CCSVI and Slovakia, Europe

whyRwehere · Post by **whyRwehere** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:17 am

snicker snicker

ErikaSlovakia · Post by **ErikaSlovakia** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 11:41 pm

This information might important to all of you.
I have received another e-mail from Dr. Simka, it is just a part of it:

"As far as treatment modalities are concerned - there was a big discussion on that in Bologna, and as far as jugular veins are concerned a simple baloon angioplasty is not a good option, since ~50% of lesions reocclude with simultaneous MR relapse. There were suggestions to re-baloon such occlusions, but regarding the fact that a relapse means new damage to the brain, it does not seem wise. Dr. Dake from Stanford is for stenting, and it seems to be the only good option for highly localized lesions. But is the middle part of neck and in a case of inverted valve open surgery is probably the best choose (but, there are no idata for that at the moment, Zamboni's team has operated on only 5 patients, and all were with reocclusions after balooning).
Marian Simka"

My reply was in short: "Do whatever, just give me enough painkillers because I do not drink Vodka

"

Erika

ErikaSlovakia · Post by **ErikaSlovakia** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 12:00 am

Jamie wrote:Jesus, if anyone deserves a break its you Erika!

Thank you, yes, you are right. I know you ment it positive.
I just was entartaining my angels.
Erika

ErikaSlovakia · Post by **ErikaSlovakia** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 12:17 am

whyRwehere wrote: Is it only private insurance you have that will cover Poland, or is insurance from the Government (as there is in the UK and France, etc) covering the op?. I wonder if My husband should go to Italy, but am not sure what to do really, besides wait for Dr Franceschi to spread the word in France and hope something gets done here.
good Luck with your treatment and keep us updated (which I can tell, you wil.

Private health insurance does not exist in Slovakia. We have about 7 h.i. companies. They offer more-less the same. 2 are owned by state, next year they join together. 5 are private. All of them must offer the possibility for patients to be treated in foreign countries. They prefer EU.
There are only 2 conditions. Slovak specialist must suggest the treatment in other country if it is not possible to get the diagnostic in Slovakia and if there is not the possibility of treatment in Slovakia. (Almost 5 pages of papers).
2. Insurance company in my town must egree and must sign it. They send it to the general director of the company and he must sign it too.
There must be exact price and exact tratment suggestion from the other country.
I just go for the treatment and the hospital in other country sends the papers with some text, invoice and stamp to the Slovak insurance company. The slovak insurance company pays the bill as they already heve the agreement from the general director.
In case I am interested, I go in person to my health insurance company to ask for the information of all costs. They print some pages for me and I can see "how expensive" I was for my insurance company.
E.g. patients do not pay anything for Copaxone or interferons. I do not take non of them.

Erika

ErikaSlovakia · Post by **ErikaSlovakia** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 12:23 am

Jamie wrote: I can't believe how analyzed 'deserve a break' has been, this site is crazy sometimes.

Hi Jamie, I was also impressed by the analysis and also laughing sometimes, but THANK you all I laso learned a lot.
I know you all pray for me and you all want the best for me. I want the best for Europe.
Erika

ErikaSlovakia · Post by **ErikaSlovakia** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 2:42 am

So, tomorrow is my next trip.
I go 4 hours by bus for the Doppler Ultrasound in Slovakia. It is very close to Poland.
The radiologist knows he would probably find nothing but he wants to try it. He says he does not have such a good machine as Dr. Simka.
He wants to write about CCSVI on his blog.
I will report later of course.
Erika

ErikaSlovakia · Post by **ErikaSlovakia** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:40 am

I have SUPER HYPER MEGA good news!

Dr. Valerian Valasek (Slovak radiologist)just made public his blog in slovak language about CCSVI and MS.
Yes, it is the same radiologist I go to see tomorrow.
http://valasek.blog.sme.sk/c/204938/Skl ... ia.html#t2
Erika

Ana · Post by **Ana** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 7:54 am

Erika, this looks interesting. I just ran the translation program of Google and I could understand most of this Slovakian blog.

I get the feeling that -apart from Italy and maybe France - doctors in eastern Europe are more open to new theories like CCSVI. I have no simpathy for the suppression of the people in the former socialist countries (my mother comes from eastern Germany so I know a lot of people there and travelled a lot to the former Democratic German Republic , DDR). But I must admit that the natural sciences were very high developped there, e.g. I bought a lot of school books for biology etc. in the DDR as they were cheaper and better than our books.

As I already wrote in the German forum I will travel to Dr. Simka next week. I'm very excited about this.

ErikaSlovakia · Post by **ErikaSlovakia** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:11 am

Ana wrote:Erika, this looks interesting. I just ran the translation program of Google and I could understand most of this Slovakian blog.

I get the feeling that -apart from Italy and maybe France - doctors in eastern Europe are more open to new theories like CCSVI.

Hi Ana,
I think you are right. My explanation for that is that Slovakia (eastern Europe) has never been rich country so people are may be trying to find out more and easier... We must be really creative to be able to survive or live more less normaly. As we are small country, we always thing that others are better, richer know more, so we are open to other opinions.
We do not have so much money for research as Italy or the USA.
Usually everything coms much later to us.
As I have lived in other countries may be I am a good mixture and I know faster which button to push.
I hope Slovakia finds enough money for Dr. Valasek´s training and for proper Doppler machine. I also hope more doctors will be trained soon to be able to do the diagnosis in Slovakia.
Erika

Ana · Post by **Ana** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 9:57 am

ErikaSlovakia wrote:[
I hope Slovakia finds enough money for Dr. Valasek´s training and for proper Doppler machine. I also hope more doctors will be trained soon to be able to do the diagnosis in Slovakia.
Erika

So do I! Your're our pace-maker here in Europe!

ErikaSlovakia · Post by **ErikaSlovakia** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 5:36 am

Good news!
Dr. Simka is going to operate the first patient in Poland at the beginning of October.
I hope to be the second. But first I need the MRV.
The patient is a man, he is Polish, but he lives in Germany. He has got stenosis in 3 places in his jugular. He has got problem with his valve as well.
He says, he must stay in hospital for couple of days, so I thing it will be an "open" operation.
As soon as I know more I will let you know.
Erika

Rokkit · Post by **Rokkit** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 6:19 am

Erika, does he speak english? If so, please encourage him to post here.

Thanks!

Rokkit

ErikaSlovakia · Post by **ErikaSlovakia** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 6:32 am

Rokkit wrote:Erika, does he speak english? If so, please encourage him to post here.

Thanks!

Rokkit

No, he only speaks german and polish. He knows about this site.
If anybody speaks german here, you can read his posts here: http://csvi-ms.net/forum/
His nickname is Rici.
He did not mention any details so far. He speaks polish with Dr. Simka.
Erika

CureOrBust · Post by **CureOrBust** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 6:44 am

ErikaSlovakia wrote:Dr. Simka is going to operate the first patient in Poland at the beginning of October.
...
The patient ... has got stenosis in 3 places in his jugular.
... so I think it will be an "open" operation.

I only just thought of the "physics" of an "open" operation to resolve a stenosis. What exactly are they planning to do? Do they install a stent? a graft? decide when they see it?

ErikaSlovakia · Post by **ErikaSlovakia** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 7:09 am

CureOrBust wrote:I only just thought of the "physics" of an "open" operation to resolve a stenosis. What exactly are they planning to do? Do they install a stent? a graft? decide when they see it?

Rici did not mention any details so far.
Dr. Simka sent me an e-mail couple of days ago, and Dr. Schelling sent me an e-mail last week. I can only explain you what he plans to do to me to avoid restenosis and to be able to fix my valve.
This is what I understood so far: He will do small cut from outside on my neck where the stenosis is. I have no clue how can he fix the problem. I do not think he will place a stent into the same place. As soon as he sees on MRV what exactly is wrong with my left side, he might place a stent somewhere into my head - into some vein I hope.

I hope not to walk around with stents partly outside of my head. Well, it woul be perhaps new fashion. I would look like a robot and I could scare kids.

I really do not know more at the moment.

I go for the Doppler tomorrow, because the bus driver "forgot" to stop in my town today.

Erika