In this episode you will:

Discover how transitioning from participant to facilitator can accelerate personal recovery while creating meaningful support for others living with aphasia, demonstrating that helping others is often one of the most powerful ways to help yourself continue growing.
Learn practical strategies for building and sustaining aphasia support communities both online and in-person, including how to adapt materials for different communication abilities, recruit co-facilitators with complementary strengths, and grow through word-of-mouth rather than formal advertising.
Understand how creative activities like movie groups, singing and dancing, and talk of the town (current events) serve as powerful therapy tools for participation and language recovery.

Welcome to the Aphasia Access Conversations Podcast. I'm Jerry Hoepner. I'm a professor at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and co-facilitator of the Chippewa Valley Aphasia Camp, Blugold Brain Injury Group, Mayo Brain Injury Group, Young Person's Brain Injury Group, and Thursday Night Poets.

I'm also a member of the Aphasia Access Podcast Working Group. Aphasia Access strives to provide members with information, inspiration, and ideas that support their aphasia care through a variety of educational materials and resources.

I'm today's host for an episode that will feature Cindy "Yee" Lam-Walker. We'll be talking about her programming for individuals with aphasia by individuals with aphasia. This is the second episode in a two-part series featuring remarkable individuals who discovered that one of the most powerful ways to support their own recovery was by creating spaces to help others.

We're continuing our June celebration of Aphasia Awareness Month, where we're highlighting the Life Participation Approach to Aphasia by featuring people who are living successfully with aphasia. Earlier this month, we heard from Sherry Lovellette, who started several online opportunities for individuals with aphasia, including Aphasia Gatherings, Online Book Club, sewing, and an in-person support group. We also heard from Dr. Lori Gray about her groundbreaking work integrating mindfulness into stroke recovery.

Before we begin today's conversation, I'd like to share a bit about today's guest.

Cindy "Yee" Lam Walker is a person with aphasia from Atlanta, Georgia. She was a Treasury Officer before her stroke and was great with numbers and money.

On March 19th, 2019, she experienced a ruptured brain aneurysm. It caused bleeding in her brain, which required brain surgery. After the surgery, she didn't remember what happened for the first 3 months.

She began to speak, but it was difficult. She couldn't walk. She had to use the wheelchair, and she was in the hospital for 5 months. She wouldn't eat. She couldn't go back to her job, a job that she loved but she could no longer do math. Her whole life changed!

In winter, she was depressed and didn't want to live. She wanted to die so she could see God and my parents in heaven. In spring, her doctor prescribed some new medications, and she began to feel better. She met her speech therapist, Emily. With her help, she started to talk, to read, and to learn simple math.

After her stroke, she didn't care about money anymore. She has many new friends and makes origami to give to people. When she is folding origami, she feels like her mother is teaching me how to fold. Now she writes poetry and leads groups for other people with aphasia.

Transcript:

Jerry Hoepner: Well, I'm really excited to have a conversation with you. Katie Strong said that she connected you with you when she was in Atlanta a few weeks ago, and.

Yee Cindy Lam Walker: Yeah, we had a great time.

Jerry Hoepner: Yeah, sounds like it. And she had this idea for a conversation with you about your experience starting an aphasia group for people with aphasia by people with aphasia. And we just think it's a wonderful idea. And I didn't even realize how much you were doing until I saw some of the things that you sent me, and I've heard a little bit here and there from others. But wow! It's really. It's really impressive.

Yee Cindy Lam Walker: The number of people in those classes. Scott did that. I couldn't add up things like he does, so he took care of that I don't even know he was doing it for my classes, but he spent time doing that. But I'm the one who likes to organize it among people and I. I pick some of my other friends to be the host. I'm not always the host for all these classes, so.

Jerry Hoepner: See that. That's really a great idea on your part. People with interest or expertise in those different areas. And yeah, it's quite the lineup of activities that you have kind of across the whole range of interests and topics. So, I'm excited to talk about it.

Yeah. Those numbers that Scott put together are really impressive. 2,400 people. Wow.

Yee Cindy Lam Walker: Not at different times, you know, it's not like, yeah. He did the math.

Jerry Hoepner: Yeah, that's a that's a lot of people, though, when you think about how much people struggle to pull people together, those are really great numbers. And obviously you're doing something really well.

Yee Cindy Lam Walker: Yeah, I enjoyed it, I think. You know, right now I don't have a real job. So, I like doing this to help myself and to help other people, too, you know.

Jerry Hoepner: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's as good or as meaningful as any job. The things that you're doing so really excellent work. Well, is it okay? If we kind of start having a conversation about those questions that I sent and try to pull those pieces together.

Yee Cindy Lam Walker: Yes.

Jerry Hoepner: That sounds good. As I said, I'm really interested to learn about your background and kind of your journey through this experience. How has your personal experience with aphasia shaped your approach to community leadership?

Yee Cindy Lam Walker: For me. After my stroke efforts. I was depressed; you know my whole life changed. I didn't really want to live. Really, my parents passed. I figure, you know, if I die, I will see them in heaven with God and my parents. I didn't want to live after the hospital. I was there for 5 months, and I got home. I told Scott that just leave me in the bedroom. Leave it there for one week, then I'll be gone. And he worried about me. So, he kept calling people to help people understand what I'm going through. And shortly after I started to go to an Emory office, where I met my speech therapist. Her name is Emily, and she can tell by she looks at me, and she's like, "Are you depressed right now?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I don't really want to live." And then she said, "Well, you know, you come to my office here. You are aphasia." And I'm like. "Wait what?" And she said, "aphasia. And there are lots of people with aphasia all over the world. It is the inability to read and talk, but we can help you." And when she said that to me I all of a sudden woke up like, "Oh, I can't! I'm not the only person with this, you know." I knew I had stroke, but I never heard of the word aphasia and when she said that she woke me up and I started to read and talk with her. So, And because of that I felt like she helped me. I want to help other people, too you know. I started to start to like my life a little bit and then, after a while, I tell myself you know, your life right now is actually much better than before. You know I care a lot about money and all that stuff. But now I don't care about money anymore. I'm glad that I'm alive and I like to help people because a lot of people helped me when I was going through stroke, and later with my Chemo people there helped me so much that I want to be there to help them. and that makes me feel happy to be able to help others.

Jerry Hoepner: Absolutely that sounds like that. Conversation with Emily was a real turning point for you. Yeah.

Yee Cindy Lam Walker: Yeah, and that.

Jerry Hoepner: Moving forward.

Yee Cindy Lam Walker: I always tell people who are studying to be speech therapists. If I can do it all again. I wouldn't want to be a Treasury officer. I want to be a speech therapist because you get you guys to help so many people. You know, nobody really knows about that until they're going through stroke or other stuff. A regular person wouldn't know what is aphasia, you know.

Jerry Hoepner: Right. You mentioned, as you were describing that journey, the stroke and the aphasia. And then you briefly mentioned your chemo. Can you tell us a little bit about that journey from recovering from the stroke and then finding out about the breast cancer?

Yee Cindy Lam Walker: Yeah. Well, you know After my stroke. I hate going to the hospital, anyway. I've been in the hospital for 5 months but every year we get this mail, saying that oh, it's time for your mammogram.

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Episode 129: "Helping myself by helping other people: In Conversation with Cindy "Yee" Lam-Walker"