Use your words.....

There are many parallels between teaching a young child and the recovery of a patient after a major head trauma... Swallowing, speaking, repeating words and phrases to commit them to memory, are all part of the learning process.......With young children these are all new experiences, for adults with head trauma they are familiar, but become new experiences once again.... This can be a difficult realization to the once independent.... 

Dads stoke on the right side of his brain has left him weak on the left.... Leg and arm both reactive to touch but he is not yet able move of his own accord..... This left side weakness is also affecting his ability to speak clearly and swallow throughly.... The treatment for this is time and exercise.... Speaking and swallowing use similar muscles in the throat and mouth, to do one helps the other... So now we find ourselves encouraging dad to USE YOUR WORDS..... Just as you do with a child learning his or her vocabulary for the first time.... The more we can encourage dad to speak (sometimes he prefers to write his thoughts, as he is able to write faster than he can speak) the stronger his swallow will become and the closer he is to his much missed coffee!!!! 

His comprehension is phenonimal, he knows what we are doing and saying around him.... He understands where he is and why.. He has on occasion completely out of the blue he will regale us with amazing information is an almost complete sentence. He will overhear a conversation between mom and I and give us the answer we were searching for..... But, these moments are few for now.... Growing in frequency every day..... 

PS... His writing is quite legible, but much like his speech is slurred.... But he is in there, trying his damndest to get out!!!!!