Pr. Joe Update

Journal entry by Lynn Brosious — Sep 23, 2021

I don’t love admitting when my older brother is right. When Joe’s stoke happened during the Covid lockdown in spring of 2020, I remember my brother saying that it is probably good that life is frozen. How would Lynn ever manage all of this with the boys in their sports and her job? he said to my mom. Well, I am here to say it ain’t easy! I have spent the last 3 weeks driving to soccer tournaments, football games, practices, therapies, walking a very busy dog, dealing with a health insurance changes AND doing concurrent teaching with 20 first graders. We needed a little time to transition, but I know time is up. I know that so many of you are wondering just how Aphasia camp went!

UMAP was amazing! As I described before, they know Aphasia in its many forms. The therapists were fantastic. I watched and listened, took notes and learned a lot. I also tried to enjoy exploring a new city with Joe. We went out to dinner at great local restaurants, explored the UofM Art Museum, took walks/ran through campus, and visited family and friends in Michigan and Ohio. It was really nice to spend time together and focus on Joe’s healing. We both caught up on sleep and I managed to do quite a bit of school prep while Joe worked his brain to the max each day. My biggest regret is that I had to leave at just over the 2 week point to go back to work, but Joe’s mom managed to navigate a new city and jump into my role with ease.

The outcome of UMAP is fascinating to me. I have been told by many SLPs that Aphasia is always changing (at least in the recovery phase). Joe’s aphasia has definitely changed. He made notable growth on all of his goals while in the program. One outcome that I notice most is that Joe is starting to hear himself. This sounds like an odd thing to say, but with fluent aphasia, often the person does not have the “loop back” to recognize when their language does not make sense. As I have said before, intelligence is not impacted, but the words spoken make the listener think the person is confused when really there is a disconnect between what the person wants to say and what actually comes out. I learned that the best way to help Joe is to let him know when you do not understand him. He will recover fastest when people around him say “I understood this part of what you said, but I am not sure about this. Can you say it again or another way?” He is great at gesturing and has tools in his phone to help him communicate. It is therapy for him each time he is forced to dig for the word and then hears you say the word and repeats it. It takes time and our world moves so fast, but it is the best way for Joe to recover his language. He wants to be understood and he wants people to tell him when they do not understand.

Joe is working hard everyday on speech apps and therapy. He seems to improve each day as he settles back into life at home. He’s so busy with the boys sports, football season!, church, therapy, the house and of course our dog. He wants more and cannot wait to recover to the point of driving and doing more at work. He continues to be very motivated, which certainly keeps me motivated! I simply had no idea when this all happened what they meant when they said a “long, slow recovery.” I had not idea there would be 5 brain surgeries; no one did. Every surgery feels like a restart. There are definitely changes occurring in Joe’s brain from the embolization and radiation this summer. I reached out to his radiologist this week and he confirmed that Joe is experiencing the impact of the latest surgeries. Joe has a MRI in October that may provide some information. My prayer is that the AVMs are gone and we can continue in full recovery mode. I do want to end with another thank you for your prayers and support. UMAP was a pipe dream that became reality thanks to family and friends. I included pictures of the weekend I took the boys and Gracie to visit dad in Ann Arbor and a few therapy sessions. God bless!