At the end of December in order to get myself ready for the New Year, I decided to use my Vertellis Classic cards to do some introspection of the past year. Some of the questions were:
*which three people have influenced you the most? *who or what surprised you the most? *what was one of the most exciting experiences?
*who would you like to thank?
*what was your most memorable day? **what was one of your best decisions?**
I answered all the questions and I wrote the answers in a journal or shared them with my family. It was the last question "What was one of your best decisions?" that most resonated with me and that is what I want to talk to you about today.
At the end of January (2020), I was informed that we were almost at the end of speech therapy because we had completed all our goals. I had worked with this amazing speech therapist, Zsa Zsa, for 7 months. I could agree that I made much progress with her guidance. (When I first met her, I was only saying very short sentences or phrases and even those were with great effort and errors.) I was so grateful for the experience and her expertise. Not only did she help me communicate better; she was my sounding board as I was negotiating my "new" life and helped me with my mental health. (But that is a story for another blog - the importance of mental health after a stroke and the challenge of this for people with aphasia.)
Even though I was so grateful, I knew that I wasn't finished with my speech and communication goals so I knew I had to do something. I called my insurance company to make sure the therapy was still going to be covered. And I remembered that my first neurologist suggested Speech Works RI after standard speech therapy. During the last week with Zsa Zsa, I was so lucky. I called Speech Works and spoke with Lucia Watson who made the appointment for the next day. So, speech therapy was continuous for me. This was the very best decision I made in 2020.
Thinking about this experience has made me look at what it took for me to make this decision and how I handled it. If I didn't advocate for speech therapy to continue, I feeI most certainly I would not have progressed to where I am today - able to tell my story in writing and confident enough to do a video. When I left the first outpatient speech therapy, I was able to communicate sufficiently to get my point across to anyone who would take the time to be patient and accept my choppy sentences and pronunciation errors. Now I am more willing to put myself out there and speak without being overly embarrassed. Don't get me wrong, I still have confidence issues and don't speak as much as I want, but I know that with more practice, I will continue to progress. I'm not done yet.
When you feel that you need more support to achieve your goals, advocate for yourself and find what you need. Don't let arbitrary rules stand in your way if you can do something about it. If you have to think outside of the box to find what you need, do that. After insurance pays for speech therapy, try colleges or community activities that can keep you progressing.. Remember that goals need to come from you and are based on what you want to accomplish. You don't have to let outside forces control them.
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