July plans

Happy July! So much happens in this month. It’s finally summer. The weather is finally hot. It’s my favorite season. I love spending time outdoors, cooking on the grill and just relaxing in my backyard. We celebrate 4th of July. And this year, I will participate in another Ultimate Blog Challenge. My daughter and her family will come to RI for a week’s vacation. My family will have a large cookout/reunion when they are here.

Usually my goal for the Ultimate blog challenge is to write a post each Friday and read and comment to at least two other posts in the challenge each day. Since I participated in the hay house writers community last year, I’ve been trying to write everyday. The UBC challenges us to post every day for the month and this month I will try to do it. My strategy is to time my cognitive activities (reading, writing etc) for 15 to 20 minutes at a time then do something physical. I will try to keep this going through the month. That will mean that posts will be short and probably less thought out. I apologize in advance.

My aphasia story for the day… I went to the cardiologist yesterday. Even though I have a loop recorder in my chest monitoring my heart rate, determining if I experience aFIB, trachecardia or other abnormalities, the nurse insisted that I have an EKG. I tried to tell her that the doctor never has required the EKG as it is duplicative. I couldn’t explain everything I wanted to and became very frustrated with her and with myself and my ability to communicate effectively with her. She insisted ever further and I gave up. She then was giving me directions as to the places that she needed to have access to and I ask her to repeat. Then I did something I usually never do - I explained that I needed the repetition because I have aphasia. She had a strange look on her face. It seems as if she was trying to remember what aphasia is. Then she had a look of enlightenment. And she proceeded to yelling the directions. This made me even more annoyed and frustrated. Obviously she doesn’t know what aphasia is.

The appointment went down hill from there. My EKG was normal, of course. I get my loop recorder report each month. But my doctor was unimpressed that I received an unnecessary test that my insurance company must now paid for because the nurse didn’t / wouldn’t listen. I tried to tell her how annoyed I was but really couldn’t convey my irritation. With aphasia and AOS I sometimes feel insignificant and powerless.