Cindy Thompson would prefer not to be flying to Los Cabos with her husband this week.

The 39-year-old Burnaby woman was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1997 and now spends much of her time in a wheelchair. She is travelling south this week with the hope that a new experimental surgery currently not available in Canada will delay the advance of the debilitating disorder.

"The heat really affects me, so going to Mexico at this time of year was not really my first choice, but the wait list at some of these places is just crazy," said Thompson. "I saw this opportunity, and I jumped at it to get in right away."

The opportunity in question is to receive a controversial treatment based on new research that suggests MS is not an autoimmune condition, as previously thought, but instead may be caused by (or at least exacerbated by) a blockage in veins from the brain.

Italian physician Paolo Zamboni named his recent medical discovery chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI), where narrowed or blocked veins force blood to move backwards into the central nervous system, causing damage. A small pilot study that inflated veins near patients' heads has been shown to be successful in treating people with MS.

"It's basically just angioplasty," explained Thompson. "They balloon the veins because they believe there are collapsed veins in 95 per cent of people with MS."

The medical treatment still remains officially unproven, and more studies are underway to show how common CCSVI is in MS patients, as well as to explore its potential role as a major risk factor in MS.

Thompson, however, isn't willing to wait, saying it could be several years before the treatment is formally approved in Canada. She says that the procedure had previously been performed "three or four times in Victoria, and then they got shut down just a few months ago." She said the surgery is also currently offered in Poland, Bulgaria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Scotland and Costa Rica.

Earlier this month, in an editorial published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, editor Dr. Paul Hébert and co-author Dr. Matthew Stanbrook warned that medical decisions should be based on science, not hope, and argued that the controversy over immediate access to the pioneering treatment in Canada "illustrates how quickly news of promising scientific discoveries can create unrealistic expectations."

"They can hardly be blamed for this," they wrote of people and their loved ones struggling with a disease that affects more than 50,000 Canadians, with three new cases diagnosed every day. "Understandably, they fear ongoing loss of function and premature death. But good policy decisions should not be based on hope and desperation."

While Thompson knows the pioneering surgery won't come with any guarantees to cure her health problems, she said the $10,000 treatment is worth the investment even if it helps only a little bit.

"They say even if you don't notice many big changes, it should help stop the progression of the disease," she said "We're going into this thinking if I only notice one change, if it takes away my fatigue or takes away balance issues, it'll be worth it."

She added that she's also seen numerous videos of people with MS who have had the treatment with highly successful results. "One lady - you can YouTube it - was jumping up and down and saying she hadn't jumped since she was a little kid ... and she was in her 50s!"

The cost for the treatment will hit the family hard, she said, especially as she isn't the only member of the family with a serious medical condition. The couple's baby girl, Megan, was recently diagnosed with Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare genetic disorder - often confused with Down syndrome - where muscle development is limited and the part of the brain that controls hunger doesn't work properly, often resulting in morbid obesity.

"Eventually we may have to put locks on our fridge and our cupboards. She's 19 months old now and she's not crawling or walking."

Cindy and husband Glen will have to spend a week in Baja due to the need for preliminary testing and a recovery period.

Plans are in the works by friends of the family to help defray the costs of the trip and surgery. Please e-mail Kay McDonald if you would be interested in making a donation through CIBC: kaymc@shaw.ca.