Sonny’s husband, Thom, has severe Broca’s aphasia with apraxia. While he’d started to say a few simple words, he has learned over 100 words over his six week program, He’s also gained confidence. Sonny states that intensive therapy has been worth every penny and every hour
I was pretty surprised no one ever recommended it, but it’s been the greatest thing. The hard core, intense 5-6 hours a day of speech therapy. You figure in one week of therapy here, it’s 25 hours of therapy. In order to get that in an outpatient setting, that’s going to take 30 weeks. So in one week, you can get equivalent to 30 weeks. It’s mind boggling why anyone wouldn’t do it if they have the chance to.
Intensive has absolutely amazing. I see progress daily. Whereas with outpatient therapists, as great as they were as people, you can only do so much in half an hour. Even though they schedule 45 minutes, you have to set up. And if the patient before you runs over, that cuts into your time. So at least with this, it’s dedicated speech therapy. Like I said, I see results daily.
What has Thom learned while he’s been here?
Confidence would probably be the biggest thing. He’s gaining more and more confidence himself in trying to say anything. There’ve been a few words before the program that he was able to say. He was able to say “bye”. “Hi” occasionally.
But really, that was about it. Where here, he’s said well over 100 words. He’s starting to use them in some sort of context at home. Maybe a dozen at home, it’s the stuff that we use everyday, “yeah”, “no”, “hi”, “bye” “love you”, along those lines. Even “tea” “what do you want to drink? Tea”. So he’s able to do something within a short period of time versus the 3, 4 months we were at outpatient therapy. I saw some improvements, but not a ton, versus here.
Has it been worth the time and expense?
Every single bit of effort, every single penny. Everything. This was totally worth it. I even asked Thom, because I have a very biased view. I’m like “oh wow, yeah, you did something cool, something, this is great” let’s just really build this up. Whereas Thom’s living it. For him, he’s just like “great, I’m stuck” But I’d say every other day I’ll ask him “hey, how was your day today? Do you feel this is worth it?” Every single time I ask him, a get a resounding thumbs-up.
But if you have the means, do it. It’s as simple as that. Because they will thank you, quite literally. Thom, when we came into this program, as I mentioned, he wasn’t able to say “thank you” Now he can, which means the world to me. Saying “I love you” is great, but hearing “thank you” , it’s like “I know you’re going through a lot, I know you’re doing everything you can for me . thank you”. That, to me, means so much more.
For the long term, if I can somehow get him back here again, maybe in the fall, maybe early next year. Whenever I can, I would absolutely love to.
If Dr. Lori would recommend you do the program, I absolutely would. She’s seen so many different patients, she’s seen what’s worked and what hasn’t worked. I really believe she’d give an honest answer not just try to make a buck off you. She has a very warm heart and she really pushes for each and every one of her patients to do the best and I think she could make a very honest decision whether or not it would be useful.