The Longest Stroke-Dementia Road To Somewhere Journal

January 14, 2019 — “Heard Her, but didn’t Hear Her!”

• “Intuition is the whisper of the soul.”

Today is truly a new day! I have learned something new every single day but this day is different. Learned more about strokes, dementia and Mother. As Mother learned to talk, I learned to listen and listened better than ever. Mother has Aphasia, an impairment of language affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read and write. Speech therapy will help this but recovery varies and could take up to months. Out of all the therapies, physical, occupational and speech, speech takes the longest.

• Trust your intuition and be guided by love.”

Mother being a talker sometimes find it a bit frustrating forming words and identifying objects. In the beginning, I used to frown trying to communicate to her I didn’t understand what she was saying. Thought I was doing the right thing until a nurse told me it was the contrary, I was impacting her in a negative and a demeaning way. Also, I learned to listen for key words to comprehend what she was talking about. This same nurse confirmed that key words recognition was the best way to communicate with Mother and was less invasive. This simple technique of recognizing key words helped me understand a lot of what Mother was…