Week 67 – THINK LOUD!

This week has been very tiring for Jill. We were up early Monday morning as we had to be in Albury for the Speech Clinic. We had decided to take the van and use it for a rest /toilet venue for lunch etc. This is the first time we had towed the van with the new Jeep.

I am impressed as everything was great – up hill with no loss of power, no noticeable increase in noise in fact it was fantastic and the economy rate appears to be pretty good.

We arrived at the All Seasons FPA caravan Park around 10.30am and checked in and parked the van on the allotted site. I had set the GPS for the park and found that the new freeway around Albury is not on our map – therefore the lady directing us kept saying “Off Route – recalculating- recalculating” until she suddenly found Wagga Rd.

We arrived at the Albury Base – speech pathology department on time and were introduced to the CSU students who were our instructors for the clinic.

They commenced with the various tasks Jill was to do, Jill was to say “ah” as loud as possible and hold for as long as could be. The other tasks consisted with starting with a loud “ah” and going as high a note as possible followed by going down as low as possible. Each of these tasks was repeated lots of times. Then Jill had to provide 10 phrases that she uses at home. These were added to the tasks Jill had to read aloud. Jill’s favourite was “Get rid of the Cat – Kill the cat” We all know of Jill’s aversion to cats. I suggested “Go the CATS” but to no avail. Then they gave Jill a list of about 20 words to say. The phrases and words are repeated about 4-5 times. The session is repeated in the afternoon and Jill is given homework and an extra task. The homework is to repeat the daily session and the extra task varied from speaking to the kids on the phone to saying goodbye to the receptionist at the desk on the way out and this week end Jill has to leave a voice mail message for the CSU students.

The change in Jill’s ability to complete each session was remarkable – her ability to increase the strength and volume was great. Each day was better than the day before. Jill does not believe that, but to anybody else we can hear the difference. The best thing is that Jill is continuing to try and her effort is the same as with exercising. We have this sign “THINK LOUD!” on the folder from the clinic. It is to remind Jill to think loud and speak loud.

We decided to stay overnight on Wednesday night – except for the homework exercise which we went for a drive and found a place to park, to do the voice exercise. Jill thought they may evict us for making too much noise at the park. We had a strong wind storm that went through during the night, this kept us awake – I had to go out and check the awning a couple of times – the new awning braces worked a treat and the awning was still there.

We arrived home about 6pm on Thursday after 4 days and 8 speech sessions – Jill could not wait to head for bed.

Friday – picked up Jake from the kennels and Jill was up ready for Beth (Physio) to arrive. Jill said to Beth that she was too tired to go shopping – the exercise task. Beth suggested that she take Jill for a coffee – Jill would almost do anything for a cappuccino fix. Off to Hollywood’s and that coffee. We have two lots of voice exercises to do each day that we are not at the clinic – Jake and Jess have both disappeared – probably think Jill is calling them. Friday afternoon – and Jill is sound asleep – she certainly needs it.

GO CATS. That was a fantastic match to watch – I will probably be able to add that to the phrases on Monday. Well it is now the CATS and the POWER to do battle next Saturday. Even Jessie sat up and watched Geelong –CATS win last night.

I saw this on an email last week and thought it was appropriate with Jill at the Speech clinic.

The power of the word is real whether or not you are conscious of it. Your own words are the bricks and mortar of the dreams you want to realize. Behind every word flows energy.
-Sonia Choquette

See You next week on the net after the BIG GAME

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