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Brenda, After my first and only clinic visit at UCLA so far, the neuro brought in the speech pathologist for a meet and greet, and I set up an appoint with the speech pathologist for the next week. I assumed we would be working with my disarthria and trying to improve my speech, but the only discussion at my appointment turned out to be about which device I should pick from among the samples the sales rep brought.
I was not mentally prepared to listen to a sales pitch, but they implied strongly that the sooner I get an augmentation device, the faster I will get up to speed and also urged me to think far ahead to what my needs will be. (Frankly, that's impossible for me right now ... the logistics are just too complcated and scary, and also I clearly don't know exactly when I'm going to need to depend on the device.) I did tell them I wasn't ready to make a final decision on the spot, although I would probalby go for the most expensive. So they filled out the paperwork, and I took it home to review it. I couldn't come up with any better alternative, so e-mailed them "Go ahead and order it." and mailed all the forms in.
I suspect that because ALS is so unpredictable ... speeding up and slowing down, strange symptoms, etc. ... it's best to get going quickly on these gizmos. And "banking your voice" is such a great idea.
Good luck!
BethU