On the Thursday after the stroke this would be day two.
The discussions were going on as to whether they would send me back to Richmond Hospital for rehabilitation ? In BC the place to be for this kind of rehabilitation is a place called GF Strong Centre.
My determined little wife (she is 4’6”) caught wind of this and started lobbying to get me to GF Strong. I want to talk a little bit here about having an advocate. If I would have just been lying there with no one to advocate on my behalf I’m quite sure things would have turned out differently. I’m so thankful for my very vocal advocate Thank you, Dorothy.
I’m also convinced in the power of prayer as I’ve heard a lot of my friends were saying prayers on my behalf. Prayers do change things.
Dorothy did this for a very practical reason. If I were to come home without the proper rehabilitation, and have a fall there was no way for her to pick me up.(I had to come home well enough to get around the house on my own.)
On late Thursday afternoon Dorothy’s prayers were answered. The assessment team from GF Strong arrived.
They put me through a bunch of tests. At the end of them I was told to be ready to leave for GF Strong in the morning.
This was like winning the lottery! If you’ve had a stroke in BC. There is only a limited number of beds on the third floor of GF Strong – the main rehabilitation center in BC. The third floor is where they deal with patients that have acquired brain injuries.
This includes brain injuries that were both acquired in strokes and accidents.
This is one of the reasons I have named my blog “A Lucky Stroke” due to the number of “lucky” things that happened after I had my stroke. I know my friends that were praying for me would probably take issue with me using the term “lucky” and would like to substitute the word “miracle” for what was about to happen next.
I was about to begin the most amazing adventure of my life!