Johnson wrote:Just to be clear; I mean no slight to Dr. Dake, his skills, accomplishments, etc. I am well aware that there a number of members here that have nothing but good things to say about him. I do have my own doubts about stents, but they are my own, and again; as above.
There are also members here who did not have good experiences, or worse. Let us hope that Mr. Williams' experience is not so, else there will be a mighty, negative campaign against the hypothesis and procedure.
I hope that Mr. Williams has a great success, and is as pleased as Mark, Rhonda, and a host of others are after being treated by Dr. Dake. I know the joy and blessed relief that I felt, and I would wish that on anybody - especially someone with the ear of millions.
I feel no particular prediliction to defend Dr. Dake, his honor, his methods, use of stents, yadda yadda. From my dealings with him, I can say that he would not WANT anyone to do any such thing either in his stead.
That being said, this whole Montel thing from the beginning has been almost surreal, I think a goodly percentage of us, on first hearing of CCSVI, thought exactly the same thing, "wow we need to get Montel on board with this thing". His silence for so long was deafening, and while it is good that he wisely chose to measure his steps carefully, in the end, he is in my opinion, just another MS patient among many, he is a father, a Marine, a well known personality, but I feel that too much is being ascribed to him that he did not ask for, namely the sense that somehow CCSVI is going to rise or fall on what happens with him, or what he does with it, and negative or positive, the very fate of the empire hangs in the balance.
One thing I know about Dr. Dake, he couldn't care less about all this celebrity nonsense, and it is nonsense for the most part, at least as serious scientific investigations go. I feel comfortable stating that it won't hurt his feelings none if he is left in the background, steadily chugging along, fighting for US, and not having a building named after him, or getting on the news, or having 10,000 spotlights and recognition galore, all the things that make Hollyweird what it is, where celebs invariably take up causes with their umpteem millions and endless resources at their disposal, with little sacrifice or risk.
So yeah, I think he's the man for the job, should it go that far, and it may not, but if it doesn't, so be it too, I truly do wish him the best as a father, an MS patient, and all this other clamoring claptrap like he is some golden goose that MUST be bagged at all costs, smacks of petty posturing, and really just basically (to me) says, "yeah Montel, MS patient, all that's great, but if you don't mind, could we just borrow your celeb status for a time?". That's number 1.
Number 2, no, Dr. Dake aint gonna put no doggone stents inside of Montel Williams, I'd bet money on it, he's not doing it in the patients in the study, and hasn't as far as I know, done it at ALL since us 2009'ers, so no need to panic in that respect.
Number 3, Dr. Dake is well aware of IVUS and it's efficacy in diagnosing and treating CCSVI, he used it in me, and although as I've stated, was unrelated to the previous treatment, worked wonders on my venous hum, he's not a new kid on the block, and doesn't deserve to be treated as such.
Number 4, MRV's, sigh. Okay, they aren't the best thing since sliced bread, but were plenty good enough to baseline and proceed with the dozens of patients who went to Stanford in 2009, somehow now, they are practically useless, something must have changed since then? I'm sure Dr. Dake will be able to refer Montel to a facility that will also have proper US dianostics. Not sure what the problem is here, screening tools are just that, screening tools. Point is to get whatever you can get dianostically to justify a venogram, even our MRV's on a crappy 1.5T seemed to fit the bill, I'm sure Dr. Haacke will have little issue doing likewise.
Number 5, there already IS a “mighty awful negative campaign against CCSVI”, white gloving Montel is not going to change that, presupposing some imaginary disaster that may, *may* befall him, is just not enough justification in my mind to toss the baby out with the bathwater, unless you can produce a Dr. with a 100% success rate and no complications or outright failures, this is a spurious argument to make. There are negative experiences across the board, period, they are already out there, I’m positive that Montel heard about THOSE before anything else, yet here he is, knocking on the door.
Montel can afford to move himself, and his entire family , to wherever he needs to be, when he needs to be there, for as long as he needs to be there, likewise, I doubt Dr. Dake would have any problem using a facility close to Montel’s home, should things go that far.
I wish Montel the very best of success in his CCSVI journey. Leave him be for now, he’s not a stepping stone to CCSVI rise/fall, that lies in the studies, lots and lots of studies, the kind that Dr. Dake is going to undertake. The ones that get published in journals that other Dr.’s read like you and I read the newspaper to find out what’s going on. I’m positive that Montel would be flattered to find out that he is now the sole crux upon which the entire future of CCSVI pivots.
