Severe anomic aphasia, the frustration of not being able to have a conversation for 3 years.

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Gary's husband, Joe, had severe anomic aphasia. Gary talks about how their world "caved in on us" after Joe's stroke.
"We have not been able to have a conversation in basically in three years. Every time we interact verbally, it's my trying to help him communicate as opposed to a mutual exchange in a conversation. That's been the biggest drawback.
For me, it's been very hard to relinquish the control that I was exercising over the situation in the beginning because I had to do everything for the first 6-8 months. And when he was trying to communicate again it was very frustrating. And the frustration, we finally reached a point where we had to just stop. And I had to take a deep breath and walk away because we would both get frustrated trying to communicate. Basically everything just kind of caved in on us.
I wish that there had been more. I wish we had been able to hook up with an aphasia support group earlier in the game to deal with the emotional trauma. Because that was a hard part for both of us but especially me as a caregiver.
I wish I would have had an opportunity to interact with other people going through similar things in the beginning because I was grasping at straws. And with him, basically the frustrations would mount and mount and mount and then again I had to learn over time to step back. To relinquish control more and more as I could because I learned that actually, when I would step back and let him, he was much more capable than I gave him credit for. And I was trying to do everything and he actually progressed at a faster pace when i gave him less controls. And now we're to the point where we can do anything we ever did, it just takes longer.
To people with aphasia: Don't give up on yourself. Because there were times when Joe did, especially when he lost his eyesight.
The advice that I would give patients or clients is just to trust yourself. Don't be afraid to try to talk. If you babble, who cares? Say it anyway. "