Saturday News

Contents of This Week: Saturday News ▶︎ March 12th / 2016

• Definition: Speech Repetition

Children copy with their own mouths the words spoken by the mouths of those around them. This enables them to learn the pronunciation of words not already in their vocabulary. Speech repetition is the saying by one individual of the spoken vocalizations made by another individual. This requires the ability in the person making the copy to map the sensory input they hear from the other person's vocal pronunciation into a similar motor output with their own vocal tract. Such speech input output imitation often occurs independently of speech comprehension such as in speech shadowing when a person automatically says words heard in earphones, and the pathological condition of echolalia in which people reflexively repeat overheard words. This links to speech repetition of words being separate in the brain to speech perception. Speech repetition occurs in the dorsal speech processing stream while speech perception occurs in the ventral speech processing stream. Repetitions are often incorporated unawares by this route into spontaneous novel sentences immediately or after delay following storage in phonological memory. A longer definition comes from Wikipedia. 

• Video: Speech Repetition
• Speech-Language Therapy: Working with a Patient with Fluent Aphasia
• Fluent Aphasia (Wernicke's Aphasia)
• Enabling Fluent Speech In Non-Fluent Aphasia
• Stroke Victim Wakes Speaking Fluent Welsh
• Rachael Getting the Word out About Living With Aphasia
• Amazing Speech Recovery - Stroke Family's Proven Methods Works!
• Aphasia Speech Therapy (Patient-Michelle, 17 yrs old)
• Apraxia Of Speech Repetition Struggle
• Improving Speech for Stroke Patients
• Speech After Stroke - Treating Aphasia
• Stroke: Causes and Effects on Speech and Language

• Headline Blog: Speech Repetition
• 50 Shades of Stroke – Aphasia
• Mouthing Off
• Speech Therapy Is Done, aka I Graduated from Talking School
• Finishing Sentences
• Left vs. Right
• Language Skills and Aphasia Recovery - Connected?
• Demanding Repetition
• Dysarthria is More Than a Slip of the Tongue
• Aphasia pt.1
• Treating Sleep Problems Following Traumatic Brain Injury
• Socially Speaking, Conversational Courtesy, and Aphasia Speech Therapy
• Progress to Report

• Weekly Columnists
• Musing: Stroke Patients’ Speech Loss Linked to Loss of Brain Interconnections
• Sunday Stroke Survival: Argh! Said The Pirate!
• Caregiver: Fun -- Then Meltdown
• Jester: Marriage Humour
• TED Talks - Russ Altman: What Really Happens when You Mix Medications?

• Eclectic Stuff on Wednesday
• If Nothing Else, This Story Could be a Stroke Prevention Reminder
• Conclusions from Multiple Studies Can Be Flawed
• Constraint-Induced Therapy
• Rick Mercer Report: Dodgeball & Marijuana
• Laid-Back Admin: No Post This Week
• XKCD: Robotic Garage

• Future Topics in SSTattler

     Saturday News | Future Topic
     --------------+---------------------------------------------

     Apr/02/2016   | Mixed Transcortical Aphasia
     Mar/26/2016   | Environmental Enrichment (Neural)
     Mar/19/2016   | Anomic Aphasia
     Mar/12/2016   | Speech Repetition

Definition: Speech Repetition

Speech Repetition From Wikipedia,
      the free encyclopedia

SSTattler: I took two courses to learn Understanding Lip Reading because my lips was not synchronized with my brain e.g. my wife said "Is it snowing in our living room?" or some other utterance and I know exactly what is about, "It's never snow in our living room", but the words I'll repeat saying again and again - "Yes" - it doesn't make much sense. My wife helped me as well with Speech Shadowing and (correctly) Speech Repetition. In a few months later, I have, basically, a kind of a grammar like "English" but the words are sometimes wrong (i.e. Receptive Aphasia (or Wernicke or Fluent or..)). Today, my grammar is only OK (but not up to my speech before my stroke). When I am tired, the wrong words appear... Ah well...

Children copy with their own mouths the words spoken by the mouths of those around them. This enables them to learn the pronunciation of words not already in their vocabulary.

Speech repetition is the saying by one individual of the spoken vocalizations made by another individual. This requires the ability in the person making the copy to map the sensory input they hear from the other person's vocal pronunciation into a similar motor output with their own vocal tract.

Such speech input output imitation often occurs independently of speech comprehension such as in speech shadowing when a person automatically says words heard in earphones, and the pathological condition of echolalia in which people reflexively repeat overheard words. This links to speech repetition of words being separate in the brain to speech perception. Speech repetition occurs in the dorsal speech processing stream while speech perception occurs in the ventral speech processing stream. Repetitions are often incorporated unawares by this route into spontaneous novel sentences immediately or after delay following storage in phonological memory.

Video: Speech Repetition

Speech-Language Therapy:
      Working with a Patient with Fluent Aphasia

Published on Nov 26, 2013

Burke Rehabilitation Center's Speech-Language Pathology Department offers outpatient evaluation and treatment services to Individuals with communication impairments, cognitive-communication, swallowing, or voice problems caused by stroke, traumatic brain injury, or other forms of neurological conditions or trauma.

For more information, please call (914) 597-2288.

Burke Rehabilitation Center is located in White Plains, NY


Standard YouTube License @ Burke Rehabilitation

Headline Blog: Speech Repetition

Definition: Blog (noun). Add new material to or regularly update to a blog. (≃1990s: blog shortening of weblog)

50 Shades of Stroke – Aphasia

Sas Freeman

March 15, 2015

Another complication stroke survivor’s are faced with is Aphasia. This is a terribly frustrating complication, we can hear conversations as before, know how we would wish to respond or join in, yet we are unable to participate, the words we would like to say just wont come out. People often then begin to do one of two things they believe will help, yet truly they don’t. They talk to us in baby speak as if we have rewound our intellect back to toddler days; or they speak or answer questions for us by guessing what we are attempting to say. Don’t get me wrong , I’m not blaming them, none of us know how to handle the situation. Its just that although we appear to be displaying difficulty and are slow, we wish to get there unaided and finally get the words out. We can use pictures to illustrate things we are trying to say and help conversation this way.

50-shades

One way to help improve the situation is music and singing. Somehow when we try to sing we tap into a different part of the brain plus we relax and we are able to participate in song. Yet when attempting simple sentences of normal speech, we concentrate so hard, it’s almost as though the breaks go on and speech becomes impossible.

One thing that helps me when I am having difficulty communicating with someone new is to focus with my eyes on something else other than who I am talking to.  I apologise and explain that I am not being rude but need to use the focus to concentrate on my response,  it works.

Music, song, practice, patience and self belief #50shadesofaphasia

See the original article:

50 Shades of Stroke – Aphasia

in

Sas Freeman

Mouthing Off

Marcelle Greene
Up Stroke

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

In the beginning I did mouth exercises to counter a drooping smile and slurred speech. Lying in my hospital bed that first week, I practiced my pucker with enthusiastic sucking noises. I filled my cheeks with air and pressed it out in tiny farting bursts. I pursed my lips "Oooohhhh" and stretched my lips "Eeeeeeee." I once practiced this last exercise with such vigor, a nurse checked to see if I was okay.

In rehab my speech therapist fed me crackers to see if I was "pocketing" food between my cheek and gums. I chewed the crackers and opened my mouth for inspection.

"Good," she said holding out another Saltine. "One more time."

"Bwwaack," I said. "Marcelle want a cracker."

I minimized chewing on my left side because my weakened tongue lacked the agility to scoop food out of the corners of my mouth. When chewing I often bit the inside of my lips and cheeks. I haven’t done that in awhile, I think. Then I bite my cheek again.

Swallowing poses hazards. The muscles on the left side of my neck are weak and sometimes food sticks in my throat. I never eat without a glass of water at hand.

Also food doesn't taste as good. For a long time I thought this might be my imagination, but last week the nerves along the left side of my tongue began to reawaken with an electric jolt. Then I realized that half my taste buds have been disconnected from my brain – so no wonder I'm not getting full flavor.

On the upside food doesn't taste as bad either. Guess that's why a few nights ago I was able to eat beets.

See the original article:

Mouthing Off

in

Up Stroke

Speech Therapy Is Done, aka I Graduated from Talking School

Joyce Hoffman
The Tales of a Stroke Patient

Dec 7, 2014

I still have the remnants of dysarthria, the speech condition that makes talking tough after the stroke and affects the muscles in the face, particularly the mouth, and respiratory system. But I went to a speech therapist to get help and who I didn't like at first. She was all grim and business-y. Like when she corrected me when I called her a speech therapist instead of the more la-de-da-sounding speech and language pathologist. Drama queen, I said to myself.

Slowly, after two months, she got around to cracking a smile. When she and I were done a month later, she told me that her husband was an egomaniac, that her partying son flunked out of Harvard, and that her stressed-out daughter couldn't get pregnant. I sat there calmly, but I had my own problems.

Anyway, there were four things I had to remember from the speech wizard: "HOSE." Permit me to explain.

I started to develop that habit in 11th grade to be sure I could remember all the chemical symbols. When I was in college, and then when I started to work as a professional--a professor, a columnist, a technical trainer--I made lists of words to remind me what should be on the final or what was up for the day. The words didn't have to be in the dictionary. My only job was remembering what they were.

Finishing Sentences

Amy Shissler
My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

December 4, 2013

I was reading a post on GirlWithTheCane’s blog about a disabled individual that was institutionalized and the man’s music therapist said she thought of the lyrics “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free.” That’s a song by Billy Taylor. I know what it feels like to have everyone around you think that you’re intellectually handicapped because of the way that you are on the outside when in actuality you’re completely, 100% cognitively intact on the inside. But this was temporary for me. Now people treat me normally again. For the most part. I don’t at all know what it’s like to have my liberties and my choices taken away. I can’t imagine. That makes me feel sick to think about.

When I was learning to speak again, ALL of my caregivers did something that was so incredibly infuriating there just aren’t words. Maybe there are words, Barb can you help me out? What happened was this…….That first year, everyone – and I mean EVERYONE – that’s including my SPEECH THERAPIST would mouth the words that I was trying to say and finish my sentences for me. Some people would also talk over me as that was extremely easy to do. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON’T DO THAT. Be extremely conscientious of if you’re doing these things. I spoke very, very, very slowly, softly, and my speech was slurred. I was very difficult to understand at times and that’s why people did that and it made me want to shoot someone, or shoot myself. What I needed and didn’t get – even by my SPEECH THERAPIST – was to allow me to finish my thought no matter how long it took and not under ANY circumstance have my words mouthed by the person I was talking to. That made me feel incredibly stupid. Don’t do that. Talk to your loved one normally and even if they speak weird and slowly, don’t interrupt them and don’t for the love of all that is holy feel the need to finish what they are saying because you think they’re taking too long. If we need help and would like you to speak for us, we’ll ask.

See the original article:

Finishing Sentences

in

My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

Left vs. Right

Barb Polan
Barb's Recovery

Posted 18th March 2010 

I was speaking to a sales rep on the phone today, negotiating a price for something I wanted to buy, and she must have remembered something I said yesterday about being on medical leave because she said that she had recently had a health problem and was finding it very hard to get back into the swing of things at work, but it didn't seem as though I was having that problem. I decided to lay my cards out and I told her that I'd had a stroke in November and was still recovering, but that I found work to be very helpful, so it was easy to get back into it. She seemed very surprised and told me that I sounded wonderful for having had a stroke so recently - her father had had a stroke when he was in his 50's and, she said, it took him several years to be able to speak normally again. I resisted explaining to her the difference between having a stroke on the left vs. right side of the brain - if I had been so unfortunate as to have had mine in my left brain, not only would I have lost the function of my right, dominant side, but my speech and language skills would have been disrupted. Some people with left-brain strokes need to learn to read all over again, starting with which squiggle is what letter (and what is a letter, anyway?). Instead of my right hand doing double duty on the keyboard, it would be the recalcitrant one, and I'd be brushing my teeth, typing and buttoning my clothes with my very uncoordinated left hand. There's no way I would be able to even remotely do my job without being able to read and type - so I feel very fortunate to have had a right-brain stroke, as crazy as that sounds.

See the original article:

Left vs. Right

in

Barb's Recovery

Language Skills and Aphasia Recovery - Connected?

Jeff Porter
Stroke of Faith

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Should have taken those French classes in high school.

Turns out that for stroke patients suffering from aphasia, a language problem that affects thousands a year, bilingual brains sustain less stroke damage:

Compared to patients who spoke only one language, bilingual stroke patients were more than twice as likely to have normal cognition following their stroke and they also performed better on tests measuring post-stroke attention and function. 

But the two groups had similar frequencies of aphasia, at 11.8% among monolinguals and 10.5% among bilinguals (P=0.354), which might be explained by a higher level of cognitive control in patients speaking two or more languages, Suvarna Alladi, DM, of Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad, India, and colleagues wrote online in Stroke. 

"The only outcome not influenced by bilingualism was the frequency of aphasia," the researchers wrote. "Although this might look surprising at first sight, this finding is in-line with current research, suggesting that the mechanism underlying the protective effect of bilingualism is not because of better linguistic but executive functions acquired through a lifelong practice of language switching."

All kidding aside about missing French classes decades ago, I hope this research leads to some tools that could help in stroke recovery therapy - bilingual or not.

See the original article:

Language Skills and Aphasia Recovery - Connected?

in

Stroke of Faith

Demanding Repetition

Peter G. Levine
Stronger After Stroke

Saturday, June 23, 2012

I do a lot of talks on stroke recovery. From Alaska to Florida, from New Hampshire to San Diego I'm all over the place all the time. I do these talks  for therapists; OT, PT, speech. Survivors and their caregivers show up as well. Also, medical device people, nurses, physiatrists, etc. So I get to talk to a lot of people about stroke. I always do the best I can to make things as simple as possible. Here is a really simple but profound way to look at stroke recovery...

Repetitive.
Demanding. 

That's it. Repetitive practice of the movement or sound or walking or skill or whatever. Of course repetitive practice has the habit of doing two things: 1) causing people to repeat things that they can do pretty well, over and over. 2) Plateau. People plateau (don't get any better) because they keep doing what they can do pretty well over and over.

That's where demanding comes in. Repeatedly practice the skill in a way that "nips at the edges" of your current ability.

Repetitive without demanding and progress will slow to a crawl.
Demanding without enough repetition will halt progress.

See the original article:

Demanding Repetition

in

Stronger After Stroke

Dysarthria is More Than a Slip of the Tongue

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

November 25, 2013

I had a stroke in the brain stem which connects the brain to the spinal cord. My stroke attacked a part of the brain stem called the pons - the bridge to the cerebellum which controls coordination. The inability to coordinate muscles of my lips, cheeks, and tongue made my speech severely slurred (dysarthria). The good news is that I never lost the ability to understand what people were saying. The bad news is that people could not understand me.

Incoordination of my diaphragm, which controls breathing, also made speaking difficult. To speak you have to let your breath out slowly. At first I exhaled explosively in one big gasp. I had to repeatedly take extra breaths to finish even one sentence. I gradually regained the ability to say more before running out of breath. It is still tiring to speak in a group because I have to take many deep breaths to be heard. Thankfully people never have trouble understanding me on the telephone. I speak into an ear bud so I never have to raise my voice which requires more air.

In nine years my dysarthria has never fully disappeared. When I am not fully awake or I am tired my speech is still somewhat slurred. I know this because people start staring at my mouth so they can read my lips. Sometimes I have to think about taking a full breathe because I am speaking too softly. I know this because people start saying "What?" after I speak.

I asked for help in the grocery store last night. The woman who helped me scowled and looked at me like I was retarded. After she left I realized I was incomprehensible because I was speaking so softly.

See the original article:

Dysarthria is More Than a Slip of the Tongue

in

Home After a Stroke

Aphasia pt.1

Steven H. Cornelius
Music and Stroke

Posted on January 25, 2012

In one of my first extended post-stroke remembrances (maybe four days after the event), a Massachusetts General neurology team—the hospital’s lead neurologist with residents in tow—came to see me. He asked me how I was doing.

“Okay,” I said.

Was I feeling depressed?

“No.” I said.  (As far as I could tell, I wasn’t.)

He asked if I wanted a prescription for depression.

“No.”

He began speaking to the residents, saying that depression came with stroke territory and was going to prescribe an antidepressant.

Had he not heard me?

I tried to say something, but nothing came out.

They watched me struggle.

“Unusual to have strong aphasia with a right-brain stroke,” he said to the residents.

I wanted to tell him that as an adult I was left handed, but had been relatively ambidextrous when young (Might that be relevant?). And I could speak just fine, thank you very much. But nothing came out. Looking on silently as the residents digested the scene, I felt helpless and humiliated.

Treating Sleep Problems Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Bill Yates
Brain Posts

Posted 29th July 2014 

Sleep problems are common following traumatic brain injury (TBI).

In a previous post, I reviewed a study of the risk factors for sleep disorders following TBI.

The most severe TBI is a risk factor for hypersomnia. Anxiety and depression following TBI increase risk for insomnia complaints.

Few large studies of treatment for sleep problems after TBI exist.

However, a recent manuscript outlined the potential benefit of treatment of sleep disorders in a series of 12 subjects.

Catherine Wiseman-Hakes and colleagues from the University of Toronto described their experience with sleep and TBI in a manuscript in the journal Brain Injury.

Their study examined the impact of sleep disorder treatment in TBI on recovery of cognitive function including speech/communication. Treatment included sleep hygiene education, pharmacological treatment and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) for those with sleep apnea.

Socially Speaking, Conversational Courtesy, and Aphasia Speech Therapy

Mark A. Ittleman
he Teaching of Talking

Posted October 22, 2014

Last evening my wife and I were invited to a niece’s birthday party. You know the drill; pizza, cake and presents. As what happens with most birthday parties there are guests who may be “new” to the group.  When this occurs it is customary to have the new visitor “introduced” to all the guests, with a repetition of each person’s name. Whether child or adult, going somewhere new, and meeting unfamiliar people can be daunting, esp. if one is confronted with new names to remember.

So in walks Mom and her son. As they were introduced one by one to the group, I noticed she was fingerspelling the names of each person to the young man, while his head was bowed, and making only eye contact with his mothers’ fingers, but never lifting his eyes to those of the other guests. That introductory process did not yield a “meeting of another person,” only the recognition of a finger spelled name. There was no attempt to speak, repetition of the name, no eye contact, or gestures on the part of this child. After the introductions, I realized no one really met him; that it was all a formality that seemed to have NO MEANING for this child, nor anyone else. As soon as this process was repeated with all the guests the child sat down on the couch with his smartphone and continued playing a game without stopping although other children were coming up to him and checking out what game he was playing. One child had the same game on his phone, but it was still curious there was minimal if any interactions with anyone at the party other than the game on his smartphone.

Progress to Report

Elizabeth
Thankful for Every Day!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Let me just start by saying, "Life is good!! Really good."I continue to be grateful for how good I'm doing especially considering where we were almost three months ago. We are thankful for all that I can do and continue to work on all the things I can't do yet... or can't do well yet. I have been in rehab for just over a month and for the most part it is going well. I am meeting/exceeding lots of goals and that is something that makes me very happy, especially because my #1 goal is to take care of Jack. I had missed him so much while I was in the hospital and even at home when I wasn't strong enough to pick him up. Well, I can pick him up now and I have been able to do so for about two weeks... huge accomplishment!!! and I feel like I'm getting my boy back. (tears of joy!!!) I got to take care of him by myself last Tuesday afternoon for the first time since surgery/stroke and it was like bliss. I got to feel "normal" again. Thrilling! He's also starting to know that I can do more too. He'll ask me to pick him up now, but he knows to be gentle and to help me when I ask him. He says, "Mama has an owwe on her head", and then he taps my head gently if I'm holding him. It's so precious. Sometimes when I'm carrying him I will ask him to help me by holding on and he does...sometimes I just ask him because it's so cute how he wants to help me and I love his tight squeezes. :)

A few nights ago was another first. John was reading him books and putting him to bed, then he was rocking him like we always do. Normally Jack will request a certain song for you to sing to him and John thought he was requesting a new song, but it turned out he was saying, "I NEED Mama". Of course, I couldn't be any happier to fulfill his request until I figured out he was just playing us for more delay time. As soon as I got in his room to rock him and John left the room he said," I NEED Dada." My ego was instantly deflated ;)  So the short story is that I'm doing lots more with Jack and I'm super happy about it.

As for rehab, I said for the "most part" it's going well and by that I mean occupational therapy and physical therapy are going well. Speech therapy... not so much. Speech therapy is the one area that has the least objective criteria, so maybe it's also more difficult to note progress, but according to John and myself there is much progress to be made.

Weekly Columnists

Definition: Columnist |ˈkäləmnist| (noun). A blogger or a journalist contributing regularly to a blog or newspaper

Musing: Musing: Stroke Patients’ Speech Loss Linked to Loss of Brain Interconnections

Dean Reinke
Deans' Stroke Musing

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

The solution to this problem would be enhancing the axon pathfinding and neurite outgrowth. But because we have NO stroke leadership or strategy no one will be looking for these solutions. You as a stroke survivor are fucking screwed for as long as we have craptastic stroke leaders - Stroke Patients’ Speech Loss Linked to Loss of Brain Interconnections.

Imaging Reveals Disruption of Language Network “Structural Hubs” Directly Associated with Aphasia Following Stroke, Reports Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience

When brain regions that control speech and reading comprehension are destroyed due to blockage of blood flow, patients are often unable to speak or comprehend spoken or written language. These difficulties with language, or “aphasia,” are a common symptom in the aftermath of stroke. However, in a new study published in Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, researchers report that damage to the underlying connections among different areas of the brain can also affect the severity of aphasia.

The brain’s macro architecture of connections can be reproduced as a “connectome” composed of nodes representing various regions of the brain and their edges, the connections between such nodes. Some of these nodes function as hubs, which are fundamental to the overall organization and distribution of information throughout the brain. When a network hub has an excess of interconnections, it is part of a so-called “rich club network.” There is a growing body of evidence that damage to this rich club network can impair various speech and reading functions in much the same way as direct damage to brain regions normally associated with speech and comprehension.

Sunday Stroke Survival: Argh! Said The Pirate!

Jo Murphey
The Murphey Saga

Sunday, March 6, 2016

It's always been my way to make even the most tedious things fun or funny. I mean if you can't have fun it's just hard work or just down right b-o-r-i-n-g. At other times, it has staved off fear or discomfort like with my cancer treatments. I lost all my hair, so I wore absolutely wonderful silk scarves and humongous earrings. This was my gypsy fortune teller garb. Yes, I even drew on mysterious eyebrows with a pencil and supplemented my eyelashes with falsies. It kept everyone guessing plus it kept my exterior point of view active. At the time, I was foretelling my future. I was going to live and beat cancer.

I created rhymes for cadence for my #2 daughter's rehab stretches as a child. I've even done a few ditties for my own PT exercises. If not exactly fun, it gives my mind another focus. My physical therapist now knows when I hum or use a sing-songy voice, what he's doing is hurting me. It's the way I cope and get through what has to be done. When I can no longer do this when coping with the pain...it's way too much pain.

I was ever so thankful to get past the monotone speech phase of my relearning how to talk with aphasia as you can imagine. It was a double scoop of ice cream with sprinkles kind of days when little by little I got my intonations back. I still don't have all of them back, but I can get my point across. It's part of who I am and how I communicate. Whether I physically don exterior costumes or not, my attitude has always been a big part of my voice of who I am.  I can drip sarcasm with a roll of my eyes, cut someone to ribbons with insults and have them believe them as compliments until after I'm long gone, and I can give you a big part of me and you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's true. And, all it takes is the way I express myself with words and what you perceive on a nonverbal level. For someone with aphasia, this kind of "play acting" is important as communication skills also because the words are not always there. Anything that breaks you out of the rut and frustration of trying to communicate with others is a very useful tool.

Caregiver: Fun -- Then Meltdown

Diane
The Pink House On The Corner

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Last week, my dear friend, Jenn, came to visit for a few days.  It was great to see her. We did a lot talking and a little site seeing, and I even managed to drive the 40 miles to Tarpon Springs and back which was no small feat for me, as I have been so nervous behind the wheel since Bob passed away.

All was well, until Jenn took me a yoga class.  Now, I've never done yoga before -- but I was willing a victim here, thinking it would be, you know, good for me.  The class itself was billed as "gentle" and "relaxing" so what could go wrong? Right?

Jenn & Kona at The Sponge Docks

I tell you, it was neither "gentle" or "relaxing" even though the whole time we spent pretty much flat on our backs.  The moves weren't hard, but half way through I found tears inexplicably falling out of the corner of my eyes. Afterward, I was a total emotional basket case and found myself near tears the rest of the day.

The next day, I woke up with terrible sinus congestion (from all that crying?) and a splitting headache and every muscle in my body seemed to ache.