So, I had my appointment for speech pathology yesterday. It was a good appointment and there are a lot of things I still need to unpack from all the information she gave me! The most striking thing was that she seemed like she was like me when I taught. She had all of her documents in sheet sleeves in a binder. She had them all organized and ready to pull out to use whatever one I needed. She had a list of words for me to read from. She recorded my voice on her phone. I have read the list of the first 30 words before she told me that I could stop. It was like the test I used to give my reading kids in the beginning of the year!
After I read the words, she help me read about 10 sentences and lastly, she had me read a paragraph. One thing I noticed about these tests and I told her was that the words needed to be printed larger because I was having difficulty seeing them. My MS call has greatly affected my eyes recently. After we did those things, she had to leave the room to get A release form for me to sign and she told me she was going to record me just talking with her for about three minutes. I was completely comfortable with that. I like this woman! She reminds me of a friend I had a nice cool. I was comfortable.
Before she left to get the form, she told me to think about something to talk about for about three minutes. I told her about when I told my Mom that I was pregnant. It was a story that I have told for 20 years and I am comfortable telling it. After we were finished speaking, she turned off her recorder and told me that it may not look like she was evaluating me but she was. She told me that there are six levels of dysarthria. She added that she is seeing two of those levels in me. She had explained to me as I read the list of words, the sentences, and the paragraph that she may have to, “Bank my voice.” She explained about the possibility of needing my voice recorded if my disease progresses to where I cannot speak. Even today, that kind of startles me. I have so much more to say about yesterday but I feel like it’s too much for me to write about just yet…