RETURN to the OKANAGAN

For Ron and me our Stroke Month Saga was the first major road expedition that we had attempted since his stroke in November, 2012. It had been eight years since we had headed up the Coquihalla Highway. The first feature that struck me as we neared the Nicola Valley was how green and plentiful the trees were. The last time we had passed this way evidence of the pine beetle infestation was everywhere. The orange and dying boughs on most of the pine trees suggested that this forest was in trouble and the prospect of a major forest fire loomed. Now it was obvious some kind of regenerative miracle had happened. Could the trees have healed themselves? I wondered.

            As we approached Kelowna the second feature we noted was how green the hills were. Where was all the sun-browned grass of yore? Could we be in Lancashire and not in the Okanagan? I wondered.

Actually I did know that the region had experienced record rain fall and snow pack melt. Kelowna was on flood watch when we arrived. Boating and swimming in the lakes were prohibited due to the high waters which were erasing beaches and concealing snags and other newly submerged hazards. The high waters were even challenging the clearance tolerances between Okanagan Lake and the nine year old William R. Bennett Bridge.

We found our hotel, The Fairmount, with relative ease. The weather was hot when we arrived. The outside temperature on our Toyota’s dash registered in the low thirties. After checking in we dined in the air conditioned comfort of the nearby Cactus Club and retired early. Could this trip be the one when I actually spotted Ogopogo, the legendary lake monster, kin to Nessie, famed in cryptobiologist and tourist lore? I wondered as I drifted into dreamland.  

We rendezvoused with Deborah Rusch, Manager Promote Recovery of the Heart and Stroke Foundation in BC, in the reception area of the Vernon Jubilee Hospital. As Deb went to pick up the lunch, Ron and I made our way to the Polson Tower for the first of the Lunch and Learn sessions.

            The purpose of Deb’s talk was to acquaint the health care professionals who attended with the new program which the Heart and Stroke Foundation began offering two years ago–Living with Stroke. This program is a community-based support and educational program designed for stroke survivors and their care partners. Each program runs for 6 – 8 weeks and is led by trained stroke survivors or professional therapists or a team of both. Unlike people who suffer from heart disease and who are usually able to return to their former lives easily, Heart and Stroke Foundation research shows that stroke survivors need and want support programs to help them cope with their recovery and with their re-integration into their communities. If this program had been offered five years ago Ron and I might not have felt like we had been abandoned and left to flounder on our own.

Ron’s subsequent talk immediately demonstrated that recovery from a stroke is a lengthy and challenging process. A stroke alters the brain, the mind and the self. The good news he shared is that the brain can heal itself and that recovery never ends. AND, he argued, if the stories of stroke survivors were taken seriously, if the anecdotal accounts of their stroke experiences were collected and collated by computer, the results would be scientifically significant. The results could teach us much about ourselves and about how the brain works. At the moment, the brain and the universe are our last two, equally UNKNOWN ZONES.

(Ogopogo not withstanding.)