Learning from the Students at South University

Teri is helping me write this post. Last night Teri, David (the new Director of Community Involvement for UMI) and I went to South University to do a Homelessness 101 class for Physician Assistant students. Our mission was to teach them about homelessness and volunteering at Union Mission but they helped me learn a little bit more about my brain injury.

I am always glad to speak with people in or going into the medical field because I am so thankful for the help I received after my injury. I communicated this to the students last night and Teri joked that I wanted help finding a cure for my head injury. But it's no joke! and several of the students pulled out their laptops to look up my symptoms. They found aphasia on the internet, specifically Broca's aphasia. I remember a doctor speaking to me about aphasia when I was in rehabilitation. Today, Teri and I looked up Broca's aphasia on the internet and it does sound very much like my condition. My head injury damaged the area of my brain that allows me to speak. I do have a few words that I can speak but I do not have the ability to add new words.

I have asked Teri and David to start using this terminology at Homelessness 101 classes to describe the condition of not being able to speak but having the ability to comprehend everything just fine.

I always enjoy meeting new people and the South University Students were so welcoming and helpful. I would like to send a big thank you to the Students for allowing us to talk to them about Union Mission and especially for taking the time to look up information for me! Even though I had heard about aphasia before, it's really helpful for David and Teri to know this word so they can use it when speaking with me. Plus, it allowed me and Teri the opportunity to research more about aphasia on our own time.