Is slurred speech a symptom of Lyme?

[JackieCalifornia]

A friend of a friend has long been diagnosed as having MS.  One prominent symptom is slurred speech.

Does that also occur in Lyme?  (You know what I'm thinking:  misdiagnosis.)

[JackieCalifornia]

Good approach, Rico.  Thank you.

[Ricobord]

I have had some mild incidents of slurred speech.  It was part of stumbling over my words.  I had lots of word finding problems and times when I said the wrong word, and I always assumed that when I tripped over my words and slurred them a bit that it was related to my other speech issues.

I did not have stroke-like slurring, though, where everything I said was slurred.

Slurred speech is definitely a symptom of MS. If you do decide to speak up, you could suggest she Google a symptom with the word "Lyme" to see how other Lyme patients describe having that symptom.  A doctor who doesn't probe deeply enough might not realize that the tingling in a patient's legs is not at all consistent with the behavior of MS tingling (an example from myself).  

On paper, someone might look like an obvious MS case. But in digging deeper, the symptoms might not quite fit.

[JackieCalifornia]

Thanks to you all for your excellent comments -- I am working up to saying something via email to the lady in question, and all your advice is very helpful.

(Oh Lyme, how I detest you.)

[drsdonthelp]

Hi Jackie,

I began to have slurred speech 5 yrs. after I was Dx'd with Cat Scratch Fever. It only happened for one day, and I thought this sort of thing happened to everyone. It happened again for a little longer a couple of years later. Then after a major "flare" and during a steroid treatment I slurred my speech for over a week. After two of my eye surgeries, I slurred again for a couple of weeks. I was told TIA, and was checked for MS.
My neuro tells me that I have simple partial seizures and my brain is misfiring and getting "stuck" making the seizure last for over a week.....(huh?) lol,,,,,,, well, now I know that YES, Slurred speech can definately be from Lyme Disease. It is one of my 'bad" symptoms of this.

If she is on FB and you can share links without her feeling like you are telling her that she may have lyme,,, there is a ton of info regarding the cause of MS could be in fact the lyme spirochete and that the "lesions" that are showing on the MRI, are the spirochetes forming into cysts.

good luck to you my friend! :)

Pam

[mojogal]

There are a few LLMD but the good ones are hidden and the ones that are "out" are not very good from what I heard.

I belonged to a Texas support group on yahoo, I think, and they were very helpful. I wish I could remember exactly where I found them.

You are right about the TX medical board. Very sad.

[JackieCalifornia]

Thanks, mojo.  

Are there really NO LLMDs in Texas, or just so few that it seems like there aren't any?  My impression has been that the medical board has been so hard on LLMD-type docs that they are all gone and you have to leave the state to be treated LLMD-style.  (I'm mentally sorting through what I would say to this person in Texas, directly or through our mutual friend.)

[mojogal]

Maybe your friend can bring it up to her?  Being from Texas concerns me.
Hope it works out.

[JackieCalifornia]

Thanks, mojo.  The person in question actually lives in Texas and has for a long time, so that's another concern, given the inability to get a Lyme diagnosis there.  Because it's a friend of a friend that I know only slightly, I hesitate to barge in ... but will try to think of a way to bring it up without putting her off.  

[mojogal]

Sorry about your friend, when my Lyme came on really badly with muscle weakness, temporary blindness, memory issues and off balance, I had a period of slurred speech so in TX they said I had MS. There were "lesions" on my brain, seen on the MRI.
It could be misdiagnoses. At least Lyme can be cured if she has Lyme.