Jul 2, 2026 · 16 min · 9 segments
You raised him. You launched him. Then a stroke happened and you became his mom again. The role shift nobody warns you about is one of the most costly things for his aphasia independence. Take the…
Genevieve RichardsonHostother professionals need to understand a little bit more what the day-to-day is like What's going through your head, the emotional supports that you need.
You know, and also that your role, you still are his mom, but as a mom, you raise your son to adulthood and you're not thinking in the way of caretaking, right? You've launched them.
As a caregiver.
You have to start at the beginning when all this happens because you go into stress mode.
And you don't really know that's what you're doing because you're thinking about, okay, how am I going to work this out? What we're going to do? How we're going to do is what, when, where, and how.
And that carries on until the rehabilitation part.
And you're still in that same mode.
You want to be supportive.
You really don't realize how stressed you really are.
And so you start off with, okay, he's not talking.
And that adds to your stress level.
And you're thinking, how am I going to fix this? As a mother, how do I fix it? But then you have to look at yourself and remember, this is something, it's medically and it's not personal.
So when your one has a stroke or a traumatic brain injury like he had, you have to remember that They're not going to be the same person, even though you're thinking all along, it is, but it's not.
And you're going to have to figure out how to deal with it.
And you really don't know until something happens.
And Phillip, at one point, he couldn't speak, couldn't talk.
He didn't know what certain things were.
As a mother, parent, you have to understand that, you know, I got to look at this differently, even though your brain keeps springing back to how you think it should be.
And that's not how it is.
And you just have to understand that they're going to be different.
You have to be a mother, a psychiatrist, a nurse, a doctor, a dietician, all these things you have to do and you sort of lose part of your personal time.
But you don't realize that stress is still there.
other professionals need to understand a little bit more what the day-to-day is like What's going through your head, the emotional supports that you need.
You know, and also that your role, you still are his mom, but as a mom, you raise your son to adulthood and you're not thinking in the way of caretaking, right? You've launched them.
As a caregiver.
You have to start at the beginning when all this happens because you go into stress mode.
And you don't really know that's what you're doing because you're thinking about, okay, how am I going to work this out? What we're going to do? How we're going to do is what, when, where, and how.
And that carries on until the rehabilitation part.
And you're still in that same mode.
You want to be supportive.
You really don't realize how stressed you really are.
And so you start off with, okay, he's not talking.
And that adds to your stress level.
And you're thinking, how am I going to fix this? As a mother, how do I fix it? But then you have to look at yourself and remember, this is something, it's medically and it's not personal.
So when your one has a stroke or a traumatic brain injury like he had, you have to remember that They're not going to be the same person, even though you're thinking all along, it is, but it's not.
And you're going to have to figure out how to deal with it.
And you really don't know until something happens.
And Phillip, at one point, he couldn't speak, couldn't talk.
He didn't know what certain things were.
As a mother, parent, you have to understand that, you know, I got to look at this differently, even though your brain keeps springing back to how you think it should be.
And that's not how it is.
And you just have to understand that they're going to be different.
You have to be a mother, a psychiatrist, a nurse, a doctor, a dietician, all these things you have to do and you sort of lose part of your personal time.
But you don't realize that stress is still there.
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