CAPE GIRARDEAU MAN BATTLES WITH APHASIA AFTER STROKE

William "Gabby" Klein returned to his favorite diners having coffee and talking to his friends. A few months ago he didn't show up at his favorite spot. He had suffered a stroke that left him temporarily speechless.

In November, Klein of Cape Girardeau woke up but couldn't walk or talk. His wife, Dorothy, took him to the emergency room at the St. Francis Medical Center.

The stroke affected the part of his brain that controlled his speech.

Although Klein regained his ability to walk, he faced a long road of rehabilitation from the effects of aphasia, a disorder that makes it difficult to express or comprehend ideas through words.

No two people are affected by aphasia in the same way. The degree of severity in the communication disorder varies.

Recently Klein, his wife and his speech pathologist returned to Klein's favorite diner to have coffee and talk about his recovery.

Kelly Reeves, speech and language pathologist at St. Francis, began Klein's rehabilitation.

"Gabby is a very social and talkative person, he was very frustrated with the aphasia," Reeves said.

Klein felt he was recovering slowly. "I didn't feel I was getting enough done," he said.

Klein has nonfluent aphasia that causes him to be hesitant and have a slow manner of speaking. "He can recognize the object he wants to say, but he may not be able to say the word," Reeves said.

Working with Klein, she used pictures, objects and repetition to "cue" him to the correct words. Reeves would say sentences and allow Klein to finish them. "I would say, 'Pour a cup of ...' and he would think of the correct word."

She said those with aphasia may use another word for an object by association and Klein was no exception. Klein's wife said he used the shoe brand name Brogans to say shoes.

"If you aren't old enough to remember Brogans, then you would not have known what my husband was talking about," she said.

Reeves worked with Klein for four weeks in the hospital before he was "graduated" to outpatient therapy. Other medical problems, such as low blood sugar, set his progress back. "He would work forward a few steps and then take a few steps back," Kelly said. "Language and speech is the slowest to come back."

Dorothy Klein worked with her husband on his "homework" therapy when he returned home. Although the aphasia was frustrating to Klein, he kept his sense of humor. "He would know he would use a wrong word and laugh," Dorothy Klein said. "Soon we both would be laughing."

Klein's wife gave him pages of words to identify. He had difficultly with some of the words at times. Klein told his wife, "Some of them you had trouble with yourself."

Klein has returned to his social life. At times, he still needs to be nudged to find the correct word.

LaDonna Howard, a waitress friend of Klein's for more than 15 years, said, "We talk about old times, I joke with him and call him the "old grouch." She thinks this has helped him regain his confidence in his speech.

Dorothy said some of the best therapy came after outpatient visits when they went out for coffee and talked with friends. "Having Coffee with friends can be the best therapy. It can solve a lot of problems."

May is Speech and Hearing month.