By Allison Werbowetsky
Saskatchewan
Mike McIntosh is back in Swift Current after travelling overseas to Poland last week to receive a controversial surgery said to diminish and even cure physical ailments connected to multiple sclerosis.

 Days later, McIntosh says he’s feeling great.

 “I’m walking better, without a limp, and I’m seeing better. It’s like I’m 25 again,” he said with a sort of enthusiasm nearly impossible to imitate.

McIntosh was part of a group of 12 people, mostly Canadians, who went through the week-long process together. The surgery, which was invented by Dr. Paolo Zamboni, an Italian vascular surgeon, is referred to as ‘liberation treatment’ and is not yet performed here in Canada.

The Saskatchewan government recently announced plans to begin funding clinical trials of the procedure within the year, however there is still much speculation surrounding the actual effectiveness of the surgery.

“Everybody understands that the placebo effect is an extremely strong effect, or can be an extremely strong effect,” said Bryan Salte, associate registrar at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, acting as a sort of neutral voice of reason on the issue.

“People will experience what they expect to experience, and there certainly are people who take the position that the most likely explanation for this is that it’s the placebo effect and people are expecting to get much better,”

However, since the surgery became available overseas in April, hundreds of Canadians have received it and continue to rave about it — including McIntosh.

“Placebo affect?” he laughed in disbelief. “I guess it’s magic that my side was sore for the first two days because I was using a muscle to lift my leg that I didn’t know was there before.

“Their credibility is on the line — the doctors, the MS Society —  if they don’t go with this and it’s proven later and people are sick, we’ll sue the bastards. How many thousands of us have to spend $10,000 or $15,000 to go over there and come back and tell them it’s a great thing?”

The surgery in question is an angioplasty procedure in which a tube is inserted just to the left or right of the groin and pushed up a vein into the neck. Pressure is put on the vein in an attempt to stretch it and release any blood flow blockages.

McIntosh describes it as a loud swooshing sound, clouded vision and other noticeable differences instantly.

“It felt like there was a needle in my neck, just a little warm needle. He told me he’s putting it in and balloons it and all around in here it turns black from the blood built up,” he said, motioning to his forehead and eyes. “I could see floaters in my eyes, they’re grey and brown, then all of a sudden ‘swoosh’ and I could feel all the blood rushing down. My fingers started buzzing and my toes started crinkling — everything just came alive.”

The Polish doctors who operated on McIntosh and the other 11 patients in his group were careful not to make any promises about the uncertain outcome.

“They repeated over and over: ‘this is experimental, we’re learning,’ so they don’t tell you anything. They just tell you that it’s safe and they try not to build up any false expectations, and I don’t blame them. You know, some of the guys are a little disillusioned ... But everybody in our group was improved,” he said.

To McIntosh and many other MS sufferers, the answer whether to perform the procedure is clear. However, a lack of vital research and testing of the long-term effects is keeping the availability of it in Canada in limbo.

“There’s a difference between patients’ rights to go and seek to do whatever they want to do with their bodies and the expectation that a physician would actually participate or assist in doing something which may actually in a year turn out to be harmful,” Salte said.

However, for 58-year-old McIntosh, even if the improvements are short-lived or the surgery proves harmful, it’s still worth it to try.