Since 2007, after my husband passed away, I’ve had an ongoing relationship with New Brunswick’s Extra Mural Program aka EMP, often called ‘a hospital without walls’.
A physiotherapist visited me a few months after the death of my husband to determine what my ongoing ‘home alone’ needs would be in order that I would be safe within the parameters of living and aging with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy. At that time, it was decided that I would benefit from a walker. Choosing one with four wheels, I have found it to be a huge assist to my daily ambulation. Moving around inside and outside my home had always been relatively easy as I pay close attention to surroundings. Housework was undertaken in blocks, based on related tasks, room by room with no going back and forth with no rushing. Staying focused ensured I stayed safe and well and reduced the potential for falling injuries.
In my 67 years of living with CP, I’ve fallen only a few times and without injury. Luck ran out when, in the early 80s, I tripped over my black cat, Mr. Basil, dislocating my dominant elbow, landing me in the hospital for a month unable to use crutches or propel a wheelchair. I stayed at the then Northern Carleton Hospital during that period, after which there was weekly therapy for 9 months at the Stan Cassidy Center to regain range of motion.
Fast forward to current time where a falling injury, given my advanced age, could do me major harm or very possibly do me in with regard to independent living. Thus the value of EMP interventions.
How many seniors have sustained serious falls in the home that required surgical intervention followed by at-home care with visiting clinicians from Extra Mural? Where would they be without that intervention? A huge debt of gratitude is owed to the men and women of EMP who go above and beyond to restore New Brunswickers in need of their services to a level of independence in daily living that most of us enjoy with ease. To not do our part and follow through with daily program designed by the care team insults their role as providers of health care with their time and attention to us. If you’re guilty of doing that, just stop it. If you’ve been given a list of exercises to do a few times a day, DO them!
As a child, growing into cerebral palsy, I was exercised 4 times a day for 12 years and had no choice in the matter; those pushes and pulls hurt. They hurt a lot. I can honestly say, in retrospect, were they not done and had I not been blessed with parents committed to my daily care, I’d not still be uprightly mobile today. That is the truth.
Today, I’m fortunate to have access to a fine therapist who works with me to keep my legs in good form so I may continue getting around in my home. We’re currently challenged by the recovery process after the TIA and my brain is being retrained, revisiting many of the exercises that were done to me as a very small child. They’re tweaking muscle memory to get me back to more efficient stepping and heel-toeing.
For many years, the Extra Mural Program specialists have visited homes across the province, working with patients coping with a range of situations, whether related to aging or focused on recovery after surgery or some other medical intervention. Their goal is to work with the individual so that greater mobility and confidence is restored so that independent living may continue. Staying in the home safely and well is the goal and those availing themselves of the services of the EMP have a duty to ‘get with the program’. As I’ve said before, clinicians are like Santa - they know when a patient has or has not done daily exercises. It’s patently unfair to them and to folks on wait lists if those currently utilizing their services aren’t going to be compliant. I do my part with stretching and ankle-foot rotations and heel cord strengthening standing with my walker. The therapist does the heavy lifting and I tell him at every visit that I appreciate his involvement in keeping me forward moving — one floppy foot at a time.
Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with Miss Lexie, a rambunctious Maltese and Mr. Malcolm, the boisterous Havanese. She can be reached via email at Carla MacInnis Rockwell
You are extremely lucky you were able to get benefits from such a program. :) Is it provided free of charge or do you have to pay out of pocket? I admit I don't know a lot about health insurance up in Canada.
ReplyDeleteIt's available at no cost, Kat.
ReplyDelete