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Red Cross called me last week to donate blood, which I hadn't done in awhile and thought, "duh", that's something any of us can do right now that would help others, I do that apheresis thing where they pull out a bunch of RBC's and dump your plasma back in. I literally broke the machine in, whoo hoo!
Can think of NO better place to discuss blood flow than a RC donation center, AND, it was a brand new center, AND I was the very first person to donate there!! Wasn't aiming for that, just how it panned out. No big whoop, but, Mr. Big Mouth doesn't waste any opportunity when there's medical professionals, students standing around watching the machine whirr away. Why not? Beats doing a crossword puzzle. Many an interested ear was lent, which is good. Imagine if all of us did that to just a few people a week, believe it or not there are thousands and thousands of MS'ers out there that haven't heard word one of this.
It's not about selling stents, selling CCSVI or a particular institution or individual, it's about opportunity, opportunity to at least know that it exists and whether to pursue further or do nothing, but there's a choice there that doesn't exist if you don't even know you may have options.
And yes, I shamelessly wore my "Dr. Dake fixed Daddy" shirt as a conversation starter, though with Mr. Big Mouth here that's not necessarily needed...
I'm hoping the very cool people I was talking to at the canteen afterwards find their way here, one was a medical student and asked "who's Dr. Dake" after seeing my shirt, I was like, "what? WHO is Dr. Dake?, are you kidding me? THE Dr. Dake?". Okay not quite that dramatic, but we had an interesting conversation, and yes it was a two way deal, and this other young gentleman had since then come and sat down at the table and I could tell he was listening very intently to us, as I got up to leave he inquired about all this he was hearing, turns out his Mom has MS, recently dx'd, in her 40's, on Avonex, you know the drill.
I just really thought that was touching, here's a kid who loves his Mom to death , stumbling across a stranger talking weird stuff about veins etc etc. I wrote him out some quickie links and let google handle the rest.
Way I look at it, conversation is cheap, easy, and the worst that happens is people think your nuts and don't care or don't know anyone with MS or even what MS is, that's part of the territory. But I guarantee you that within 2, maybe 3 connections of that person is someone they know with MS.
The best part about it is, there's really nothing to sell, it's just a matter of relaying that there may be something worth looking into, that's all. Can't hurt right?
I've seen "hype" mentioned on here. That's what people do when they are selling something. Only thing I'm selling is a big arrow pointing in a certain direction, maybe some directions on how to get there a bit quicker. If that's considered hype, so be it. If truthfully and energetically cataloging my positive results is hype, so be it. If my results go South, you'll be the first to know, but the past 365 (almost) days of solid results is certainly not a figment of my imagination or an embellishment.
Does that mean that results, or outcomes to the downside haven't happened in CCSVI? They definitely have, and they should be discussed at length. There are real risks here happening to real people in real time which should be duly reported as such so people can make informed decisions, think we're all agreed on that one. I feel one of the unintended effects of my video offering is to show that yes, there really are these THINGS that will live in your neck for the rest of your life. It's so easy to say "oh I'm getting stents", it's another thing to see them and realize they are there forever.
Anyways thanks for letting me ramble on, sorry no more big whizz bang multimedia presentations pics and such, that's the last of it for now. Glad it's done, sorry it's only going to reach a small fraction of the intended audience. Can't win em all as they say....
Onward and upwards.
Mark.
_________________ RRMS Dx'd 2007, first episode 2004. Bilateral stent placement, 3 on left, 1 stent on right, at Stanford August 2009. Watch my operation video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwc6QlLVtko, Virtually symptom free since, no relap
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