Out of my comfort zone

Hi Sue, 

I think this is a great idea. As you probably know (Sue), I am trying to find who I am since my stroke and sometimes are a little dark, so some laughter could be excellent. 

This happened during one of my class at the university. I teach writing, reading, speaking, communication and comprehension. 

That is the joke. I have moderate to mild anomia aphasia but I am in charge of these type of classes. That was a joke ... I had to take time off from work because it was too difficult to me. 

But, there were some very funny situations. I hope you find them funny, interesting or silly. 

Word Lists

Another day was done. As always I made myself be a dunce, but to be fair of my damaged brain, it does create some incredibly humorous situations. Take, for example, the phrase ‘word lists.’ I use and see this phrase every class because the students are required to remember the words and useful expressions in the unit. So, there is no reason why my neurologically damaged syntactic to suddenly change the word ‘list’ to one more humorous for the students and an embarrassing one for me. I explained to a group that they would be having a short test so they should remember both the definition and the correct spelling of target words. But, in reality, I continued to make a mistake with one word – list. I knew and could see the word, list; unfortunately, I kept on remaking the same mistake – sets. I understood that I was making a mistake of this word’s pronunciation, so I tried to push down the word ‘sets’ deep into my brain, while trying to retrieval the correct word and use it with my students. I would like to tell you that I was able to reconnect one single syntactic and say a correct word, so I was able to save my face in front of my class. Alas, that was not to be. I continued to try the correct term but, instead, I kept on saying ‘word sex.’ I can see why I made that mistake because I was trying to push down ‘word sets’ while allowing my brain reset the term to ‘ word list’. Regrettably, I got stuck with ‘s’ and ‘st’ and, therefore, caught between no man areas. My students heard me repeat the same answer, ‘You need to check, understand, and remember all the word sex.’

Best, 

Marcus

Hi Marcus

A very funny and real recount of what it must have been like facing up to a bunch of students who would be ready to point out any word mishaps by their teacher no doubt.

The public forum for recovery is a rehabilitation  session in itself!

Keep smiling

Sue

Hi Sue, 

I was embarrassed but after I talked my friends, we all found it very funny. Being a 'walking and talking' stroke affected people, I am always finding myself in terrible or silly situations because I look normal, yet inside my brain is totally mixed up. Bummer.

Marcus 

Hi Marcus

Being a walking and talking stroke affected person, yes I totally get that. The resilience that came from when I found myself  in the middle of a situation which was embarrassing or humiliating to me in everyday life after..  I would walk away and the humorous side of me would kick in and I would think - not nastily but just in a kind of questioning way which would help me not get angry or frustrated.  "We'll see how you respond when someone else is wiping your bum!"

So Marcus do you reckon that there are people out there looking at this website while in hospital, with stressed out family with them and  a whole world in front of them that's different for them now.  What can we say to them to let them know we are thinking of them?

Sue

The relief I found in laughing.

Hi Sue,

What is a very interesting question?

What can I do to make sure survivors and their families know that we are thinking of them?

For me, I strongly believe that EnableMe and other types of sites are the best ways to connect survivors, their families, and other survivors. It shows people are thinking of them. For a long, long time, I was alone trying to cope with the side-effects for my stroke, heart attack, my wife’s cancer, two young teenagers, work, aphasia and all at the same time in Japanese. I had no-one to share my fears, worries, anxieties, and stress. I wanted to talk to someone who had been or is going through what I was going through.

Luckily, I found it. It took be a long time to take the step to write my first comment in EnableMe, but I did it. I am a teacher of writing, but it was hard to share my feeling to the world. Yet, it has helped me in many ways, I have found new friends through my poor writing and through reading and commenting others’ stories.

EnableMe ‘enables’ me to talk, discuss, and share own stories, whether they are about successes or fails. Even if some survivors find it too difficult to write their story because they have aphasia or find it physically or mentally challenging, I want them to know that we are thinking of them.

We are all survivors of a devastating injury.

We need to help each other, whether that be reading others’ blogs, questions, forums, writing comments to other’s questions, or writing their own blog.

I hope they know that they are not alone. We are with them during (I hate to say) their journey.

Marcus

Hi Marcus,

The trust you have found on EnableMe to share your story is a huge reflection on just how much can be gained from survivors being given the opportunity to have a safe place to be heard.

Having your family go through one health scare which affects everything, let alone three while trying to keep life together under such stressful circumstances.  I am glad you have come across EnableMe as well!

There was no way I could find the courage early on to share my personal story in public when I would be bombarded with questions (it was like I was being interrogated sometimes) or pitying looks, so I became a keen listener and observer.

Our strokes affect us all differently however there is a common bond, which is one of respect. And yes I hope people know they are not alone and take what they need from this site. Even if that means reading or being read to, looking through the information again and again, whatever they need on -yes I hear you - their journey!

Finishing off today on another funny memory.

Not long after returning home Adrian and I were going for a drive, as we lived in the country paddocks of animals were common.  When driving past a paddock of fat and woolly sheep, it was like seeing them in a different light as I made the innocent comment to Adrian.

"Oh look at all their fluffy bums!" I seemed to hear words after I had said them.  Needless to say we both looked at each other and cracked up laughing. It was probably you had to be there moment but I remember the exact reason we were driving and the relief in laughing together so clearly.

Take care

Sue

Hi Sue, 

I know that you are coming from. An innocent comment from me can start my friend/rehab teacher to laugh so much. I might have been embarrassed initially, yet we can both find it funny. Sometimes, in front of the class, things can be a little challenging. I will give you an example. 

If you don't know 'Gundam' is a very popular and old anime (Japanese cartoon)

Gundam vs. condom

It seems that my brain loves to play tricks with how I communicate with people, especially to students in class.

Previously, I wrote an anecdote about my considerable problem to retrieve the correct word then I am trying to discuss or explain something to a student, a group or class. Well, this inability to recognize and pronounce correctly a word or phrase causes me a vast amount of anxiety and stress. This time, the word was ‘gundam.’

I had that problem with a work ‘condom’ before, so I was very careful check any words that might cause me a problem. Unfortunately, I got a little cocky. I started to help two students. I looked at the word the student had written but I couldn’t understand it. So, I tried to guess and silently pronounce word many times, but I wasn’t silent. They could perfectly hear the word I was saying. Sadly, I was making a mistake, and that the same time, get these girls quite uncomfortable. My brain was sending me to another embarrassing word.

One of the students had written ‘cudam’ instead of ‘gundam’. This word just got stuck in my brain, so when I tried to pronounce ‘gundam’, my brain kept sending the word ‘condom.’ ‘gon..dom, gon... con... cun...dom ... condom’

After attempting ‘gundan’ and failing badly, I quickly retreated by mumbling some useless comment that left these students no better off than they were when they started.