Barbara was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2021. Her husband, Peter, has been her primary caregiver since. “I get a lot of help, too,” he says. “Our daughters, Jennifer and Laura, have made such great efforts to support me and help care for her. And there isn’t a day that goes by without a family member or a friend coming to the Grace to visit Barbara, and for that I’m grateful.”
In November 2021, it was determined that she needed an operation. “After the operation,” Peter says, “Barbara received radiation treatment for six weeks. When she was being treated, she volunteered to help a team at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) that was designing a mask that would allow a more effective way to hold the head and neck of cancer patients to make sure that the radiation treatment they receive is directed at the tumor.” She said she would be willing to be a part of any clinical trials being conducted to help future cancer patients.
“She was always ready to volunteer. That’s how I met Barbara. I had a tobogganing accident, and I ended up at Toronto General in traction … unable to move. Barbara was a volunteer and would visit me on Friday afternoons; she’d bring me reading material. We would play games and just talk. That was fifty years ago…and we had forty-four wonderful years of marriage.
“And she worked for years helping to raise millions of dollars for the Canadian Cancer Society as well as the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Canada and Arthritis Society Canada. That’s who Barbara is — considerate and thoughtful and always wanting to help others.”
Following her radiation treatment, Barbara began receiving chemo. By August of 2022, however, her white blood cell count was so low that the healthcare team at PMH determined that the chemo
medication was no longer helping, and there was nothing more they could do. Peter says, “All the time she was receiving radiation and chemo, Barbara kept up with her daily activities, went for walks, but by January 2023, it was evident that her cognitive impairment was making it harder and harder for her to cope. That winter, she began to fall. I couldn’t leave her on her own. In March, Barbara fell and fractured her pelvis, and she was admitted to the Toronto Western Hospital (TWH). The healthcare team there determined there wasn’t much they could do. They recommended Barbara be sent to a rehabilitation facility, and so they sent us to Toronto Grace.”
Barbara was admitted to the Grace’s General Internal Medicine/Post-Acute Care Rehabilitation (GIM/PACR) unit on March 7, 2023. “The help we received was impressive,” says Peter. “From the time we first met with the patient manager through the whole three weeks Barbara spent in therapy, the interprofessional health care team worked so efficiently together to help Barbara regain her
independence. The team worked with Barbara on stair climbing, taught me strategies on how to help Barbara at home, and before we left the Grace, the remote care monitoring team met with us to talk about home care. They gave her a pendant to wear to monitor her movements in case she wandered. When we left, I never felt that I was going home alone.
“When we returned home,” Peter says, “we were given community supports — a nurse practitioner and personal support workers. They were coming to the house three times a week to help care for Barbara. But even with their help, it became increasingly hard for me to take good care of her. One day, Barbara had a seizure, and she needed to return to TWH. After the healthcare team assessed her, they told me that Barbara shouldn’t return home — the level of care she required was beyond my capabilities.
“It was time for Barbara to be in palliative care. They gave us a list of palliative care facilities, but I knew Toronto Grace was the best place for Barbara. She was admitted on October 5, 2023. I am so happythat she’s at the Grace because I know from our previous experience that Barbara is in a compassionate, caring environment receiving the best possible end of life care.”