Discharged from Therapy at the Advantist Hospital

When I tell Sandy, my speech therapist that we have signed up for the program in Michigan, she has difficulty understanding why. Why do we go there, while we are making such good progress here; pay a lot money on top. She sees this move as totally unnecessary. I feel that she is annoyed a bit. I feel as if I am betraying her trust, or rather, that I don’t trust her enough. But the decision has been made, advance paid…
The truth is, there is no better time to go to Michigan, if we are going to do it, we better do it earlier than later. Because we are running against time; I am told over and over again: the first three months are crucial in stroke recovery. In Michigan there is going to be more of everything: more therapy, more occasion to talk, more therapists, more therapy styles…
The more my brain is exposed to things the better. Besides, I feel ready. I have visualized the trip in my mind, being away from my home, from my familiar surroundings, and it is OK.
So, Sandy discharges me, she makes an assessment again. After 4 weeks of treatment, here is what the discharge summary says:
“Overall Patient progressed from severe expressive communication deficits (apraxia, dysarthria, aphasia) and occasional receptive language deficits to mild/moderate dysarthrial appraxia and occasional difficulty in spelling. Functionally she progressed from ‘0’ verbal expression to communicating at the conversational level. The only residual aphasia is in spelling.”