Yesterday's News and Observer carried an article on aphasia. It gave me cause to pause and think on my past experience with this condition -- a condition not many of us would think much about unless we had occasion to experience it and its ensuing frustration(s).
Aphasia is caused by some type of brain injury. The most recent nationally known example of one suffering from this condition has been the Congresswoman Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after having been shot in the Tucson incident. It is simply the inability to communicate through vocal means. Gabby has recovered some ability to speak and is progressing rapidly.
In my teaching career I had become familiar with students who were selective mutes and knew first hand of the difficulty of dealing with them. In those cases the students had the ability to speak but chose not to. Not being able to speak (period/ at all) was new to me.
One day in the month of February my Mom had a massive stroke. My brother found her in the bathroom floor one Saturday morning. Since she lived alone it was difficult to pinpoint how long she might have been there. When she arrived at the hospital and her condition was assessed the stroke had progressed beyond the point for treatment to be effective enough to save her from extensive damage. The brain was swelling and bleeding. According to the doctors we were left to wait and see how far it progressed and what damage had been done. She was aphasic and the swelling stopped just above the brain stem. Needless to say we were heartbroken. (She then lived within days of one year after the stroke.) After extensive hospitalization we had to place her in a total care facility due to her medical needs. She couldn't do anything to command, could not communicate, and in no way could care for herself. Damage also seemed to include "her thermostat". Her temperature would spike and nurses would be scurrying all over trying to lower it and figure out what caused the spike. Her care was most difficult. She somehow showed no expression in her face at all. When you entered the room she showed no expression -- even her eyes were expression --less. Thus, my first experience with aphasia and its limits.
This disorder manifests itself in different ways depending on which parts and how much of the brain is damaged by injury or stroke. It affects the ability to express oneself through speaking, reading, and writing, and to understand others, yet does not affect intelligence. Thus, with my Mom, we never knew where or how we stood. Did she understand us and was a prisoner in her own body, unable to react??? or just how was this working??? I never knew so when I would enter the room I always told her who I was. Finally my siblings told me to stop it -- that she knew who I was -- but maybe I told her cuz I didn't know who I was!! I don't know -- but it was a terribly confusing time in my life.
The human body is a magnificent machine. Its ability to recover functions is remarkable depending on the state of health at the time of injury or damage. I think that I must have lived in a vacuum most of my life and was a completely naive adult. I now have been exposed through experience to some unique medical ailments. Not too many years after the death of my Mom I again experienced the same frustration trying to unravel the medical mystery ailing my husband never realizing that it would take his life --- the life of an otherwise seemingly healthy man who had no bad habits of any kind.
I now sometimes believe that I have been conditioned by my experiences and not much surprises me any more.
In case you missed the article. It was in Monday's (3/21) paper and was entitled Help for when talking is tough.
Bye for now.
The interesting part about the article (in the N&O) was that it discussed aphasia in folks who recovered enough from their stroke or injuries and lived with aphasia. What an interesting look at the progress and studies being done with these people.
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