John's thoughts
I thought I would write a short blog on the impact that my therapy is having upon me. Each morning I begin with 30 minutes on the exercise bike and a session on the balancing board. This gets my brain working up well in the morning. I find that if I miss this, e.g. on the Lord’s Day, my reading and language is significantly more sluggish. Consequently this will have to be a permanent part of my daily routine, or at least for 12 months.
After this I complete my Speech Therapy tasks as agreed with my therapist. So far, predominantly, this has been centred upon word finding. In one sense it appears very straight forward, e.g. Opposites, Verb associations and such like. However, my ability to remember and use language in even fairly simple language has been considerably reduced. This can be quite humbling, as I used to have a very wide ability to use language. I have also lost my ability to spell and this has also been challenging. For someone who has always had ability to write and spell pretty much at will but who now finds this difficult is very chastening. I will be far quicker to understand the difficulties others find in this.
Having completed the Speech Therapy tasks I undertake my Audiblox, which Sylvia has explained in other blogs how this works. This has quite an incredible impact upon me. Recently we began to list names, e.g. Alphabet, Monarchs of England, Bible books etc. The challenging part of this has been to recite one of the lists, while adding numbers. For example I had to recite the Monarchs in reverse, while adding by 5, e.g. Elizabeth II 5, George VI 10, etc. This is quite difficult and hurts my brain. However, you know? It really works. Don’t ask me to explain why it works, but somehow this combination of lists and numbers in incredibly stimulating. The list on its own is not as powerful; nor for that matter a simple listing of multiplication. But somehow, the combination hurts but sets lights on in my brain, and for an hour of more I can read or speak with dramatic improvement. It slips down a bit thereafter, but, God Willing, this will become permanent eventually.
It is incredible to think how the brain can recover itself. Truly once again this is a dramatic demonstration of the greatness of God, ‘and His ways fast finding out.’
After this I complete my Speech Therapy tasks as agreed with my therapist. So far, predominantly, this has been centred upon word finding. In one sense it appears very straight forward, e.g. Opposites, Verb associations and such like. However, my ability to remember and use language in even fairly simple language has been considerably reduced. This can be quite humbling, as I used to have a very wide ability to use language. I have also lost my ability to spell and this has also been challenging. For someone who has always had ability to write and spell pretty much at will but who now finds this difficult is very chastening. I will be far quicker to understand the difficulties others find in this.
Having completed the Speech Therapy tasks I undertake my Audiblox, which Sylvia has explained in other blogs how this works. This has quite an incredible impact upon me. Recently we began to list names, e.g. Alphabet, Monarchs of England, Bible books etc. The challenging part of this has been to recite one of the lists, while adding numbers. For example I had to recite the Monarchs in reverse, while adding by 5, e.g. Elizabeth II 5, George VI 10, etc. This is quite difficult and hurts my brain. However, you know? It really works. Don’t ask me to explain why it works, but somehow this combination of lists and numbers in incredibly stimulating. The list on its own is not as powerful; nor for that matter a simple listing of multiplication. But somehow, the combination hurts but sets lights on in my brain, and for an hour of more I can read or speak with dramatic improvement. It slips down a bit thereafter, but, God Willing, this will become permanent eventually.
It is incredible to think how the brain can recover itself. Truly once again this is a dramatic demonstration of the greatness of God, ‘and His ways fast finding out.’
Comments