Aphasia, Apraxia

Anne and went to class with Jan today in the early afternoon. It was occupational therapy. Memory exercises, matching, alternating sequences, multiple tasking, and a short story the therapist wanted to work on, but Jan just said it was too much. Wothout a break, we whelled into the Speech and Language session. Another battery of assessment questions and exercises, and a very nice explanation of expressive aphasia [the broken link between thinking and choosing the correct words to express it] and apraxia [the broken link between thinking, choosing the words, and then having the mouth say something unplanned, as if it had a life of its own!] When I heard the definition of apraxia, I couldn't stop thinking about those that talk without thinking... what would this be? Apraxia -having a mouth that goes on by itself, totally disconnected from the brain-, or some strange form of aphasia[...] or probably is just being a blabbermouth :)

Jan works hard. She is aware of her own mistakes. She corrects quickly what she can see. However, she cannot read well the right side of pages, because of her diminished sight in the right eye. She needs to train moving her head to the right so her left eye can catch whatever is on the right field of vision. So far, we have been compensating for her by sitting on her left, now the therapist wants Jan to make the necessary adjustments to cover all she can. So next time you visit, try placing yourself in both fields of vision and reminding Jan that it is just practice.

I asked Jan what was happening to her right hand.
She said, I can't find it. It is not there. I am waiting for America.
I probed, did you say America?
She said, No! I can't find the wonder...
I helped, America, America....is it a miracle?
She said, Yes! That's what it is!

So, there you have it. A request. You'll have to do some overtime, do some fasting, wake up earlier, rally your friends to pray, send pyramid emails asking for Jan's miracle, whatever you must do. Jan needs a miracle!

-Fede