speech... help...

[Rachel_W]

Just a quick question.  Has anyone with ongoing stress about health had any speech symptoms (difficulty moving from one word/consonant to another.  Stiffness with speech?) that stay around and don't get better for a while?  It mainly started after I started worrying about health symptoms and now it is staying around although a doctor told me I didn't have an MND which is what I was scared of.  Now I am putting myself through worry again and it seems to get worse daily.  I have to say things twice sometimes as the fist time I don't catch all the consonants.  

I am really worried...

[RubyWitch]

We ARE both crazy since we obviously spend way too much time talking to the animals and ourselves! But, I usually find conversations with myself and the critters to be far more amusing and insightful....................

Try reading outloud.............I have found that when I am feeling "tongue tied" that it helps.
Peace
Greenlydia

[Rachel_W]

Thanks for getting back to me.  I just feel that speech is taking more and more effort.  I actually talk to myself a lot and to animals (I am a zoo keeper so always have some excuse to be talking).  I did a test on the way home from work - long drive, snow storm - and I recited some poems that I knwo.  It seemed to loosen up my speech a little.  then on the way home there were times when my speech seemed a little crazy.

I just found out from my boyfriend that he thinks I have sleep apnea also, but apparently this has happened on and off for two years and I have always snored so I assume that this would not be another sign of MND.  It is just so scary.  The doctor was a specialist and seemed pretty confident that I didn't have anything serious as my clinical exam was normal and he then did an EMG just to make sure (although he stuck it in my tongue but not in my jaw or lips.

It is so scary and I fear talking more and more as it is just a reminder of my fears.

I am of course going to get the apnea checked out and am going to talk to my PCP to try to figure out my other symptoms that are still occurring such as the stiffness in my hands and such.  The twitches don't bother me anymore as I know that if they were a sign of anything then they my EMG would have been abnormal...

Thank you again and have a wonderful New Year.

Please let me know what you think if you have anything to say other than I must be a crazy person who talks to myself...  LOL

[RubyWitch]

I work in a very busy hospital and the days I work, I am talking, what at times, feels non-stop. I talk to the other nurses, I talk to the doctors, the patients, the PTs, the social workers, the families of patients, the housekeepers, the X-ray techs, the infusion therapists................seems like a million people. On my days off, which often fall mid-week and my husband is at work as are all my friends, I spend much, if not all, my time alone. I don't really talk to anyone except the dogs and those conversations usually fall a little flat. After 3 days off, when I go back to work, I find that for the first few hours, I too find it somewhat difficult to form my words right, I stumble over simple words and sentences and things come out in the wrong order. It scared the daylights out of me too, until I spoke with one of our speech therapists. She said that what I was going through was pretty normal for someone in my particular situation. Kinda like a "feast or famine" thing.
Your doc has cleared you of an MND, so examine your lifestyle. Possibly it could relate to what happens to me? If you are still having this difficulty, speak with your doctor again about a speech eval and just go from there. I don't think this is anything to be overly concerned about, but anxiety, especially health anxiety, can cause us to do and think and feel some really bizarre things. Try to relax and talk with your doc. Even if your words do come out funny...........
I'm not making fun of you, I know exactly how scared you are! So face your fear head on.
Let us know how you're doing, OK?
Peace
Greenlydia