The 30-year old fog that had filled Darrell Watchorn's brain disappeared instantly as he lay on the surgeon's table. This was the experience the Grande Prairie resident recalled from a procedure he underwent last November to lessen the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis that had stricken him since his diagnosis in 1981. Watchorn travelled to California to undergo the procedure known as the chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, along with his sister, Michelle Ball, who also has MS.

The CCSVI procedure is performed through an angioplasty, mechanically widening the veins in the neck to lessen the effect of the disease. "When he opened up my left jugular vein to 22 millimetres, I felt the energy coming back, it was that instant," said Watchorn. "You're always in a bit of a dazed, fogged head and you can't keep your thoughts straight or anything like that. That was gone immediately."