Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Sandy wants to get rid of me

At least this is how it sounds to me. She says we have gone as far as we could go. The rest is up to me now. “You don’t need me anymore” she says. “Every patient one day opens her wings and flies from the nest.” I am so not ready for this. Whenever she brings up the subject I vehemently disagree. Honestly I am not ready:
1) I’m nowhere near my previous talking and reading speed.
2) Whenever I talk more than five minutes my whole mouth aches: my tongue, my jaw, my lips, my cheeks. It is a real strain.
3) When I first start to talk, I have difficulty in stringing something coherent together. After I have couple of sentences under my belt it is easier to talk. But I have initiation problems.
4) I am highly unemployable. Returning to my old line of work (Marketing Management) is out of question.
I have a million other reasons for continuing speech therapy. But Sandy is very stern. She doesn’t deal with incrementalism. When I came to her door I was mute. Now I am perfectly capable of talking, of getting across every thought I have however complex. She needs to spend her time on more severe cases.
I understand all of that. But I don’t know what to do. I need to continue therapy. At the end of the month Sandy makes another assessment. She tells me that she needs to graduate me. It is good bye time for us. From now on, I am to continue with the recommendations both from her and from Michigan.
It is unacceptable to both my husband and me. We request another audience with our Neurologist.
When we meet, she sees how much improvement I have made, but also how much more I have to go. So she writes another prescription for therapy and she is personally in search for another good therapist.
After a while she comes back to us and says she has a recommendation. The Suburban National Rehab Institute will take my case.

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