Everything is still going well! Improvements are slower these days but Karen isn't going backwards which is good news. We just wanted to say thanks again for all of the kind phone calls and continued support. Merry Christmas from the Reid family!

Improvements have been slower lately. Karen hasn't accomplished any new tasks but she continues to improve in what she has been doing. Right now the family is focusing on giving Karen her independence and the confidence that she needs to continue to improve.

Karen is up to 96 steps and continues to do well. She is meeting with Dr. Knox her MS doctor in the next couple of weeks. Karen is already looking for a place to get her follow up appointment done. Seattle is the closest most accessible place so far. Again we really appreciate all of the support that everyone has given us over the last several years.

We have been back in Canada for about a month now and Karen's improvement has been incredible. She is up to about 60 steps a day now. The house isn't big enough anymore for her to walk further! Karen's short term memory is also improving slowly, she has much better recall. One last thing that we have noticed a huge improvement in is Karen's voice, she speaks much with a much stronger voice. The best news that we have is that Karen is starting to get back to her old self again. Much faster then anyone in the family expected.

Karen is walking better and further everyday! She is up to about 40 steps on a good day. The quality of her walking has also improved dramatically, she is able to lift and move her left foot better since returning from Bulgaria. Karen is also doing much better with her hands, she has much more control and is getting back into doing everyday tasks.

Hi everyone, we've got a few more updates for you! Karen is moving better even walking a few steps each day with her walker! She is also resting better now and has more energy throughout the day. And the last one for now, Karen still has warm hands and feet. We will continue to keep you updated as more progress occurs.

We've been home for a few days now. We are all just starting to get back into our routines. Karen hasn't had any major improvments since we got back just building on the small ones that she noticed shortly after the procedure. Karen now has warm hands and feet and her voice is noticably stronger when she's speaking. These are the two main changes that we have all noticed. We will try and keep everyone updated through the blog.

We spent most of the last couple of days around the hotel just resting. Sunday we took some cabs to a mall near our hotel for a couple of hours. Monday was spent resting for our very long day of travel on Tuesday. The driving in Bulgaria is much faster and less controlled then it is in Canada so it made us less willing to travel further then walking distance. We are leaving in a few hours so I will add a few more pictures to finish off the posts from Bulgaria.

We've kind of figured out how to post pictures they are lacking titles so from top to bottom they are us arriving at the hotel, Karen with the doctor's that performed the procedure, the Tokuda Hotel Sofia, the view that Karen had from her hospital room, a picture of one of the mountain ranges near the hotel and hospital, the Greenville Hotel where we are staying, and the ambulance that picked Karen up at the airport and brought her to the hotel.

We heard that some people are having trouble posting comments. If you want to get a message to us you can send an email to reid.fam@sasktel.net or lbr764@mail.usask.ca or jill_reid_94@hotmail.com. We will definitely get these messages. We appreciate all of the messages that we do get. It makes us all feel like you guys are here with us and makes everything so much easier!

Karen is back at the hotel! She was discharged from the hospital around noon today. Everything is going good so far. Everyone is very tired and spent most of the afternoon resting. There's nothing more to update for now. We're going to try and do some touring for the next couple of days so I'm sure there will be plenty of stories to share from that.

The Liberation procedure was performed!!! At about 8:00 last night they came and took Karen down to have the procedure done. She was back in her room by about 9:oo pm. If everything goes as planned she should be out of the hospital before dinner on Saturday. So far there were some small changes nothing big yet though. We will keep you all updated to improvements!

Today has been eventful, Karen had the ultrasound around 9:30AM local time (12:30AM SK time). The results showed a great deal of blockage in both jugular veins - which is good news at this point. It means that they will definitely perform the procedure! The procedure will likely be done tomorrow and out of the hospital the next day. Posting pictures has been more difficult than excepted, so look for pictures on Facebook later on today or tomorrow.

We arrived!!! We landed in Sofia at about 2:00 pm local time which converts to about 5:00 am in Saskatchewan. We couldn't update earlier because of delays in internet connection be we fixed that problem. Karen checks into the hospital tomorrow morning at 9:30 am and will have the ultrasound testing done to see if she has ccsvi. If she does have ccsvi which is pretty likely she will have the liberation treatment done later that day or early the next. We will update more tomorrow when we have more details. Hopefully some pictures too!

The trip is almost here!!! There was an overwhelming show of support from hundreds of people Saturday night at the Benefit dance. This support is what is important to our family. We just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone that came out to the Benefit. Another thank you is owed to all of the wonderful people that planned this benefit for our family and Tammy's. While we are away we will do our best to update the blog every night so that everyone can follow along in Karen's progress.

We've been getting a lot of questions about our flight times so I thought that I would post them here for anyone who is wondering. We fly out of the Saskatoon airport on September 15th at 10:30 which means we need to arrive at the airport at about 8:00. We are scheduled to land in Saskatoon at 5:30 on the 21st.

It's two weeks now until we leave! Everyone is starting to get excited. We have all been following stories of people who have had to procedure and returned home. All of the stories that we have heard are of nothing but good news and stories of improvement.

We just wanted to say another big thank you to everyone that is supporting this trip that we are taking. The support of friends and family is a big source of strength for the family. Three weeks from today we start are journey to Bulgaria for Karen to get liberated. The count down has definitely started. There is lots left to do and get ready in these last three weeks we are just looking forward to arriving in Sofia. Thank you to everyone for your support once again. We will try and update more frequently as the trip gets closer.

The family would just like to thank everyone for all of their support over the weekend. Thank you to the town for supporting the activities at the fair and to the friends who put time into organizing this and the making the float for the parade. A huge thank you needs to be said to all of the family and friends who were at Alice and Wilf's anniversary, thanks for all that you gave and the support that you continue to show. This means more than anything, this support is what is giving us the strength to make this trip to Bulgaria. Once again a huge thank you to everyone who showed their support this past weekend.

I just wanted to post a link to a YouTube channel that has stories of people who have had the Liberation Treatment done at the hospital that Karen will be going to. These people are all very different with varying degrees of MS. The videos certainly give hope and show some of what is being offered by the Liberation Treatment. http://www.youtube.com/user/ReformedMSSociety

The entire Reid family will be travelling to Bulgaria when Karen goes to have the Liberation Treatment performed. We will be leaving Saskatoon on September 15th and will arrive in Bulgaria early the next day. Karen's hospital stay will be 3 to 4 days with the rest of the family staying at a hotel near the hospital. The testing for CCSVI will be done on the first day in the hospital, the procedure will be performed on the second day in the hospital and the remaining days will be for recovery. We will arrive back in Saskatoon on September 21st. Here is a link to the hospital website with all of their information, http://www.tokudabolnica.bg/en/page/727/CCSVI_Center for anyone that wants to check out the hospital that Karen will be getting the procedure done.

The Liberation Treatment

The Liberation Treatment involves opening narrowed veins in the neck of the patient. The condition of narrowed veins is called Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency or CCSVI. Karen will be tested for narrowed veins when she first arrives in Bulgaria. If she has narrowed veins she will have a non-invasive surgery to have the narrowed veins opened. The veins are opened with a small balloon which is threaded up to the veins in the neck from an incision in the upper thigh. Opening the veins will allow blood to flow more freely from the brain back to the heart.

We started this blog as a way for friends and family of Karen Reid to follow her on her journey to Bulgaria to recieve the Liberation Treatment. We will use this as a way to keep in touch with anyone who is curious about how Karen is doing leading up to, during and after the Liberation Treatment.