Jun 02, 2016 at 06:46 pm

Speech

Update posted by Kim Weinreb

They just wheeled Robert down for an MRI to see how much of the tumor is left in his brain. Recovery, so far, has been interesting to say the least. They warned me that his speech would have deficits but that was an understatement. His comprehension is normal, but he now only speaks in one to two word fragments and he struggles hard to find the word he wants. This has been the hardest part for Robert. He loves to talk and connect with people more than any man I know so to not be able to communicate his wants, needs and feelings has been a challenge. The brain is AMAZING. He is fluent in Spanish and yesterday he was way better at speaking Spanish than english. My brother and sister had to translate for me. He also was able to sing "How Great Thou Art" beautifully with no problems at all but then asking for a drink of water was a struggle. The doctor said that he should recover his speech and that this is pretty typical behavior. We are not sure how long it will take to get his speech back - it could be days, months, or a year. But the benchmark is that basically he will improve for a year, but after that whatever he has will be permanent. He will need to do speech therapy. So I'm going to go easy on him for a couple more hours but after that I'm going to make him figure it out. The doctor encouraged him to not get discouraged/frustrated when he reaches a wall, but to find away around the wall when searching for his words. The doctor said that this is the most frustrating of all brain injuries. There are compensations for physical limitations (use the other hand if one isn't working, walk with a limp but still mobile...) but there are no compensations for speech. So we are going it practice, practice, practice! I have been missing teaching and coaching so this is my opportunity to put some of those skills to use. Aaaand it turns out that I'm pretty competitive so I WILL NOT lose to a stupid little tumor. Crazy to think that I'll be teaching my husband and my son to speak in the same year!

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