So I’ve been discharged by my speech therapist now as it’s been 6 months and I’ve plateaued. It’s tough to accept that it’s a new future with how I am talking but I don’t really remember how I sounded before and I’m accepting of it
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Despite the feeling that you have plateaued I’m sure you will find there are still improvements to be had.
Congratulations on coming to terms with things, it will help as much as the progress you have made.
Reward yourself with a bit of fun and if you feel like it hang around here on the forum to encourage those who could use it. You are needed as are we all.
There will be ups and down, we all get them, but by now you will have realised you are not alone and there is a life worth living.
keep on keepin’ on
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@garethc970 you may have been discharged by the speech therapist but that doesn’t mean you won’t progress any further. Keep working on the exercises they gave you, research some more on internet & in time you’ll probably notice some improvement. It might be too small to notice immediately but when you look back in 6 mths time you might be surprised.
Good luck.
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It’s up to you if you have plateaud. There’s no reason to think you’re not going to improve. I would completely disregard traditional wisdom (actually outdated wisdom / financial reasons / protocol) and define your own pace, rhythm, progress. It’s all down to you now. Wait for nobody, and take control of your destiny. Certainly, don’t use the “plateau” word to slow yourself down.
I am on month 20, and have a long list of achievements I have chalked up this month. Today, I just completed a 5km recumbent bike ride, this morning, along the Bristol-Bath cycle route
Bon chance, ciao, Roland
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Like every post-stroke problem, you will improve (even though it feels like watching paint dry most of the time). You don’t say what your level of speech is at the moment, but if you can make yourself understood, then you’re succeeding. After 10 years I still feel as though my tongue is twice the size it is and my speech isn’t sounding right, but most people don’t notice and I can act on stage and sing in a choir (neither of which I did pre-stroke). It’s all down to practice. Keep at it!
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Hi @garethc970
Great to hear that you’ve made progress from those early days. Do please keep in mind that it seems worse to you than it will to others and that everybody that matters in family and work will be tolerant, helpful and encouraging 
Every plateau in reality is the consolidation of achievements so far and the readying to make further progress
But as Roland alluded to the traditional weak insight combined with the NHS’s desire to discharge people to their own continued recovery and redirect resources to new cases means that the explanation of your progress has been unhelpfully and misleadingly adjusted to be an excuse for removing support.
You will make progress so long as you put in effort.
After initial gains further progress needs the combined and integrated progress on many fronts and so you can be making progress that is prerequisite to achievement but not in itself perceptable until all the factors come together - then it feels as if progress was a jump but it wasn’t it was many factors inching forwards & the reward for the effort put in. This is true as much for speech has half a limb or other improvements
If you need inspiration as to the effort to be put in then there is a wealth of resources for free from all sorts of sources for example
There are many other sources too
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I can hold basic conversations with people it’s just that I find it hard cos of the effort needed. I had a brain stem stroke which resulted in dysarthria.
I also wanna try and run which I haven’t done since the stroke in December
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Ahhh, the effort! I understand that. Sometimes it is too much for me as well. I will ignore either nix phone conversation for text, or ignore the phone and computer altogether. And here at home I will either sit with the family and listen, or go to my bedroom and ignore them altogether, lest I get overwhelmed and annoyed and say something less than generous in response.
I can’t explain why it seems to take so much effort…is it fatigue, overwhelm, lack of effort on my part, or apathy? I don’t know. I don’t really feel the last two, but it is possible. I occasionally have trouble thinking of the right word, or saying it when I do, but mostly just the sounds won’t come out due to breathlessness, or because my vocal cords were badly damaged from 3 bouts with long term ventilator. I also still have swallowing issues, but they are much better than before. I just have to be careful to hold my chin down and forward to swallow, not use straws, and be careful to fully swallow small things and fluids. (I often choke on the tiny pills or droplets of saliva or water).
Anyway, I hope you will feel like speaking via Zoom with us sometime, but understand completely the effort. Keep in touch here if typing is easier.
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I agree w/ @DeAnn BUT it’s 100% true that no effort equals no gain.
It’s also possible to make gains with effort so personally I wouldn’t recommend the easy route if anyone has ambitions for the best post stroke life
3¢
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Sorry to hear this, but I know of someone who had friends visit with the aim of spending time with him to practice speech and language. Are you in a position to do this? I guess it can be set to a time limit so it’s not all work between you and friends? Or is there a local volunteer befriending scheme whereby someone can pop in regularly to practice with you? Keep at it, my friend.
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No! You’ve merely reached their financial plateau!
You have all the tools right there in your head to continue improving.
If you can talk then you can continue to improve. And the best way to that is by talking…a lot! 
If I haven’t already suggested it to you, then reading aloud each day will help with that. And don’t shy away from conversation because of it.
Practice, practice, practice! 
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And one place to practise where we are already aware and completely inclusive is the Thursday zoom cafes
And @garethc970 I’m happy to do something more one-to-one anytime (and if any other speech impaired folk want to come along I’m happy to either do something in the virtually individually, facilitate something between you with or with out my involvement, &| make a cafe link available to use so you can set something up yourselves &| any other way that you can think that supports Your needs by using a virtual space
Caio
Simon
EE that’s so true & so dishonest and misleading of them to say so
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I really hope you will consider what @EmeraldEyes and @SimonInEdinburgh have said. And I hope you will join us for a Thursday zoom, or individually if you prefer. I would also be happy to converse with you online.
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And you’re very welcome to use the cafe link to do that - even when it’s being used for something else we can just open a breakout room and you can go off and have a chat in a quiet corner
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I’m so fearful of plateau…I think I’ll feel stigmatised by those around me if I do plateau like I’m a recovery failure or something
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@SammHaillay i understand that and while we can hope for full recovery nothings a given on this journey. I think I initially felt like that but I’m coming to terms with it now
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Wow you’ve been misled about plateaus!!!
Every plateau is the launch pad for your next ascent of capability gains
Plateau are where you consolidate previous gains, integrate them into quality of life activities and the invisible advance in the components of your next leap (or miro-mm) advance in capabilities progresses on multiple fronts that are not visible until all the components of an action come together.
Welcome each plateau as the base camp for the next part of your journey and then you will have purpose and reward rather than an anxiety.
Outlook is a big part of recovery too
Caio
Simon
@garethc970
Hope you’re doing well.
Just a point of philosophy… Personally I find the word recovery a bad one.
I’m on a different life path now with similarities with the old one but that has gone, blown away by the stroke - so I hope to embrace developing capabilities on my new path (that may have similarities with the old one) but going back is not something i strive for I strive to go forwards
Of course how we see things is personal to us all but I think recovery carries mindsets with it like chairman is deprecated in our language because of its connotations so I think recovery (partly?) deserves the same for #StrokeThrivers
3¢
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@SimonInEdinburgh I look at recovery as in doing the things you were previously able to do. I know we’re all different and I too now look at life as a new way to do different things. I’d previously craved to have my old life back as I believed I’d not finished with it but my life is this now and it’s still the same one although some minor (as I’m now looking at them) adjustments.
I truly hope everyone can improve as much as they hope to and, who knows, maybe one day they may find a way to repair the damage from stroke. 
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I think we’re fairly aligned on outlook then.
I posit that those that reach a situation of acceptance that they are on a new path can look forwards to forging a fulfilling future
looking backwards with regrets seems the worst of all positions.
I too had not finished with the previous life but that choice was removed
Be well
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this has indeed happened - those around me expect me to have recovered more by now but alas i havent…
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