With Foreign Accent Syndrome after her stroke, Kristine struggled to write and understand material during nursing school. Numbers are difficult with aphasia, and Kristine needed to be able to write and understand dosages, blood pressure, and other nursing tasks to graduate. She made great strides in just a few weeks and returned to school!
I research three or four different centers but they did not include housing, that was the first thing for me was like “okay, well, where am I gonna go?” I never go to this thing again so that was the first thing I saw. Well that’s good because it’s just the center there and it’s only a short distance away. So that was the first thing and then I said “Well, lemme call.” And then it was really nice and I liked that. And even there was a simple question and even I call back and ask the same questions cuz sometimes I don’t understand. Every time you would answer my call.
Yes, either me or Dr. Lori!
Yes, they never have frustration and I like that because I did call another person at a center and it just felt like they rushed me. I just not like how the conversation went. So I say okay, that’s the second check!
But then, the truth, I research because I wanted to see perspective. Because when you researching, it’s so new. I was like, well I wanna see somebody like myself. I wanna hear what I gonna speak like that. So, Brian he say, okay, that’s fine. And so we had Facetime and that solved that. I say okay, I will come. So when I was able to see a person and say “We are the same like that” and so he still have problem when he speak because he’s nervous and I was nervous. But I can relate, so I say “Okay, I’m gonna come.”
Well, in my brain, I said I was coming to the center to be fixed. But that’s not a thing. Therapy is a long, lifetime therapy. So i did not know that. But that’s the first thing I come and I had that. Because she asked me that question, and so she told me do not have that mental outlook. “We’re just going to help you and you’re going to meet your goals or we’re going to work on your goals, tell me what you want and look at that”. Small things versus ‘you’re fixed’. Because that’s not a thing. But I not know. So I said okay, we’re gonna do these goals. So I had my goals for writing because I could not write, they were terrible. And now I can write sentences, and I can write paragraphs and they’re grammatic. Before, I can not do that. So that has been amazing.
No, I see my speech, my word searching is more fast because I used to word search and word search and where is it? So I get that more faster and if I cannot search, I have another avenue, so I like that. Because they give me those strategies. And then, the most important and honestly I not care about the goals. It gave me the confidence and that was why my boyfriend come. He was like, he didn’t want me to be fixed, he was more wanting me to come here to be confidence. Because in my city I did not have people to say. It was my first day here and I did not talk to people because I was so shy and I cry when I try to talk to people even though they maybe can not talk to me. And I probably can talk better but I was just really shy. So Dr. Lori, she tell me “tomorrow you’re going to talk at lunch” and so she made me talk, but that take me out of my shell and I am thankful she made me do it, because me and the other people, we had a bond. It has been amazing.
So I want to point out something now that we’re here at the end. When I first met you and even over the phone when you first got here when you got stuck you would spell out the word out loud. You have not done that one time this entire interview! That’s awesome! I think that’s a huge success in itself, that confidence and the word retrieval and your writing and finding other strategies to help you communicate. And that’s really what it’s all about! We are going to miss you! But I’m glad.
I’m coming back though, I’m coming back!
You know you’re always welcome!