"Stutt" Your Stuff

Past research indicated that a stutter in Parkinson's Disease was caused by DBS surgery. But recently PD stutters have appeared in patients who have not undergone DBS surgery. And the stutter can get worse as the disease progresses.  

Stuttering is a speech disorder which causes disruption of speech, and is characterized by involuntary repetitions or prolonging of sounds or syllables. The origin of stuttering is not well understood. There are two different categories of stuttering. The most common form is Developmental Stuttering, which begins in childhood (and can be psychological or physiological). The other, Acquired Stuttering (neurogenetic), occurs after a definable brain damage, e.g. stroke, or other head trauma. Or it can occur in basal ganglia disorders such as Parkinson's Disease. My husband is experiencing the latter on a large scale.

It is not well documented research, but stuttering is said to occur in several cases of Parkinson's, particularly when the individual was a stutterer or stammerer in his or her youth. However, it does not have to have occurred as a child, for the PD sufferer to be susceptible as the disease progresses. My husband does not recall having a stutter as a child, but his is extreme, now.

One of the challenges with stuttering, is that people want to finish your sentence for you. Unless they are educated about PD stuttering, they don't realize that trying to finish a sentence, or find a word for the stutterer, can make the problem worse. It can throw off the patient and cause his/her brain to travel around, trying to come back to his/her intended thought, without luck. The first rule of thumb for friends and relatives of PD impaired, "Don't try and help me with the word. I will eventually find it on my own. Please be patient."

If you have freezing of gait (as a PD patient), or trouble moving your feet fluidly, you will almost certainly have a speech stutter at sometime in the future, or vise versa. The reason is, the same area of the brain that dictates smoothness of speech, also dictates smoothness of gait. A stutter is a stutter!

So, if the above paragraph is true, it stands to reason, improving your speech, will improve your gait. We found this to be true for Jamey. He has been seeing a Speech Therapist and a Physical Therapist for several months now. He has been faithful with his speaking and physical exercise. Though there is a limitation on how much the therapists can do for him in his 5th stage of the disease, the exercises seem to be helping if not a little bit. We got a surprise, though. When Jamey was just doing the speech exercises consistently, he was not only able to converse a little better, but he also got up from the power chair more often and walked around! We didn't realize what was happening until the Neurologist told us about the connection in the brain. What a nice perk! 

We know the importance of exercise for Parkinson's. Exercise, in everyone, produces dopamine and dopamine is the chemical all PD loved-ones lack. The more "Parkies" do physical exercise, the more dopamine they produce and therefore, are better able to function. Exercise is difficult for many of us; far more difficult for the PD affected.

However, when your body is fighting against an unseen culprit, only so much can be done. So, Jamey's Speech Therapist has ordered an evaluation for an electronic speaking device (yes, kind of like Stephen Hawking---I'm requesting an Australian accent 😉). It should allow Jamey to contribute to conversations with groups and family more readily. He has a great deal to offer, but because it takes so long to get out the words, he opts not to attempt it. And that's a shame for him and for others. We're looking forward to seeing what type of device the assessor has in mind for him. What an amazing world we live in, right?

So, as the disease takes away more and more of the Jamey we love, it also gives us more, too. We learn something every day; how to be more compassionate to others, how to live without things we once thought necessary, and how to be thankful to God for the moments we have, now. 

This is an interesting, challenging life, but I wouldn't trade it for someone else's, would you? I didn't think so! ;)