tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-111764202012-01-31T17:42:20.152-05:00J.R.noreply@blogger.comBlogger181100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-40273286664170012472010-03-10T19:03:00.002-05:002010-03-10T19:04:37.732-05:00

I have two blogs at Bloggers. This one and another called From The Planet Aphasia. This blog preserves our 'Speech Class Diary' that was kept over several years after my husband's stroke. The diary is a detailed account of the types of therapies that are commonly tried after strokes and the emotions that went along with the therapies.If you are looking for resources for stroke survivors and

J.R.noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-79392899895227065512007-09-22T17:37:00.000-04:002007-10-09T19:38:02.899-04:00

This part of the diary covers 2/06 through 3/06.2/15/2006, Spring SemesterMa and Pa Kettle go to Speech Class Don had his first speech/language pathology evaluation at the college yesterday. He’ll get two undergraduate student clinicians this semester and they’ll be supervised by the same professor we’ve had in the past. I love our professor. She’s really good with Don, pushes him hard, and she’s

J.R.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-21007305934079732022007-09-22T17:33:00.000-04:002007-10-09T19:38:26.766-04:00

This part of the diary covers 9/06 through 12/06. Sept 20, 061st Speech Class, Fall Yesterday was Don’s evaluations at the college where he goes to speech classes with undergraduate student clinicians. He’ll have two of them again this semester for his individual classes and three for group classes. The two girls for the Tuesday classes seem to have the perfect personalities for working with Don,

J.R.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-26870605042807299602007-09-22T17:25:00.000-04:002007-10-09T19:38:46.331-04:00

This part of the diary covers 2/07 throught 5/07, the spring semester. For entries made after May 2007 you can visit my Yahoo 360 blog at: Click Here! Yahoo is were all my current blogs will be from now on. This part of the diary starts with February/07 through May/07.Feb 14, 07, New SemesterDon started back to speech classes again this week. The two student clinicians he’ll be working with at

J.R.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-5678028507638374182007-09-19T10:00:00.000-04:002007-10-09T19:37:19.002-04:00

Speech Class Diary, Part 4 These speech classes entries were moved from a message board to protect them from being deleted for being too old. For entries made after May 2007 you can visit my Yahoo 360 blog at: Click Here! Yahoo is were all my current blogs will be from now on. This part of the diary starts with 2/15/05 through 6/15/05.Jean Riva ©Spring Semester, Feburary 15, 2005My husband Don’

J.R.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-88470647313369622092007-09-19T03:43:00.000-04:002007-10-09T19:36:55.796-04:00

Speech Class Diary, Part 3These speech class entries were moved from a message board to protect them from being deleted for being too old. For entries made after May 2007 you can visit my Yahoo 360 blog at: Click Here! Yahoo is were all my current blogs will be from now on. This part of the diary covers therapy classes that took place between November 6, 2004 through December 8th. Jean Riva ©

J.R.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-72242740889979430842007-09-19T03:42:00.000-04:002007-10-09T19:36:33.022-04:00

Speech Class Diary--- Part 2These speech class entries were moved from a message board to protect them from being deleted for being too old. For entries made after May 2007 you can visit my Yahoo 360 blog at: Click Here to Read my Yahoo! 360 page and blog Yahoo is were all my current blogs will be from now on. This part of the diary covers speech classes that took place between October 19th, 2004

J.R.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-91945128180268644972007-09-19T03:40:00.000-04:002007-10-09T19:35:41.081-04:00

Speech Class Diary--- Part 1These speech class entries were moved from a message board to protect them from being deleted for being too old. For entries made after May 2007 you can visit my Yahoo 360 blog at: Click Here! Yahoo is were all my current blogs will be from now on. This part of the diary starts with August 27, 2004 and ends with October 14th.August 27, 2004Don is getting ready to go

J.R.noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-55365467698311625622007-01-02T14:12:00.000-05:002007-10-02T00:01:05.569-04:00

If you like my blog here at Bloggers, Check out my articles for Associated Content, The People's Media. From there, you can access my articles by clicking on my title lines. I write mostly about aphasia, strokes and caregiving issues at AC but I also submit a few articles about other topics like growing older.Click Here to Read my Articles at Associated ContentI also keep another, more current

J.R.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-1162088645916558512006-10-28T22:22:00.000-04:002007-09-25T20:46:10.677-04:00

My husband Don, like many guys in his age bracket, learned to hunt on his family farm when he was barely old enough for his voice to change. Back then, he was hunting to help put food on the table and that time-honored tradition evolved into a life-long sport that he enjoyed until six and a half years ago when a stroke took that away at age fifty-nine.Don had lived for his yearly hunting trips

J.R.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-1138595644001165662006-01-29T23:31:00.000-05:002007-09-25T20:47:15.565-04:00

Here it is four o’clock in the afternoon and I’ve worked myself up into a major depressed state of numbness. I should be cleaning house for our company coming on Monday. But I can’t seem to move. Don’s favorite brother and sister-in-law are coming over to show us pictures from their camera safari trip to Africa. Also coming is our niece and her mother, another sister-in-law who is ten older than

J.R.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-1136701313851641132006-01-08T01:14:00.000-05:002007-09-25T20:48:38.842-04:00

Every so often I get a bug up my butt about taking better care of my skin. I had great skin when I was younger but old age brought me teenage acne. Not a bad case but once in a while I’ll look in the mirror and scream, “Holy cow, those blackheads are bigger than my nipples!” And I’ll make The Promise right there and then: Cross my heart and hope to die, I’ll wash my face every day until it

J.R.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-1135306077793767262005-12-22T21:40:00.000-05:002007-09-25T20:49:27.431-04:00

There’s a kind of restlessness that goes with caregiving. Or maybe it’s not the caregiver life as much as the so-called retirement life that is so hard for me to get used to. We go along with no goals, no deadlines and a structure that revolves around the unseen forces of the mighty medical community’s appointment schedulers. We go weeks without anything on the books then our lives change and it’

J.R.noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-1133799925357335392005-12-05T11:22:00.000-05:002007-09-25T20:51:12.996-04:00

Some times I hate listening to music. It makes me cry too often. I mean, who wouldn’t cry over lines like: “I can only give you love that lasts forever…” when your guy is sleeping in the other room and you’ve just finished watching The Way We Were?I loved that movie when it first came out back in the early ‘70s. Plot: a Jewish left-wing intensely political woman falls in love with a white,

J.R.noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-1131773194872867332005-11-12T00:22:00.000-05:002007-09-25T20:50:09.158-04:00

1,985 Days Out From the Stroke - When my brother was four-five years old, my mom took us downtown and during the course of our shopping trip the three of us got on a crowded elevator. My brother was never a shy or coy kid and when he had a question to ask he’d belted it out and that day, in between floors, he was curious. “Momma,” he said, honestly dismayed and pointing to another person on the

J.R.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-1131151034294139872005-11-04T19:35:00.000-05:002007-09-25T20:51:30.807-04:00

Don is outside at the end of our sidewalk all bundled up in his Woolrich coat and wearing his Stetson cowboy hat, a canvas bag of Reese’s peanut butter cups tied to his wheelchair. He’s waiting for the ghosts, gremlins, pirates and princess’s to come begging for candy. He’s having the time of his life. Until recent years, he’d always worked nights and never got to experience this ritual of fall.

J.R.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-1130707775021350992005-10-30T16:28:00.000-05:002007-09-25T20:51:49.883-04:00

We went to a near-by little town today with the intention of getting groceries, but I didn’t feel like fighting the Saturday afternoon crowd---Don slept in this morning---so we changed horses in the middle of the stream and we stopped for dinner at the oriental restaurant, got gas and a car wash. Then, at $2.38 a gallon for gas, we spent an hour running the country roads around Don’s old stomping

J.R.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11176420.post-1130332710274139552005-10-26T09:15:00.000-04:002007-09-25T20:52:28.078-04:00

I think I’m getting by jaded by mentoring and hanging around the stroke community. I ran into someone today whose husband had a stroke a few months ago but he was not affected physically at all. He did, however, have some “mental and personality problems that keeps him from working,” she said. Then she adds, “It’s much easier for you because you can see what’s wrong with your husband.”Excuse me!

J.R.noreply@blogger.com0