Slurred speech
 

Hi, All
Thanks for being so supportive. This is my situation: My husband is at sea (off to Africa) for six weeks, we have two teen daughters, 13 and 17 yrs, I work full time and my kids just might have come down with swine flu. We don't have any relatives here and there are days when I feel I should see a neuro (but it's impossible to get through to one as the clinic at the hospital only takes calls for one hour a day and a very limited amount of calls are sifted through each day). I don't want to leave the kids and be away for 24 hrs. My neck feels week, and I've already mentioned the breathing issues. Today I received a summons to a single fibre examination in November. (The neuro couldn't get any decent readings when she did the EMG on my shoulder/neck muscles).
Now to my question: I have slurred speech. I teach, and I've been extremely tired these past weeks and my speech seems to be affected. Does this happen to you, too (I ask as I'm terrified the neuro might say ALS and not MG).

Thanks for listening:grouphug:

YES, YES, YES..... At least for me speech is very much effected, slurred and or nasal sounding.

We had a man in town years ago that got arrested for DWI but he wasn't drunk, it was his MG, the police officer thought his slurred speech was caused from him drinking but as we MGers know our speech is indeed effected.

I just got in from my Neuro and while speaking to him he held up his hand and said stop, your voice is weakening.

I know that MG is scary but in time you will adjust and hopefully find the treatment that will work for you.

Big Hugs :grouphug: and feel free to ask anything you want even if it sounds silly, we all do it. :winky:

hi
 

Im so sorry that you are facing this alone and that the kids are poorly. Its hard enough looking after yourself if you feel bad let alone running around after others.

I get slurred speech and nasal speech. I tend to not notice until my mum says to me your speech is slurred (it sounds fine in my head!). I used to get nasal speech a lot when I worked or I would lose my voice. Slurred speech / nasal speech is a well known MG symptom. Remember ALS/MND starts with symptoms from the feet up, MG is head down.

I think the best thing you can do at the moment is take some sick leave and get some rest. You are heading for a trip into hospital if you dont. If things get very bad you will need to see someone at the ER, you can't be waiting on a neuro who may or may not ring you back. Can you change neuros obviously when you feel a bit better.

Is there any family that you could call in? I know you said you are by yourself, but is there anyone that could come and stay with you whilst you nurse the kids?

I really feel for you. I hope you get the help you need. You aren't alone

Love
Rach

Oh my gosh you have a got a lot on your plate. It sounds like you need to take a leave to get your self straightend up. I have slurred speech occasionally but it is the breathing issues that you must deal with. I hope that you can be persistant with the phone situation and let them know that your situation needs to be addressed. Please take care of yourself. ~ Melanie

Yes! Yes! Yes!
 

Hi Inquisit,

I'm sorry that your kids are sick, and that you're going through such a hard time right now. I hope they get better quickly!

As far as the slurred speech is concerned, that's my main symptom, along with nasal speech. The causes (weak tongue and palate) have also made it really difficult for me to eat at times. I have also lost my gag reflex, and facial expressions during extreme weakness. Don't worry. It's not unusual at all to have these symptoms with MG. Some people have pure bulbar MG with no ocular weakness (I'm one of them).

I hope that things get sorted out soon, and that your weakness is alleviated.:)

When the neurologist did my single fibre EMG, they did it on my forehead, and were able to get 'jitter.' If your symptoms are mainly bulbar (and if you have a bit of facial weakness too), this might be a good place to do it.

Take care!:hug:

Hi Pat,
I have experienced some speech problems but very mild. Usually I will try to say a word and it comes out.....well all messed up. I will attempt it several times and finally get it right. I've noticed this happening at least once or twice a week.

Take Care
JJ

Me Too
 

Ugh. You're living one of my fears. I have two children too, no family in town (although someone who could drive in from another state - thank you sister in law :) ) and I'm a widow. I really worry about my kids getting the swine flu and trying to care for them. And then me getting the swine flu! What worries me about you is that you have breathing problems too. That's a scary combination with swine flu.

Can you get a new neuro? I know they're hard to get in to see, but it sounds like yours is especially tough.

I have trouble speaking sometimes too. It's not one of my big symptoms but there have been times when my tongue just won't do what I tell it to do. That's especially true when I'm very stressed out.

If you even start to get the flu, I think you should start leaving messages like crazy. Let your primary know too.

Ally