In last weeks column, I wrote about John Bakers stroke experience and the hard work hes put into his remarkable recovery over the last 12 months. As planned, he and his wife Deb Pickman had a celebratory evening out on the first anniversary of his stroke. Its been a challenging year, but John has faced it with courage, humour and a choice to accentuate the positive. I defy anyone to find a woe is me gene in John.
It helps, of course, to have someone as fiercely devoted and determined as Deb in your corner. She especially wanted to let readers know that when John was in emergency at Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»General Hospital, he signed up to be part of a government-funded study. After he was administered a clot buster, doctors administered a human blood product intravenously.
The experimental drug has had good results in animal testing and is thought to protect the brain after a stroke, Deb said. She encourages stroke victims and their families to ask about it. The study is called "Albumin in Acute Stroke (ALAIS) Trial - Part 2: APhase III Randomized Multicentre Trial of High Dose Human Albumin Therapy for Neuroprotection in Acute Ischemic Stroke."
Based on Johnnys quick and continued recovery, it may be that there is a new treatment for stroke just a few years away, said Deb, who had nothing but praise for the VGH stroke team. Or else he is a great example of placebo effect.
The couple also wanted to alert stroke patients and their families to a resource they only found a few weeks ago, but wished theyd stumbled upon it a year agobrainstreams.ca. Its a website dedicated to bringing together people living with brain injuries (including strokes), their family and friends, professionals and service providers to support new and innovative education. Its primary work, however, is organizing the Pacific Coast Brain Injury Conference, which this year is Feb. 15 to 17 at the Sheraton Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Wall Centre. This years theme is Real People with Real Lives: It Takes a Village. Deb and John are volunteering at the conference, with John facilitating a workshop. Although strokes arent a key part of this years conference, its worth taking a look at the speakers lined up. Among the participants will be Canadian army captain Trevor Green, who took an axe to the head while stationed in Afghanistan, and his wife Debbie. Concussions, which are a regular headline maker in the news these days, is one of the topics to be discussed.
Reader Marjorie Young, who is also a registered speech language pathologist, contacted me after the column was published and also wanted to share a list of resources people could access for speech therapy following a stroke. Among those is the B.C. Association of Speech Language Pathologists at bcaslpa.ca, which has a list of private practitioners who can offer self-help resources and interim therapy services, she said.
B.C.s Medical Services Plan does not cover SLP services, but they are now eligible for medical tax credits on the T2240 form, Young noted.
Adults who don't qualify for services and don't have extend health benefits will need to be waitlisted at G.F. Strong, Holy Family Hospital, St. Paul's, Lion's Gate, Surrey Memorial Hospital, or Richmond General Hospital, which all have SLP staff.
In the meantime, Young said there are many apps that can help and stressed the importance of beginning therapy as soon as possible.
There are an increasing number of apps for iPad and iPhone that address speech, language, reading, and writing problems related to stroke or brain injury. Some resources include Tactus Therapy (tactustherapy.com), Speech Trainer 3D from Smarty Ears (smartearsapps.com), vocabulary and word game apps, such as Magic 3D words, Word Abacus, Word Storm, etc. which are all available from the App Store; the latter games are downloadable for free, she wrote. Stroke patients have many more options now for self-help and recovery, and can make faster and more complete recovery when therapy is started as soon as possible after the incident.
John wholeheartedly agrees. In his case, Debs extended health care plan paid for speech therapy and John got right on with his therapy. Here are some of his observations.
I was also surprised by the approach of my speech therapist. To the untrained eye it would appear as if there was no rhyme or reason to my therapy. More like, throw a lot of stuff at the wall to see what sticks. It was very impressive and felt very personal. Apparently, because of the vast number of variations in brain injuries and the effects, a one size fits all approach wouldnt necessarily work. Yes, there are lots of drills, but some drills produce better results for some than for others. I was amazed. I looked forward to going to speech therapy sessions. I seldom knew what to expect. Theres no doubt that a great speech therapist is also a great conversationalist. Not just a listener, but with the skills and genuine curiosity to engage the speaker in a suitably challenging conversation.
Twitter: @HughesFiona
