Yesterday was Bob's case management meeting at Rehab and unfortunately the news was not so good. Both Speech/Swallow Therapy and Occupational Therapy are ready to discharge him. They tell me that although he is progressing, his "progress is too slow"....
I'm very frustrated. I don't get it. I thought that progress is progress and as long as he's progressing and not "plateauing" he could continue the therapy. I mean, the guy had a massive stroke, 80% of the left hemisphere of his brain damaged, so isn't he allowed to be a little slow in his progress???
I guess I can sort of understand OT discharging him, as his right arm/hand have not improved, although this means the Bioness treatments will stop and they only just started them. It also means an end to help with reading and writing. But mostly, I am terribly upset with the Speech/Swallow therapist, because lord almighty, Bob has a feeding tube and if therapy is stopped, it looks like he may never get rid of it, never be able to eat a meal or sip a drink again. And even the case manager commented how much improved Bob's speaking was at the meeting--so what's with that?
Bob is pretty upset about it, although I don't think he understood what was happening until I explained it to him more slowly once we were home. He kept asking "Why?" and when I explained "they say your progress is too slow," he replied "well, pardon me."
Actually he said "well, mardon me"--he does have trouble with the "p" sounds.... But I got the picture.
The only good news is that Physical Therapy will continue. Thank god for that. So I guess they'll teach him to walk, but they don't seem to care if he can talk, eat, read or write, or move his right arm.
Today he has a video swallow test. I am praying the results show more progress than expected and maybe convince them to continue with that therapy.....
2 comments:
Diane, plateau or slowness as your medical staff uses is not really valid.
http://oc1dean.blogspot.com/2011/04/plateau-bad-word-in-stroke-recovery.html
http://oc1dean.blogspot.com/2011/04/motor-recovery-plateau.html
You probably need to understand what reporting they need to do to insurance/HMO in order to continue. In my case I had to show functional improvement in 4-6 weeks or therapy would stop. My God, in stroke functional recovery only happens in the first6-12 months, after that we are talking individual muscle improvements that take months to prove.
Dean
I think they're expecting too much too soon. It was a massive stroke, not some little thing that maybe damaged his ability to use one arm or something.
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