Learning to speak again
As many of you will know, my online activities were recently seriously curtailed, when I had a mild stroke. This hit me where it hurts most, as an author! I only knew something was wrong due to aphasia – speech problems most commonly manifesting as slurring. Now, I’m not unfamiliar with mild aphasia due to having migraines. This time it has been far more severe, with the slurring joined by difficulty both comprehending words, things said to me and what I’m trying to say. At the same time, writing reading were badly hit I now struggle to write at all – even brief things like notes or emails- accurate spelling eluding me much of the time. and word selection a major challenge. As for reading – I can look at text and discover no meaning or logic to it at all – even if I wrote it!
I’m sure you can imagine how Frustrating, and just plain distressing this is. All I can do is to keep trying – to ‘exercise’ that damaged area of my brain. But it’s not me who has the hardest task with it! In truth it’s everybody else. My wife, Jenny, has had to learn to understand the gibberish I’m talking, especially when I get tired. More, others are confronted with the essentially unintelligible. They need to follow some important advice: Ask. Wait. Liaten. Most important – be patient. Worst of all is mockery of the fool who can’t speak properly!
Shortly after the stroke, I as with two doctors, being assessed. One was very good at making herself understood and asking questions in a way that allowed me o answer with least difficulty. \the other, however, was much worse. There were frequent times when I simply sat and stared at him, because I didn’t understand him. His words were meaningless and even when they appeared to make some sense \i didn’t comprehend what he wanted of me.
Jenny has done well coping with this new, aphasic me.
All I ask of others is some patient understanding. I can only do my best to communicate properly, but that’s often s very slow process. littered with errors.
I would guess that few of us can remember how we learned to speak More of us can recall learning to read and write..It was tough then – it’s worse the second time round!
- Steve
