Donna,
How are things down in Florida? Everything's going OK here. The grandkids are getting so big now, you wouldn't recognize them-they've grown so much! Well, the latest news here is that I am now going to a speech therapist for some of the problems I've been having from my Parkinson’s disease. My speech was getting pretty bad for a while. I wrote a poem to express my feelings about it. My speech problems were causing frustration between me AND my daughter; she even wrote journal entries about her feelings regarding my condition. So Renee brought up the idea of taking me to see somebody. I am so glad that we decided to go. I thought I was just going to have to deal with the changes in my voice, little did I know there are exercises and other things that can help! There are a lot of benefits to seeing a Speech-Language Patholigist. You know what REALLY surprised me? The SLP (that is short for Speech-Language Pathologist- incase you didn’t know) talked to me about the swallowing problems I’ve been having. I didn’t know that SLP’s worked with swallowing problems. I guess you learn something new everyday.
Well, I hope everything is going good for you…send some sun my way,
Patty

Patty,
It was so nice to here from you. That’s great news that you are going to see a speech therapist! So what did she say? I thought you might want to know, I found a presentation about Parkinson's disease, you should look at it. I’m sorry to hear that your speech caused problems between you and your daughter, sounds like you both dealt with it the right way though. I’m surprised that she is going to help you with your swallowing too. I hope she doesn’t make you eat anything bad, or worse, make you stop eating good foods!
Well let me know how the therapy continues to go. Tell Renee I said “Hello” & send a picture of the grandchildren.
Good luck with the therapy!
Donna

Donna,

Thanks for being so supportive, I knew you would be happy to hear the good news:). Well, the SLP had a lot to say. Before I even got to see her, she had an interview session with Renee. This allowed her to get some background information about my condition and me. She asked Renee about my diagnosis, some of my symptoms, my daily activities, and a few other topics. Renee said she was really nice and the SLP made her feel very comfortable. Then, it was my turn to see her. We basically talked about the same things, I think she wanted to see if Renee and I had the same opinions--which of course we did (great minds think alike!!), and it gave the SLP a chance to hear my voice. She sent Renee a letter as a follow-up. You can read it if you want to; she explains my condition and things we will be doing to improve my speech and swallowing.
Well, I think I've told you everything about my condition--thanks for listening!!
Patty

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Well this week went well. We were supposed to keep researching and working on our projects, while still helping people in our group. As I continue to do my research, I am finding that it is easier to get information off the World Wide Web than it is to get off Marshall’s library site. I think it’s because I feel more comfortable using the World Wide Web because that is what I am used to. The problem is that I have to be sure the site I am using is trust worthy; I do not want to be putting information that is not valid. I’ve been continuing to use the library search because I know it is valid and is a place to find good sources and, actually, the more I use it, the better I am able to find the information that I want. So, hopefully, when I am done with my project, I will have good resources AND be able to use the library search more often to my advantage. Not to jump to another subject, but, I have decided that I am going to do power point as my genre to bring everything together. I think this will be a good way to connect all the genres. I hope that will work!!