Stroke Clinic & Surgery Date

Today we had a meeting with the stroke clinic. They reviewed Marie's medical history and all of her test results. Basically, in terms of determining the cause of Marie's stroke they have not found a cause. The doctors have ruled that all of the possible risk factors that Marie had (which were very minimal if anything) were not significant enough to consider them the cause.

They have said that Marie's stroke was kind of like winning the lottery in a good way and a bad way. The bad of course is that the stroke occurred, the chance being only 1/100,000. He reminded us the "good" lottery Marie won was on the recovery side, given the severity of her stroke. He said that she was doing "amazing" when he examined her. We all know it too, but it is nice to hear it as well from a stroke expert with many years of specialization and experience.

From here they will repeat some of the testing that Marie has had. They do this because the TPA drug among others could have possibly masked some of the causes. The Doctor feels that the chance of finding anything new in this testing would be very slight however they repeat the tests to be extra careful.

One of the messages that he gave to us was a good reminder to probably a lot of us out there... it was to listen to your body. It sounds simple but really is not that easy with all that life demands of us at times! He reminded us that our bodies will tell us what it needs - from an emotional standpoint, to sleeping and eating etc. He said that we all get far to good at ignoring what our bodies are telling us. Many of the recommendations given to Marie for the future fall exactly around that piece of advice, from how much exercise or caffine would be appropriate etc. The doctor's advice to Marie, and in some way to all of us I suppose, try it out in moderation then listen to what your body is telling you! Simple but smart!

Marie has also been given her surgery date. It is very soon - next Monday! This is great news! There are minimal risks to the surgery. They say that replacing Marie's skull is for mostly cosmetic reasons, and that it is not medically necessary from their perspective. Marie will spend one night overnight in the ICU for monitoring. Providence will then re-admit Marie for one week. Her discharge date will be August 17th.

From that point, Marie will go to Windsor for a while (where her sister lives). After that, Marie will likely go to wherever she can get into out patient services first, in Barrie or Windsor, which ever that might be. The most important factor will be how quickly she can get into a rehabilitation facility.