More and more, my DH cannot 'spit out' words that I know are in his head. in spite of his effort. I haven't read a post on this subject. His words come out garbled and unintelligible. Nothing like a real word. Yesterday, for the entire day, he couldn't say anything he wanted to say.. He would call his little dog, (Come here, sit with me!) but if he wanted to ask me for something, or if I asked him a question, it was back to "mmmuurffff, donldtttevpf".., words like this. This happens more and more frequently, and I cannot connect it to anything in particular, ( such as: exhaustion, illness, stress...) It's so sad. It frustrates him and I'll say: "it's OK, just think about what you want to say, and I'll wait, we don't have to rush". He'll shrug and mumur something like 'forget it!" Today, he can speak fairly well again, although is is quiet most of the time,,,and doesn't say much. He will say, over and over, "I love you",... "Do you know I love you?"...but it's unrelated to anything I say at the time. As dear as it is, it comes across more like a recorded statement. Anyone have experience with the on again off again loss of speech?
Nancy B, I don't have experience with this, but I do have a couple of ideas. I'm a speech therapist who works with pre-school to 8th grade student, some of my students are nonverbal because of developmental delays. They can't speak. But they can answer yes or no questions. Or when given simple choices with visuals, they can point. ie do you want pudding or ice cream (use one hand for each and they can point to the hand). Simplify and use less words. Instead of Do you need to go the bathroom? Say Bathroom? and point in that direction. I do that with my husband when he is especially confused and it seems to make a difference. Hope this helps a little.
Yes, it does. Thank you. I have the book, How to Speak Alzheimer's...and they stress the "option" subject.
Last night, he was pointing to a bottle of Perrier on his end table, "Pffghffp, gerempfttj", he'd say. I asked, "Do you want ICE?" He shook his head no and tried again to tell me something about the bottle. I picked it up and asked, "Something else?"
"No No No", he shook his head, took it back and put it on the table. He had instigated the conversation. What then??? Shoegirl?
I never learned what he wanted to say about the Perrier.
NancyB, In the beginning Dh had issues with getting words out, But he knew that they were coming out wrong and would correct himself. But here lately he's having more difficulty with words but he doesn't have a clue that the word was wrong. Hasn't had the mumble stuff yet except for when he dreams, but I remember FIL at times had issues and it's hard cause you know they need something and most of the time you can figure it out, but once in a while you are just baffled as to what they are trying to say. With my Dh I have noticed the mumble stuff in his dreams more and more lately. He just talks away, but I can't understand but about half of what he's saying. He also seems to start dream talking within a few minutes of going to sleep. We can crawl in bed and within 5 minutes he's just mumbleing away. Weird!
I have a thought about your Dh's Perrier, was he needing you to open it for him?
RK, wish you had been here to help me guess...no, his Perrier was opened and he had drank a little of it. Eventually, he finished the little bottle. (I have a horrible time getting him to drink ANY liquids.) AT BEST, he'll drink 12 ounces a day. Lately, he has enjoyed Perrier in the smallest size bottles. (He doesn't usually want it in a glass, either..I was just guessing he wanted a glass with ice, perhaps! ) Keep guessing. I'll never know what he wanted. :-)
I agree with shoegirl! I am sure it was frustrating NancyB. Ewwwww liquids are essential and I know how hard it is to get them to drink. FIL was like pulling teeth to get him to drink. And he got several UTI because he was so bad about it. I am sure he would liked a beer or a glass of wine but water was out of the question.
I always try to guess, When I was in JR High my GF lost his voice box to cancer, I learned to just keep asking till I found out what he wanted. He got really good at a few words with out a voice box. Then finally they came out with a decent little voice machine thing and then you couldn't shut him up. Nice and clear!
I am thinking he might have had a litle stroke. When he has had them in the past, his words were garbled, somewhat, but mostly, it was as if he had a very thick (or no) tongue. These words, yesterday, were non-words, and he couldn't form a word at all.
Do Alzheimer's patients just quit speaking altogether,, or do they just lose the ability to speak clearly?
NancyB, I really don't know the answer to that, I know FIL just didn't speak much, but once in a while he would perk up and add his two cents! Always a good laugh, cause it was as he completely understood our conversations. Sorry to hear you Dh may have had a stroke. Poor Guy! Rk
My Dad has AD and still speaks clearly. Just not very much. My DH has AD and recently started mutilating words, and inventing words. I too thought he had a stroke, but his doctor says no. He had a CT scan in the hospital which is certainly not as good as an MRI, but it did show an accelerated atrophy in the frontal lobes of his brain. His speech issues were attributed to having UTI. By now I assume he is over that UTI, but his speech is still mixed up. Oh, and he also can say "I love you, Di. I love you so much" without having any slurring or breaks in his sentence.
My husband still speaks clearly, but doesn't always use the right words. He has lot a lot of words and sometimes I don't know what he wants either. If he has come to get me about something I ask him to show me, and sometimes I can guess.
But he is also at the stage where I know that one of these days he won't be talking anymore. And it is very sad.
My DW is in the same boat. sometimes she speads fairly well but not always with much relavent material. When she asks me a question that I can't understand, I will ask her to repeat it, but she has already forgotton her question. That seems to solve the urgency. She often trys to tell me about something that is bothering her and all I may hear is "no" and that usually indicates that someone, usually me, has told her No! Don't do that. She really gets upset when anyone tells her that she is doing something wrong. I think it is embarrasment that then might turn into anger.
I think that this conversation problem is one of the worst part of AD. Both for the patient and also the Caregiver. I get hungary for some adult conversation!!! My son has finally "got it" and trys to call me every day or two just to talk and it is the best part of my day.
In the later stages they can lose the ability to speak. My husband (stage 7) hardly talks at all and often what he says makes absolutely no sense. However, he does a great job with body language letting me know what he wants. It has been a very long time (1 1/2 years) since we were able to have anything resembeling a conversation. He would often garble his words or say things that made no sense. My sister did a great job of hearing/figuring out what he really meant in between the nonsense. If they can still tell you they love you even if it is often, stilted or otherwise, treasure those moments, there may come a time when they can't.
Bill, your DW sounds like she is quite abit like my DH. Some sentences are simply rote. Such as, calling his dog, and patting the chair which means "come sit with me". His "I love you" over and over., but when he has to 'compose' a sentence, he has problems.
Years ago, when he was a widower and we were dating, he told me that everyone needs a special "LOOKADERE" in their lives. Someone sitting next to you that will always respond when you say, "Look a dere" .. I laughed at him for always wanting a 'Lookadere' sitting in the front seat when he had to drive any distance. He would say, "C'mon, I can't leave without a Lookadere. ... It was fun. Now it is me, wishing for a "Lookadere" . If I point at an object, he'll look at my fingertip, not at what I'm pointing toward. (sigh)
My husband starting losing his ability to carry on a conversation about a year ago now. He loses his train of thought almost immediately after starting to speak or ask a question. He also doesn't know the correct words to use. Calls geese, long necks, jets-they are flying today to name a few. He really doesn't talk much anymore.
Mine does the garbled jargon as well now. we found he does understand what we say to him but cant word function so it comes out jibberish. he can answer the yes/no fine. very wierd. my brother/mom were here for 2nites and were amazed at how it goes off/on the cognitive abilities. we were talking about bros new business and DH pipes in 'I havent done any billings for my firm in a long time." HUH?? brother was totally shocked as was i..he was remembering his law practice. then i asked him who are you and he toldus his full name. and he knew mine. and the dogs..but no ability to converse in a meaningful normal way. he smiles and laughs and as all the facial expressions when garbling and doesn seem to know he isnt speaking normal sentences.. it must be the phase of the brain that is being ravaged...then it will work towards another area and another demise in ability..divvi
Dh just said one of his word jumbles, instead of saying yogurt he has been saying Ogurt. It seems that now the simplest of words are becoming more difficult.
MY DH's words aren't part of the English language. They're jibberish..not partial words. This comes and goes...it's not all the time...just more and more often.
He does mispronounce words, and if I can guess what he is saying, I win. Like a personal game I play. I wonder if people in the NH will take the time to understand what patients are saying or if they just pretend they do.
Someone posted a link in the last week to an FTD. It had some excellent discussions on speech and language. Here is a place to start and then tab through at the bottom. http://memory.ucsf.edu/ftd/overview/biology/language/multiple
AD will attack all areas of the brain including the frontal lobe so I would guess that you are seeing some damage to the areas mentioned in this website.
There are very specific areas in the brain that control both speech/language and hearing. I am taking neuroanatomy right now. I will ask my instructor some questions.
I did not work with stroke or dementia patients, but shoegirl is absolutely correct. I would need to find my anatomy book to be able to answer in detail, but you can check out this link from the American Speech and Hearing Association - http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/Aphasia.htm
Nancy, my husband can sometimes mimic a word spoken to him. Especially if someone asks him a question and I answer for him. He can sometimes repeat the main word of my reply and nod to let that person know I'm speaking correctly for him. (After 47 years, I usually know what his answers are!) He can still say clearly yes, no, fine, good, okay. When he tries to talk, it comes out gibberish as well. Aphasia hits some AD patients sooner than others. When it first started over a year ago, he could say a word or two and I figured out what he meant. I usually was given two tries before he gave up. There is no conversation any more. I miss it. It is a part of this dreaded disease.
Like Divvi's husband, once every couple of months, a clear sentence will come out of nowhere! We don't know why, but it feels wonderful, even though it doesn't mean anything! He now claps once to either get my attention, or let me know to come to bed, or let me know to open the door (we have a key open only doorknob on our bedroom door to keep him from wandering during the night. There is no telling where he would go. He gets up at 2 a.m., again before 4 a.m. and he is usually up and partially dressed before the alarm goes off at 6 a.m.) So clapping is a means of his conversation! I ask questions that he can answer with his five words. However, lately he just says yes to almost everything. Just think how they must feel in their brain that can still think in all those messed up wires - that they can't get it out of their mouths to tell us anything!!! I do believe that there is a spark in there somewhere - buried in all that jumbled wiring - that are loose connections that keep them from speaking. I keep picturing a person lost in a fog, with wires criss-crossing each other all over the place, and that person is trying to get out and can't. It has to be so frustrating to them.
Today when I visited my husband he was much more alert than usual. I think he actually had a smile on his face. I told him I loved him and that our 50th anniversary was this Saturday. He looked straight at me and babbled something. I have no idea if we were communicating but I felt better.
When I travelled, I went to strange places (Soviet Georgia, Cambodia).. there was no WAY I could learn the language for each of them. So I learned, in general, just a few words by which I could communicate with locals. Yes, No, Please, Thank you, Beautiful, Delicious. Almost everything else I could get via sign language (and international signs like those for toilets, etc, which we don't have with AZs that we're trying to communicate with). (I could also indicate beautiful and delicious without words, but OH! did they please people if I had the local phrase.)
bluedaze, not hardly. For some reason my husband is more verbal, and usually more forthcoming with talking, than he was for many years of our marriage. It's just when he tries to relate something happening or something he remembers that he just can't remember words and gets very confused. For day to day trivial conversation, he can still manage.
Nancy B I am so sorry you are experience the speech problem. In the beginning of the speech loss I also thought it was caused by a small stroke, as time went on I finally have accepted that it is part of the disease process. The Hospice Doctor was here in our home yesterday, I specifically asked him the question "does the fact that my husband cannot speak at all possibly be because of a stroke or several small strokes at some point" The Doctor's answer to me was NO, Alzheimer disease in the late stages causes this.
My husband cannot talk at all, it all started just as you have described with your husband. I am so sorry. I do feel that is the most heartbreaking part of this whole disease process. How awful it would be not to be able to get yourself a drink of water if you were thirsty and even worse not to be able to tell someone you needed something. I hate this disease.
I hate it too. SO, Jane, are you saying that first, the words that come out like pffffthspufffed when he is trying to say something is a stage that leads into no word sounds at all? .......... Sometime, he can speak just fine. Then, for an entire day, he goes back to that other kind of talk. He isn't jut mispronouncing words. He's just spurting out sounds. So hard to describe. Nancy