It sounded almost a godsend at that point. It was a chance to put dad into a situation where it was almost like an immersion therapy for language learning of a new language where he would have a significant block of time one on one with a speech therapist in a scenario where he could improve.
I think we perhaps had some unrealistic expectations. Think we sort of thought, “Hey we’ll be there for a while. We’ll be there as long as it takes and at the end of it we’ll be back to what we had before. He’ll be doing his projects. And we’ll be at 100% for speech and we’ll be as if the stroke had never happened.” We were looking at what was realistically possible and so at that point my realistic goal was that he would be able to communicate comfortably with people outside of the family. That he would be able to carry on a conversation in simple terms where people who did not interact with him on a daily basis could understand what he was trying to convey.
I think the biggest difference in the aphasia center was the amount of time being spent one on one. I think having solid hour blocks in consistent six hours five hours a day working with someone was a huge benefit. Another thing the aphasia center did was to help us manage expectations and the idea of, “Hey in six weeks he’ll be back to building the flying car” and more to, “let’s see what strategies we can put in place to get to where we can have a conversation with a stranger.”
He’s less stressed, he’s less worried. He’s more comfortable with his ability to be able to find words. He’s more able to correct his own speech. He always knew when what he said wasn’t right but his reaction prior to this was, “oh it doesn’t matter” and he’s more willing now to stick with it and try to work through finding what that word is.
100% I would recommend the aphasia center. The people here are amazing, everybody from Dr. Lori through the girl at the front desk, everybody is awesome. The therapists themselves are awesome, they all take personal interest in everything that happens with their patients. They’re friendly, they’re outgoing, they’re experts at what they’re doing. They handle difficult family members with tact and with understanding., they are a truly amazing group of people.