While I am sitting here writing these words, my husband is in the other room participating in a virtual Speakout session. He is learning about his autonomic versus intentional physical systems while practicing the use of his vocal cords. He has been doing this for a few years now and it helps with his swallowing, his speech and so much more. In the beginning of this treatment, I was helping him with the lessons that he needed to do daily but now he logs on and does them without me. I make sure he has the time in our schedule to do this daily and may walk through the room with a comment, otherwise it is all up to him.

My husband has another exercise that he does three times a week to support his breathing and lungs that we jokingly call his “huff-n-puffs”. He uses a tool suggested by his Speech and Language Pathologist and this is also something he can do without any assistance. It involves about 10 minutes of puffing into a small device. He has this scheduled on his phone as if it were a medication so he doesn’t miss a session and I try not to schedule other things that would interfere with that time slot.

I am thankful that he is still able to manage some of these things on his own. There are some things that we do together still, exercises that we both need including his boxing class. Even then, I may sit out a day, but I support him by keeping that time clear on our calendar so he always has the opportunity to participate.