Tuesday, August 21, 2007
`The Full Panoply of Speech'
This word-drunk writer, who described purple prose as “the style of extreme awareness,” suffered a stroke in June of 2003 that left him with global aphasia, the loss of speech both spoken and written, its expression and comprehension. The stroke killed cells in the Broca’s area (speech production, language comprehension) and the Wernicke’s area (language comprehension) of the brain. His wife, writer Diane Ackerman, calls his condition “the curse of a perpetual tip-of-the-tongue memory hunt.” Rather than resign himself to the limbo of the language-less, West laboriously composed a memoir, The Shadow Factory, parts of which have been published in The American Scholar, and has also finished writing his first post-stroke novel. To place the accomplishment in perspective, imagine Dr. Oliver Sacks writing one of his portraits in applied epistemology from the point of view of a patient who has suffered a neurological catastrophe. Here’s a triumphant excerpt:
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Aphasia Help
| ||||
| Aneurysm Welcome to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation's message board. |
 |
| | Thread Tools  | Display Modes |
| #1  07-16-2007, 02:25 PM | |||
| |||
 Aphasia help Hello all. Thanks again for all the advice and support you have already provided; it is much appreciated! New question: One of the biggest hurdles right now is aphasia. Does anyone know of any resources out there that could help me locate a highly regarded professional to assist Dad with regaining his speech and comprehension of speech? Thanks, Maggie PS Dad is coming home on Wednesday. He has a follow up with the Neuro. this Friday, so things are moving fast.  |
| #2 07-16-2007, 06:41 PM | |||
| |||
| Maggie - speech therapy is usually the best, with some exercises that you can do when the therapist isn't. Speech is a problem for alot of us - much more with a rupture, depending on location. Talk to the neurologist - he'll be able to tell you which way to go! Prayers to your Dad. __________________  ChrisGod allows life to be rocky. His challenge is not to let the rocks grind you to dust, but to polish you to become a brilliant gem. Anon |
| #3 07-16-2007, 07:02 PM | |||
| |||
 Hi hun http://www.aphasia.org/ I found this site for you, it is the "National Asphasia Association" I hope it helps you? I will have to read more about it myself. Take care, Tricia |
| #4 07-16-2007, 11:15 PM | |||
| |||
 Ask hospital staff (social worker, nurse, NS) if they could order speech therapy for your dad. See if his insurance will cover it...... some places even insure home health speech therapy if it is hard to get him out. They do onders for stroke patients. You and your family are in our prayers. Wishing your dad a good recovery. Lori |
| #5 07-17-2007, 12:42 AM | |||
| |||
| Yes, speech therapist works with this problem. Some of the things that I watched and tried with Ray was using picture cards to try to get them to say the picture or just use items in the home.. spoons, knife, glass etc. I even put labels on cupboards to tell him what it was.. he could not tell me a glass but he could read it.. If your insurance lets you have homecare... they have speech therpist that came to the home.. actually I think she did a great job.. by the time he was ready for outpatient... I think the homecare did a really through job in helping him at home.. Good Luck and prayers for your dad and family __________________ Becky, wife of an Annie survior 1/9/06 |
| #6 07-17-2007, 12:05 PM | |||
| |||
| thank you and please let me clarify Thanks guys. I should've been more specific. I guess what i was trying to ask is if there's a place to look online/elsewhere to find a highly regarded speech pathologist in our area (Northern VA, just South of DC). Someone with extensive experience in treating aphasia. I've checked out the link that FireflyR7 posted (thanks!) and printed a list of people in this area but i have no clue how to determine which ones are reputable. We can always go the route of trial and error but would rather know ahead of time and not waste time and money. This might sound judgemental, but i've seem some good therapists and some that were not as good at his rehab. and have seen the difference in how Dad reacts and the progress made. I'm sure insurance will play a part in this too but i would like to get the best treatment our money can afford. Thanks, Maggie |
| #7 07-17-2007, 12:51 PM | |||
| |||
 Hi Maggie  Your welcome hun!! You could probably "Google" "speech pathologist" and find all of them in your area? If you have private insurance they should be able to reccomend one!  Did the NS reccomend any? They should know who the best is?? There are a lot more sites if you type "aphasia" in your search. There is a book called, "THE MILD TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY WORKBOOK" that my sis got for us and it helped us to understand a lot!! there are also puzzles, exersizes and evaluations in it when he is ready for it. It was very helpful to my family!I had a rupture 2 years ago and I am still having problems with my speech, coordination, cognitive skills... But, I have not gone to therapy. I couln't afford the co-pay!  I have used word circle books, play scrabble and use a dictionary. Play my brain memory game, write poetry, listen to music...I talk to my sister everyday, hubby works with me when he is home. I have improved immensly, even on my own!!  I think it just mostly takes time, I hope you find a good therapist!!! I wish I could have gone to one! I still get frustrated sometimes! I will be keeping you in my prayers, please keep us posted! Tricia |
| #8 07-17-2007, 05:38 PM | ||||
| ||||
| Hi Maggie..your post caught my eye because I also had to have speech,along with OT/PT after my clipping. My hosp. had all that, I went for 9 months and it helped so much.They had a speech pathologist come in from the city of St. Paul on the day's I had PT. Check into the hosp in your area I'm sure they can help you with this. ooxx mimi __________________ **** Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body. But rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out screaming “WOO-HOO what a ride!”**** |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
