End Of OHIP Funded Physiotherapy

Today was the final day of my 16 weeks of OHIP (Ontario Hospital Insurance Program) funded physiotherapy.

Took the walker around the hospital hallways for an extended walk. Seemed a bit more sluggish since one week ago. Stride not as long or as smooth. May be that the nerves have regenerated and another course of BoTox is warranted. Due to be assessed in early September.

Now its up to me to keep up the exercises and walking schedule and/or find a private physiotherapist in the community who might take over and suggest other exercises, procedures, therapies, or whatever, that might help advance my recovery.

Starting back to work in September - will certainly cut down on available time.

***As an afterthought, I finished my physio routine as below

• arrive and stretch out at parallel bars to loosen muscles, tendons and joints which seem to contract overnight much more than pre-injury. Walk up and down a number of times.
• walk with the walker in a longer hallway outside of physio. About 60 meters up & down each rep. Do two to three reps usually, as time allows, but now near the end of my sessions the walk was taken right out of the department taking various twists and turns while on different floor surfaces (terrazzo, carpet, tile etc.)
• return to physio to do various bench exercises currently focusing on the body core and it's contribution to stability and walking. On all fours raising one arm straight out then alternating with the other. On all fours again but now kicking one leg straight out the back, then alternating with the other. On my back pressing a rubber ball with my right hand into my left thigh, then reversing sides, left hand into right thigh - strengthens obliques. With large diameter ball (~1.5') under my heels, I pull my heels in and roll the ball towards me then out again, repeating. Then with the same ball under the back side of my knees, I bridge, lifting my back up off the mat with just my shoulders touching. A final exercise is seated, then lifting a weighted ball (~3/4' dia) from my lower right side slowly in an arc up to my upper left side, while twisting but keeping my back straight. Then reverse.

All exercises are done in 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

A final exercise is done on the NKO (?) bench which is simply a seated bench where each leg can lift weights up in a gentle kicking motion (quads) or adjusted to fight the weights when pulling back (hamstrings) - again 3 reps of 10 though I continue on until my therapist finds time to take me off. If any time remains (about 1 hour & 30 minutes at this point), I return to the parallel bars.

So those are the excercises I perfomed on my last weeks of therapy.

This & That-More Bitching!

Pain - still trying to decide if the Lyrica has any appreciable effect on my nerve pain at the dose I'm taking. Thought there may have been a slight reduction at first but most of the time it's still intense enough to divert my attention to the pain every few minutes. Hard to put it out of my mind. No noticeable side effects at this dose, except perhaps occasionally blurred vision. May just be fatigue.

Insurance - my insurance company responded to my submission of the $1G+ bill for the joystick with their usual confusing statement.

• "The estimate for this expense is approved. Please remember that the actual amount payable is subject to plan coverage limits and deductible that are applicable. To be eligible for payment, the expense must be incurred while covered under the plan. We will assess the claim when we receive a receipt showing the expense is paid in full."

Okay, what does that mean. The expense is approved, but how much of it will be reimbursed is unknown. * Again, the expense has to be paid in full before they will consider reimbursing whatever amount they decide to reimburse you with. Hardly leaves me reassured or confident when dealing with such a significant amount. Again, as with my manual chair, what disabled person has such money floating around to pay in full prior to the insurance company's reimbursment? One of the reasons I pay continuous premiums to the company is so that major out of pocket expenses are covered when needed and so it doesn't drain my finances at that time.
If I have fire insurance for my house and it burns down, do I have to rebuild it with my own money and then submit it to the insurance company to see what portion they'll reimburse after my rebuilt house is paid in full??? Of course it is all how the policy is written but it is clearly designed to discourage eligible people in need from collecting on the policy. The CEOs need their bonuses and the greedy disabled are siphoning off funds!

*I've previously received a statement from this insurance company which read something like 'the item is covered 100% for the usual and customary coverage in your area'
-translating this bafflegab, it says something like 'of the charge you submitted, we may cover only about 10% of the expense but we cover 100% of that 10%.....Huh????

So, the joystick is covered but how much is unknown until I submit an invoice saying it is "Paid In Full". So, after inquiries, I have no idea of how much I am on the hook for. Sure doesn't give me the "piece of mind" the insurance companies try to sell you with all their excessive TV ads!

Return to Work - Finally, almost exactly one year to the day I started looking into returning to work, I have a return date set for September 8th. This year long process required;

• mounds of paperwork filled out - filed or to retract other forms filled previously
  
• doctor's assessment and approval ($120.00)
• 2 hour in home interview which covered topics such as how many rooms I had in my home and what did I have for pets (what the *&$%# does this have to do with my returning to a job I still held?)
• Bean counters and number crunchers at the Insurance Firm ruled that since I want to return to work, they no longer considered me disabled and came up with the date of April 3rd for me to get back to work for on that date my disability pay would cease. It did and I've been coasting on savings and family charity ever since.
  
• had an 'on-site' ergonomic assessment including photographs and measurements. Although my problem is that I can't yet walk independantly, the morons recommend that I need an ergonomic computer keyboard. Don't use one at home, my hands/arms are fine, why?
  
• Improper informatiion from my regulating college meant I had to take a refresher course to return to a profession I've been in for 30 years. Crammed a $350 36 week course into just under 5 weeks.
• Dealt with some unhelpful people at my regulating college to regain my 'practicing status'
• Interview with Human Resources, Occupational Health (2) & Department Director regarding various matters including safety measures. (how to get me out if the department burns down)

All that has taken a full year. Now I just have to get reaquainted with the specific procedures that may have changed since I was there three years ago.