Part of a stroke is the brain damage- I mean, that's what a stroke is, basically. In DG's case, a blood clot got through the filtering systems of the body (the lungs, the heart) and made its way to his brain and killed many, many brain cells. This, of course, rendered him disabled and if we fast-forward, here we are, on this blog, talking about the Disabled Guy.
Edited to add: This sounds awful, as if I'm being mean to him. But, we were laughing through the whole thing. And the expressions he was making were not one of anguish or anger. He was laughing with me and our son. Like I've said before, if the Disabled Guy isn't laughing, he doesn't realize it and I don't share it. I only share what he's aware of and he knows what I say before I post it.
I'm not even sure, now, how we got on the topic of disability again. I mean, obviously, the topic is always right here- in the room, wherever DG is, but this particular day, I don't recall what led us to discussing the speech and communication disorders DG has and that led him to say: "I'm not disassem- dissss-asssembl- disabsembled. I'm not neither!"
Me: "You're not disabled?"
DG: "No. I'm not."
Me: "Clap."
DG, eyes narrowed: "I don't want to."
Me: "Then say- Rubber baby buggy bumpers."
DG: "What?!"
Me: "Rubber baby buggy bumpers." *no response* "Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sa Rembo Chari Bari Ruchi Pip Peri Pembo."
DG: "What the hell are you saying?"
Me: "Tongue-twisters. Except for the second one, that's a name in a book I read as a kid."
DG: "I can say that, I just choose not to."
Me: "I slit a sheet, a sheet I slit, upon a slitted sheet I sit."
DG: "I.... I sheet- No, I didn't. I what now?"
I repeated it. Slower. I also repeated "rubber baby buggy bumpers", slower. And DG stumbled along, trying to say them. I gotta give him credit, he tried. And then, he asked me to say it again. So I did. Along with "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
Jase looked at me and said, "I can't even say that!"
I repeated them again, in rapid succession. DG looked at me, his eyes narrowed, his mouth opened slightly, like he was going to repeat them and he said in a hushed tone: "Shut up."
Another edit- here's the video I did of myself saying the tongue-twisters after a comment on the Facebook group. Enjoy!
5 comments:
That was funny/sad, and I love you guys more every day.
Nodding here. Husband had carotid stents and quintuple bypass in July. In between, he had stroke and heart attack. No paralysis, but he struggles to find words and with reading, comprehension and retention.
yeah I can't say that sheet either
Anonymous- Jerry has aphasia and apraxia, in varying levels and each day is different than the last. He'll have days where he seems right on top of things and other days when he seems like he's six ways of drunk.
But like I said, I only post the conversations that he's aware of and if he's not laughing at himself, we're not laughing at him.
Of all the things that happened, the speech/comprehension stuff is the most frustrating- to him and the rest of us.
I have always loved tongue-twisters. One of my favorite books to read to the kids is "Fox in Socks" by Dr. Seuss.
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