AnnieC
New member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2013
- Messages
- 4
- Reason
- Loved one DX
- Country
- IRE
- State
- Ireland
- City
- Cork
Hi there,
In April 2012 at the age of 62 my fathers speech became impaired, he started to slur his words and blamed it on needing new dentures. It seemed like it happened overnight and sounded like he'd had a stroke but he was adament everything was fine and just needed new teeth. We went through the process of getting dad new teeth but his speech didn't improve. We are over one year on now and have gone from bad to worse. It is practically impossible to understand my father now, even those closest to him have to ask him to repeat on numerous occasions, he can't keep liquids down, his breathing has started to get raspy and we have had a few near choking incidents. We have been through 15 months of tests from throat cancer, brain scans, metal poisoning, changes to his diabetic medicine, swallow tests, MRI's and are due to have the EMG in a few weeks. My dad has started to stoop, lost a lot of weight, can't grip tricky things with his hands and seems to have a bit of a flat foot/thud when walking now a days, he would generally be a very fit man be he keeps to himself and even when he could speak wouldn't say much in regards to his feelings - he is pretty old school :smile:
Our GP has told us he thinks it is MND but when we went to the neurologist yesterday for our final confirmation he didn't actually give us the diagnosis. He alluded to MND on several occasions but never actually said the words and this is because he wants the EMG test first. He seemed happy with dad's physical well being which gives me hope but told us he was going to mention the 'potential diagnosis' in a letter to our GP which he would send out straight away. We rang the GP afterwards to update him as we were very confused and the GP asked if we had a plan in place for dad and if we had a 'rota' to ensure someone is with him always? We are really confused now as we feel our dad is slowly slipping away and we should start now to make plans and see all the things he wants to see before he is physically unable but have been putting this off until we had a firm diagnosis and don't want to scare my dad if MND is not the diagnosis.
We have never had experience with MND in our family, extended family or friend base so I guess my question is - (finally I hear you say :smile
Do you think the above are symptoms of MND? Have any of you ever experienced a person going through them which resulted in a diagnosis of MND and if so, based on the above do you have any general timings for when my dad may lose his ability to walk without aid?
I am so sorry to flood you guys with all this but we are completely confused and my dad is so frightened! Any insight you could give would be great?
In April 2012 at the age of 62 my fathers speech became impaired, he started to slur his words and blamed it on needing new dentures. It seemed like it happened overnight and sounded like he'd had a stroke but he was adament everything was fine and just needed new teeth. We went through the process of getting dad new teeth but his speech didn't improve. We are over one year on now and have gone from bad to worse. It is practically impossible to understand my father now, even those closest to him have to ask him to repeat on numerous occasions, he can't keep liquids down, his breathing has started to get raspy and we have had a few near choking incidents. We have been through 15 months of tests from throat cancer, brain scans, metal poisoning, changes to his diabetic medicine, swallow tests, MRI's and are due to have the EMG in a few weeks. My dad has started to stoop, lost a lot of weight, can't grip tricky things with his hands and seems to have a bit of a flat foot/thud when walking now a days, he would generally be a very fit man be he keeps to himself and even when he could speak wouldn't say much in regards to his feelings - he is pretty old school :smile:
Our GP has told us he thinks it is MND but when we went to the neurologist yesterday for our final confirmation he didn't actually give us the diagnosis. He alluded to MND on several occasions but never actually said the words and this is because he wants the EMG test first. He seemed happy with dad's physical well being which gives me hope but told us he was going to mention the 'potential diagnosis' in a letter to our GP which he would send out straight away. We rang the GP afterwards to update him as we were very confused and the GP asked if we had a plan in place for dad and if we had a 'rota' to ensure someone is with him always? We are really confused now as we feel our dad is slowly slipping away and we should start now to make plans and see all the things he wants to see before he is physically unable but have been putting this off until we had a firm diagnosis and don't want to scare my dad if MND is not the diagnosis.
We have never had experience with MND in our family, extended family or friend base so I guess my question is - (finally I hear you say :smile
Do you think the above are symptoms of MND? Have any of you ever experienced a person going through them which resulted in a diagnosis of MND and if so, based on the above do you have any general timings for when my dad may lose his ability to walk without aid?
I am so sorry to flood you guys with all this but we are completely confused and my dad is so frightened! Any insight you could give would be great?