Fort Saskatchewan The Record - November 19, 2010 |
By Rick Volman/Record Staff |
As her rapid-fire patter streams from her lips it's difficult for anyone to imagine this ball of energy bounding from sitting on a chair in her kitchen to her feet and back again was but a month ago a trembling mass of humanity imprisoned in a wheelchair and unable to look after herself.
"We believe this is something of a miracle," says her mother Patricia, looking at her daughter who was diagnosed with level seven second-stage progressive Multiple Sclerosis and thought to be incurable.
The Pilgrim's miracle is a radical procedure commonly referred to as the Liberation Treatment.
It was developed by Dr. Paolo Zamboni, an Italian medical professor, who created a procedure for treating Multiple Sclerosis while searching for a cure for his wife who suffers from the disease.
The treatment involves inserting a catheter into the body and using a balloon to widen the patient's arteries.
The procedure is not authorized for use in Canada and the family travelled to Costa Rica to have the $15,000 US procedure performed.
"It totally changed my life," said Barbara. "Before I was in a wheelchair, I had severe headaches, I always had tremors, always felt fatigued, I could barely hold anything and now all of that is gone.
"It's like I have a whole new life."
The family decided to try the procedure after every form of treatment available to them in Canada failed to halt the deterioration of Barbara's condition.
"The past year was probably the worst of it," Barbara said, recounting her decade-long deterioration caused by the disease.
"I had pretty much lost my ability to walk, I lost my driver's licence because of my condition, I had to get home care to bathe and dress me because I couldn't do that for myself anymore and then on top of it all the chemotherapy affected my heart.
"After that the doctor's said there was nothing else they could do. I felt like there was a ticking time bomb inside of me waiting to go off."
