Telling his story after a stroke? Not easy. For better understand the impact of a stroke on the life of the person and in particular language, our journalist met Véronique, 59, and Pierre, 51, both survivors of a stroke. The article below is largely the transcription of the associated video interviews.
“I could only say: no, no, no…”
“I felt it was wrong. I could only say “No, no, no”. For what ? I do not know.” jokes Véronique, 59, recounting her stroke which she had more than 20 years ago. Pierre, 51, woke up in hospital after his accident he had a year and a half ago. When a doctor showed him a pen and asked him to name the object, he couldn’t answer. “I had a hole, I discovered that I had lost all the words.” Mutism, the first symptom of aphasia, which can be difficult to live with. Véronique is a very sociable and talkative person. ” People are talking. Suddenly I am silent? It didn’t fit the pattern I had of myself.” Pierre, although more introverted by nature, also saw the difficulties of following group conversations. Since his stroke he has favored individual conversations.
Towards reconstruction
For Véronique, regaining speech required more than 2 years of speech therapy, punctuated by several sessions per week. When her speech therapy sessions came to an end, her speech wasn’t perfect. “My speech therapist told me. “I warn you, speaking is your reason for living” it worked for me.“ Pierre’s daily life, in full speech reconstruction, is punctuated by the dictations he does at home and his speech therapy sessions. “there can be difficult moments, moments of discouragement, because we will reach recovery plateaus before finding new capacities again.” describes Flavie Angoustures, Pierre’s speech therapist. “But we accompany patients towards betterment.”.
The environment facing aphasia
Today, aphasia is hardly noticeable in Véronique anymore, apart from certain situations described by his daughter Charlotte: “I know that when she’s upset, her aphasia is going to be more and more noticeable because she’s going to be in a situation where she’s not going to be able to control her nervousness. So I benefit a lot from it. That is to say, I fill the silence by shouting a little louder.” admits Charlotte, very close to her mother whom she never knew without her handicap. “Honestly, there are times when she doesn’t need to finish her sentence. We totally understand what she means. We communicate differently, with looks, with giggles.” The recovery of speech through speech therapy sessions, Véronique’s open-mindedness and her solarity prevent any impact of her disability on her relationships. His social circle is impressive.
Pierre’s disability could, at times, cause misunderstanding among those around him: “My son didn’t understand. He understood that my brain was screwed because I was no longer able to talk to him. So for him I was no longer able to think either.“Constrained by his difficulties in expressing himself, it was complicated for Pierre to play his role as a father. To tell his son to get up, do his homework, tidy up his room. “My son was very angry and I think he was afraid he had lost his father.” After a year, seeing Pierre’s progress, he realized that his father’s ability to understand was not seriously affected. Today both have found a peaceful relationship.
Patience and perseverance
Pierre and Véronique’s accident impacted their lives, their outlook on themselves and on others. “I think my mother’s disability gave her a much more important patience and understanding of others.” Charlotte explains
“That is to say, she is very empathetic. The fact that she doesn’t speak very quickly allows her to really take the time to listen to others and say what they need to hear.”Pierre now better understands his father who also had a stroke 6 months before him. “I manage to have a pleasant enough conversation while his entourage gets angry and impatient with him.”
Peter insists on the need to be patient, to persevere and never lose hope in order to rebuild. “It’s incredible, the brain is very plastic, manages to recreate things. We just have to accept what happened to us and realize that life is fragile and that we already have a lot of luck to still be alive. It gives me a lot more happiness with what I have and today I’m really in good shape.”