her friend, Michelle MacNeil, travelled to Los Cabos, Mexico, to participate in a clinical study testing the effects of what is known as liberation treatment. The two Cape Bretoners were among seven Canadians who volunteered for the study.
The angioplasty treatment meant that a balloon-type catheter was inserted into the women’s veins in order to remove any blockages in the neck or spinal cord, which treatment supporters say helps relieve MS symptoms.
Nova Scotia neither funds clinical trials for this experimental treatment nor covers the costs for residents choosing to go outside of the province to receive it. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall announced last week that the province would help cover the costs of clinical trials for liberation treatment.
MacDonald said she has made quantitative improvements measured by her neurologist. She said she improved by nearly three points on a 10-point neurological examination scale. She has reduced her medication from nine pills to two. And she is steadily decreasing the amount of medical marijuana she uses to control muscle spasms and pain.
“I couldn’t find my cane (after the procedure),” MacDonald said. “But I didn’t need it. I didn’t need it.”
MacNeil was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2006 but said the condition had been present long before that and advanced rapidly. She spent the past two years sporadically using a cane. MacNeil had also been losing control over her speech.
“I would just struggle at work,” she said of her job at the Cape Breton district health authority. “I sounded drunk, and I’d be sitting on the help desk trying to help people troubleshoot over the phone.”
MacNeil said she has regained much of her balance and certain sensations since she underwent the treatment.
“I went swimming — swimming! — twice this weekend and walked along the beach. Before, I’d sleep through the weekend so that I could get through my week at work.”
Both women hope that the province considers doing further research into the treatment and begins to cover the costs associated with getting the procedure done. Some people living with multiple sclerosis are unable to work, like MacDonald, and would have great difficulty paying for the travel and treatment on their own, the Sydney woman said.
Alfie MacLeod, MLA for Cape Breton West, called on the province last week to fund trials of the procedure for Nova Scotians who have the condition. His wife, Shirley, has multiple sclerosis and recently received the treatment in Mexico.
“The costs to our health-care system and the financial burden placed on families only further stresses those who are suffering with the effects of multiple sclerosis,” MacLeod said in a news release.
