Follow up details

I had my one month follow up appointment with Dr. Haskal yesterday.  Unlike a visit with my neurologist, my IR did not put me through a battery of tests to check my balance, strenght, vision, etc.  We basically sat and shot the breeze.  I have been emailing him with little update tidbits since December 2nd, but yesterday we got to have a real face to face conversation!  They are all too rare in this electronic communication world in which we live.

I told him about how I feel that my symptoms are so inconsistent from day to day.  However, since describing this in my last post, I've had nothing but good days!  My balance is strong and my walking is solid.  I fell asleep in the car on the way home from Baltimore yesterday (don't worry, I wasn't driving!), but that is a passenger's duty, is it not?  I'm chalking that nap up to the gentle hum of the car engine, rather than cognitive fatigue!

Many of you have asked for details about the balloons used in this procedure.  I got a copy of my report, and have all of the details to share.  He used a 14mm balloon in the right IJV using high pressure dilation.  In the left vein "12 and 14mm very high pressure angoigraphy was required to dialate the vein."  He used an 8mm balloon in the azygos.

I checked my report from July.  The differences appears to be the use of "very high pressure" and the 14mm balloon used in the left vein this time.  He only went up to a 12mm in the left in July.  In both veins the problems were at the valves again.  We discussed the fact that a couple of doctors he knows are using much bigger balloons these days.  He is interested in seeing their published results before committing to using them himself.  Sounds reasonable to me, but if I am back in his office again in two months, I may ask him to give those big suckers a try.  We'll cross that bridge IF we come to it!

Sadly he had no news to share about his study.  He assured me that the process is still moving forward, but the pace is maddeningly slow.  The good news is that his interest in CCSVI has not diminshed in the least.  In fact he seemed to be even more passionate than he was the last time I saw him.  We are extremely fortunate to have him on our team.  Now if only he could get back to work, everything would be perfect!