rose
Extremely helpful member
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2008
- Messages
- 2,925
- Reason
- DX MND
- Diagnosis
- 7/2008
- Country
- US
- State
- Maryland
- City
- Anytown
I wasn't really sure which forum I should post this on, and considered resurrecting an existing thread, but ultimately decided to start a new one.
Last evening I had the pleasure of a phone conversation with another of us on here with bulbar palsy.
I understand more clearly now why my doctors say that I do not have a classical presentaion.
My voice is so affected. I sound like a feeble old lady much of the time. Happily for us, and the success of the conversation, I was having a pretty good voice day and was able to project enough to be heard on the phone. Sometimes even that is a challenge.
She also did most of the talking, if it had been me saying that much, my voice would have gone down hill fast...I do have some slowness and hesitation when I speak, compared with before all of this, as I was a moderately fast talker. I do lisp sometimes, but I know its not overt. The more I talk, the more pronounced it becomes. Its like the specialists pick up on it, but it doesn't shout to everyone that listens to me that I'm not articulating clearly. - I don't think anyway. I run out of air when I talk, if I were to read this that I've written aloud, my voice would become increasingly quieter due to lack of air being pushed out.
In contrast, my mystery member (sorry, didn't clear this with her first, so no names) spoke slowly. Its true that some people just talk slower than others, but while with me, I talk a little slower, its more of a hesitant slowness for lack of a better comparison. I don't draw out how long a word lasts. I really didn't think she slurred that much, just a softer sound to consonants. I did not have trouble understanding what she was saying, or trouble hearing her. The quality of her voice sounded fine, although I couldn't truly know that as I've not heard her voice before.
So, its odd is all. I understand that my cranial nerves are screwed up, and that every area of my mouth and throat that can be affected is affected. I understand that my legs are weak, and there are even some dents appearing down at my ankles. I understand that no medication has helped me at all and it does not appear treatable, but, I for one, don't sound like someone with bulbar palsy when I talk. For whatever reason, the order in which this area is affected is not the norm.
And, what is it that regulates our speech patterns? Tongue muscle weakness aside ~ I've got "marked" weakness of the tongue, so that isn't the difference between us.
According to what my neurologist has said, the slow speech is UMN. But, from all of my reading on this forum, I'd always assumed that the speech slurring and slowing was something that occurred together, and was due to the UMN control of the tongue itself - causing the tongue to be weak and to move slowly because of the weakness. It didn't hit me until last night that the tongue is probably not the main player when it comes to changes in speed- that its not UMN weakening the tongue so that speech is slowed, but that UMN would cause the tongue to move slow, regardless of how much weakness there is. But weakness, whether it be caused by the LMN or UMN would contribute to clarity.
Thoughts?
Last evening I had the pleasure of a phone conversation with another of us on here with bulbar palsy.
I understand more clearly now why my doctors say that I do not have a classical presentaion.
My voice is so affected. I sound like a feeble old lady much of the time. Happily for us, and the success of the conversation, I was having a pretty good voice day and was able to project enough to be heard on the phone. Sometimes even that is a challenge.
She also did most of the talking, if it had been me saying that much, my voice would have gone down hill fast...I do have some slowness and hesitation when I speak, compared with before all of this, as I was a moderately fast talker. I do lisp sometimes, but I know its not overt. The more I talk, the more pronounced it becomes. Its like the specialists pick up on it, but it doesn't shout to everyone that listens to me that I'm not articulating clearly. - I don't think anyway. I run out of air when I talk, if I were to read this that I've written aloud, my voice would become increasingly quieter due to lack of air being pushed out.
In contrast, my mystery member (sorry, didn't clear this with her first, so no names) spoke slowly. Its true that some people just talk slower than others, but while with me, I talk a little slower, its more of a hesitant slowness for lack of a better comparison. I don't draw out how long a word lasts. I really didn't think she slurred that much, just a softer sound to consonants. I did not have trouble understanding what she was saying, or trouble hearing her. The quality of her voice sounded fine, although I couldn't truly know that as I've not heard her voice before.
So, its odd is all. I understand that my cranial nerves are screwed up, and that every area of my mouth and throat that can be affected is affected. I understand that my legs are weak, and there are even some dents appearing down at my ankles. I understand that no medication has helped me at all and it does not appear treatable, but, I for one, don't sound like someone with bulbar palsy when I talk. For whatever reason, the order in which this area is affected is not the norm.
And, what is it that regulates our speech patterns? Tongue muscle weakness aside ~ I've got "marked" weakness of the tongue, so that isn't the difference between us.
According to what my neurologist has said, the slow speech is UMN. But, from all of my reading on this forum, I'd always assumed that the speech slurring and slowing was something that occurred together, and was due to the UMN control of the tongue itself - causing the tongue to be weak and to move slowly because of the weakness. It didn't hit me until last night that the tongue is probably not the main player when it comes to changes in speed- that its not UMN weakening the tongue so that speech is slowed, but that UMN would cause the tongue to move slow, regardless of how much weakness there is. But weakness, whether it be caused by the LMN or UMN would contribute to clarity.
Thoughts?