Aphasia touched ME! More like, Aphasia SMACKED ME, but back to a new REALITY. My life was somewhat simple after my divorce. I was straightening that mess first. My stroke gave me a smack for my wake-up call. Things got SERIOUSLY complicated at that time. My wife took me back in her home during the stroke, helping to get me into Reston Hospital. The stroke took over 90 days and in over 19 hospital visits in and out. What a mess! I’m not aware of what is going on, where we are, who is with me, who is talking to me and who is coming and going…. What is going on now? I am not able to stand and walk, not able to talk, cannot read and process or recognize reality. A strange time! Words don’t come into or out in my head that makes any sense. Someone told me about the stroke and the result of the stroke was Aphasia (and LOTS of OTHER PROBLEMS). Physical therapy actually helped to straighten me out. Amazing, and really difficult! Aphasia takes control of communication, screws up hearing and processing, speaking, spelling, reading and writing, and more. That sure makes life CRAZY. DIFFICULT, but not impossible, if you WORK. Lots of work and continuous use of our language…. English, instead of Klingon. Kingon is hard too, like Russian. LOL! The real help was from STROKE COMEBACK CENTER. With over two years work, helping me to improve, a lot! I’m not done working on my Aphasia, probably NEVER done with Aphasia. My reading out loud still sounds like a 2nd grader, probably worse. Reading in my head works, but sticking words in my head is HARD to keep it…. Speaking to others is easier when with a SMALL group, but words STILL GO AWAY, leaving me frustrated because THAT word is GONE! So, speaking to people is quite a bit better. Hearing is difficult…. People speak quickly, and not clearly. Our friends in the South and West don’t speak so quickly. All Californians, Chicagoans, and ALL North folks (Yankees0 including Northern Virginia and D.C. need to SLOW DOWN! I always explain “The Stroke”, that will usually slow down their speaking, so we Aphasians (IS THAT a REAL WORD?) can now hear BETTER. I really need to use my DRAGON program to make it easier to communicate with others, and I just might have enough GUTS to write a BOOK. Maybe if I can type faster than words a minute! I do not want to leave something for my daughter to read…. IN English… NOT in KLINGON, or Russian. LOL…. Now I’m done…. SORTA.