Saturday, December 26, 2009

CCSVI?

Chronic
Cardio
Spinal
Venous
Insufficiency

This is the new buzz-phrase that is sweeping MS-Nation. It all began with the work of an Italian doctor - Dr. Zamboni - and the work that he did to better understand and treat his wife, who had been given a diagnosis of MS.

All of the details of that journey are better described here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/researchers-labour-of-love-leads-to-breakthrough-in-treating-ms/article1372414/

This information has spun my world out of orbit and the routine of 28 days between infusions has now been augmented with a mad research program and quest for more data. The goal for all of this research is to find that inflection point; the point where I can say that I am comfortable being tested for CCSVI and then comfortable undergoing surgery. To-date, I have come across this information:

http://www.bnac.net/?page_id=517

Which is of interest, because my best friend growing up went to med school at UB and the school is less than an hour from where I grew up outside of Rochester, NY. The entire Upstate NY area kinda sorta feels like home and so this has a leg up, due to familiarity. They have said they will not be making any decisions on study participants until January, so I am also in a holding pattern there.

Why Universal Health Insurance Is Better Than Health Care Reform

I have a simple understanding of insurance: the larger the pool of lives insured, the lower the rate paid by each member of that pool.

Is there anyone who works with insurance more directly who can confirm or correct that understanding? Because if that is an accurate understanding, than we should be looking to cover as many people - as many lives - as possible. We shouldn't be looking for silly things like, "this person over here is not a citizen" or "that person over there has a pre-existing condition". Insurance by its nature recognizes that some people will face illness more acutely than others - we just do not know whom. This is the sole purpose for providing insurance: to prepare - in advance - for that risk of the unknown. Once the unknown has become known, is not the time to begin severing people from the commitment. Rather, that is the time to fulfill the promise made: whichever one of us is felled by the random dangers of life, the rest of us will be there for you.

You can count on us.