Rebounding from my stroke and aphasia

by Phil Staudt
December 7, 2009

On May 29, 2008, I went to work as a normal healthy person that felt fine that could read and write very well, and I when I got home from work, I was a normal healthy person that felt fine that could not talk or write at all. Obviously, something went wrong, and I had suffered a stroke. I had a short dizzy spell that included loss of coordination in my right hand, but I just figured that I was just tired after 10 hours of stressful driving. I kept on working, but when I had to talk to people, nothing intelligible came out of my mouth.

Sitting in the hospital for the next week, I never ever thought that I would not be able to speak and write and communicate. It was never an option for me to not do what ever I needed to do to rebound. The first time I sat down with a pen and paper and was unable to write more than a few words at a time, I knew I had my work cut out for me. The disc was wiped out and the memory of how to say and write things was gone. For a few weeks after my stroke, I was unable to watch television, because they were talking too fast. I got up and sat in my living room reading the newspaper. I found a list of the names of the States, and it took me several hours of working diligently in order to be able to pronounce them.

But I have met people with aphasia, who have had much worse trouble than I have. There were several times when I had people in my cab after my stroke, who I would have assumed were drunk or stupid before, had it not been for my stroke and aphasia. When I asked them if they had aphasia, their eyes would brighten up, and they became much more relaxed, because I explained to them that I had had a stroke and I know what aphasia is.

Being a cab driver was probably the best job for me to have following my stroke. If I had still been a waiter or restaurant manager or sales rep, it would have been horrible. I forced myself to talk to the customers in my cab, and when stupid things came out of my mouth, I just laughed about it. The first week I was driving, I picked up a nice couple at the Monte Carlo, and when they were in the taxi, I asked them the same question that I have been asking people in restaurants and taxis and sales for decades, "How are you folks doing tonight?" However, the word "folks" did not come out right, and they were quite shocked. Once they found out that I had a speech problem, they laughed about it.

It has been10 months since I walked away from a somewhat secure job with enoughincome to pay the bills, as a Las Vegas taxi driver working for WesternCab Company. It was the most foolish thing that I have ever done in mylife, and the ramifications of my decision have not totally played outyet. But I am glad, and if I could go back and do it again, I would dothe same thing.

Being a LasVegas taxidriver was not something that I was going to do for a long time. I havespent most of my life managing restaurants and bars, and doing sales,and during the last 10 years I have also done Internet marketing. Theobject of doing a job where you can't have a life and you work 60 - 84hours a week, was to sandbag some money to do something else. I had abusiness in Portland that did not end on a happy note, and put me in afinancial pickle. But instead of taxi driving getting me back on myfeet, it knocked me on my butt.

For the record, I want to say that Western Cab Company was a good company to work for, and the people in charge are fantastic. The thing that I liked least about the job, was that during the most prosperous time in Las Vegas, and during record tourist business and convention business in Las Vegas, that cab drivers in Las Vegas made less and less money every year, on the average, because of the planning and policies of the government regulators.

Now I work 15 hours a day instead of 12. Why? After my stroke, I decided to get busy doing things that I wanted to do, and learning things I wanted to learn. I had to work on learning how to overcome aphasia, which is the result of my stroke 18 months ago. I dug in and did tasks that require me to do a lot of writing and talking. Now the work that I do daily requires me to do telemarketing, and writing email messages, and writing tutorials to tell people about the products and services that I promote.

My good friend, Timothy L. Drobnick Sr., has made it possible for me to work at home, as a rep for his online companies. I realize that there are many people who have more qualifications than I do for the work that I am doing, and I try to work harder and get things done in order to make up for my deficiencies.

My speech therapist, Kate Maxfield, did a great job of explaining things to me regarding aphasia, and she pointed me in the right direction, and encouraged me to force myself to do as much talking and writing as I could. Unfortunately for my customers and co-workers, I took her to heart. When I had a double-hernia operation 20 years ago, my doctor told me then that the more walking I did, the faster I would heal, so one week after my operation, I walked up to the top of Multnomah Falls by myself. So my speech therapist telling me that talking more was a good thing for my aphasia, inspired me to get into situations that were conducive to lots of conversations. I even went to work at a couple of high pressure telemarketing rooms in Las Vegas several months ago,  for a couple of weeks, just to assure myself that I could still make sales over the phone.

Fortunately, now I can holdmy own now with conversing, and only those who know me well can tellthat my speech is not as good as it used to be.

So I guess I can thank the Nevada Taxicab Authority, and the bad economy, and my stroke, for motivating me to get out of doing things I hate, and pressuring me to do what I want to get done. And I can thank Timothy L Drobnick Sr. for giving me a bright future with oogads of potential.