Family Meeting

Yesterday's family meeting was a good one. We met with the physiotherapist, speech therapist, occupational therapist, nurse, social worker and had a consult from the Doctor. They provided us with updates on Marie's progress (much of which has been discussed on this blog already) as well as discuss options for the future.

Marie's stay has been extended within this facility to the maximum allowable under the OHIP funding guidelines. This means that she will be staying here until August 11th. The reason they have chosen to offer Marie the 45 day program is to provide her with intensive therapy for as long as they can. Right now Marie is having several hours of therapy 5 days per week. In out patient programs, the amount of OHIP covered therapy is significantly lower.

After Marie's release from Providence, she has a few options for out-patient rehabilitation. The two main options right now are the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (TRI) or the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) in Barrie. The therapists here will be submitting referrals on Marie's behalf to her chosen facilities. Each program comes with it's own set advantages and disadvantages. Right now, Marie is leaning to RVH as her 1st choice.

Out-patient rehabilitation services are often offered on a 1-2x per week basis and generally go for 8 weeks. We will not know the exact amount of therapy Marie will be offered in either facility until they have assessed her. It appears that more therapy may be beneficial to Marie, so we will be looking into advocating for Marie to get more OHIP funded Rehabilitation (if this is possible), or looking into private therapy options. If any of you out there are knowledgeable in this area, please feel free to share your feedback with us here or by emailing me at laura_mdick@hotmail.com, we would love to hear it!

The team here was hesitant to offer any sort of timeline for Marie's re-entry back into the work force. From our research, we have learned that many people continue their recoveries for years after their stroke, but most gains are made during the first year. It has been suggested that 1 year might be their best estimate for Marie's return to work. We are supportive of this (or whatever Marie needs) to allow Marie the time to recover to her fullest potential.

We have learned that overall, recovery from stroke is a difficult thing to estimate. This is due to the complexities and uniqueness of the brain. As well, everyone has different goals for thier recovery, and progresses at different rate.

Our next important meeting will be August 6th, when we go back to Sunnybrook to meet with the doctors about the cause of Marie's stroke and stroke prevention. The doctor here tells us that this team is the top-rated team in Canada for stroke.

Going forward, blog updates will likely be weekly or biweekly. Of course if anything significant happens we will be sure to post it here!

Thanks again for your continued support!

Laura