October 7th, 2005
Journal 2 Entries(Genre 3)
March 1, 2005
Dear Journal,
Today was not the best day for me. I went for some testing with the speech therapist, radiologist, and x-ray technician. They made me do something called a modified barium swallow, and it was not very enjoyable. I had to sit in a special chair and swallow different things coated with barium. First, they had me drink some barium and it looked like a milkshake, but unfortunately for me, it tasted more like chalk and was pretty disgusting. They told me the barium was so they could see my swallowing on the x-ray. I guess the test didn’t last for more than 30 minutes, but it felt like forever. They were changing my position and trying different things so that I wouldn’t get choked and I could maybe swallow different things better. I am at a point now where every time I eat or drink, I am wondering if I will get choked and aspirate (which is my new technical word the speech therapist taught me). Today I was just so nervous and wondering what was going to happen. I think my apprehension was the worst thing of the day. Hopefully that was my first and last modified barium swallow.
October 5, 2005
Dear Journal,
Today was the first time that I have been out to eat since my stroke. My wife finally talked me into it. She said that I need to not be embarrassed about having to do things differently than other people when I eat. I guess she’s right, I just didn’t really want the world to know that I am different now. I have worked for a good while in therapy just to get to this point. It wasn’t too bad I suppose. Not many people were in the restaurant, so I felt more comfortable. I brought my thickener with me and put it in my drink. I still can’t get that stuff exactly right, and I don’t care what they tell me, putting that stuff in your drink makes it taste different. Anyway, I just ordered some mashed potatoes because I didn’t want to try anything too difficult. I used some of my compensatory techniques. Mainly I do the head turn because it’s my favorite. I think it’s pretty simple to do and it’s not that noticeable to others. I am really glad I went because now I know that I can, and I kind of felt like I was a little bit closer to the way my life was before. It made my wife really happy too.
JillJill
2. Audience: The audience of the poem would be the client himself and who ever else we lets read his journal.
3. Say Back: The first journal entry discussed a day of the clients having to perform a modified barium swallow. It discusseds what exactly goes on during the process. The second journal entry describes more of the anxiety and emotions felt by the client when having to eat in public. It allow the reader to understand the struggles and embarrassment he is faced with daily.
4. Bless- I think you did a great job describing what goes on during a modified barium swallow. You also did a great job in you second entry addressing more of the emotional side. It really makes you stop and realize as a reader how lucky you are to be able to swallow with no difficulty.
5. Address- Maybe try to change the word compenatory techniques to a more general (understandable) word because I don't know if a client would use that term or not. They may just call it something like, "I use one of my helpful tips learned in speech therapy."
Miller216
Audience: The audience is the client because it is a personal journal.
Say back: The first entry involves the client describing her visit to the doctor on the day she underwent a modified barium test and how difficult it was for them to complete it.
The second entry involved a dinner date the client had with his wife and how he anticipated certain situations that he thought might arise which would draw attention to him and his disorder.
Bless: The scenarios are both very well imagined. When you read them, they really seem like first hand accounts of an actual event.
Address: I think the second entry could use a little more description involving the use of the term “thickener” during dinner and the choice of mashed potatoes the client chose to eat. Maybe a short reflection by the author about the first time he used thickener might give the reader a better idea of what it is, and perhaps adding another small section of the devoted to why the client chose mashed potatoes for dinner could help inform the reader on what types of foods that dysphasic patients try to avoid and why.