Energized

I didn't really realize how much I would be energized by knowing that other people are actually reading my blog posts. Thank you Ultimate Blog Challenge for this opportunity. I really want to write and share my story with other people with aphasia and apraxia and their care partners and this is really scary. For me to put myself out there was unthinkable even three months ago and seemed impossible when I had my stroke in May 2019.

I'm still working with a speech language pathologist and three months ago I started seeing a mental health counselor. It's very common for stroke survivors to be depressed. Your whole life can be turned around. What you thought was in your future now seems so far away and unattainable. I've come a long way, especially in the last couple of months. I have worked with the mental health counselor to determine what areas are important to me and which areas I haven't been spending enough time on. I was basically going about my days doing what I needed to, but not making really intentions about what I wanted to spend time on. Now I realize that I want to concentrate on things that bring me JOY (which is my word for 2021) and which move me closer to my goals. I know it's sounds cliche but I feel called to write my story and share it with others. With the help of my speech language pathologist, Lucia, I have written about my experiences at the hospital, both in the emergency room and holding area and in the stroke unit. It is my hope to now share this with hospital staff to given them simple resources that can be used with people like me who have aphasia. The entire time I was there I couldn't speak or utter a sound.