Laura’s Aphasia Journal

I was a professional speaker and a writer. I had a blog. Keith and I took adventures in state and national parks … hiking and canoeing with our dog.

Then my brain changed.

It was hard to talk. I couldn’t remember most of the words. Reading was impossible.

My brain was fried. This was so different than before I had the stroke.

I spent 2 weeks at Yale New Haven Hospital, 3 weeks at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare, and 6 weeks with nurses, occupational, and speech therapy coming to my home. I wasn’t the person who was me.

I wanted, I needed, to be able to talk.
I wanted to read The New York Times again.
And I wanted to write my blog.

It turned out I was determined to get better.

The speech therapy at Gaylord was very valuable. I met with a speech therapist twice a week for 2 years.

I also chose to work 30 hours a week for three years, using a lot of rehabilitation activities. That is why I decided to develop this website, Aphasia at Home.

With assistance, I found significant ways to:

• Practice Language
• Talk online to other people who also have Aphasia.
• Read … sort of.
• Then I found technologies that helped me read well.
• I worked on relaxing my brain.

It has been a long, hard, valuable process.

If you, your caregiver, or your friend wants some ideas on how to improve your aphasia recovery, take a look at the Language, Reading, and My Brain sections on this website.

I listed everything that I did. Who knows, maybe I’ll give you some ideas for working at home on your aphasia and increase your ability to do the things that you feel are important.

Aphasia is hard. Everything was difficult. One of the hardest things I did was writing this website. Writing is exhausting.

The worst thing for the aphasia patient is to watch TV all day.

Ultimately, find your own way. I wish you well.

Love, Laura
National Aphasia Association Ambassador