Hi,
I know I recently posted about speech, but I’m fed up, and my speech does not seem to be improving. How long did you guys have to wait to get some improvement? Sorry, I’m really impatient I know…
Emma x
I’m sorry to hear this is upsetting you, when my speech was bad it upset me too. My speech recovered within days with the help of steroids from my neuro, although it lasted a while before I recieved the treatment that helped as they had to diagnosed me.
I feel you need to be aware though, we don’t always recover from relapse symptoms. Relapse and recovery is something we roll the dice on, sometimes we get lucky, other times not so much. If your ms nurse/neuro or GP haven’t given you anything to help, then you should inform them of the problem.
Otherwise all you can do is continue to be cautiously hopeful, while trying to cope with how you are now. If you want to try and be pro active in your recovery, you could try privately practicing words that you struggle with.
I personaly believe if you are trying to do something you have lost, it’s possible your body will recognise this and attempt to rerout the nerve pathways to “jury rig” whatever is broken, using a different nerve to carry the signal, albeit perhaps not perfectly. Imagine an electrician using a wire in the house for a light switch to also carry power for the TV…that sort of concept.
Good Luck!
xx
Thanks FrostPaw. I ended my course of steroids just over a week ago and ive seen no improvement. I can just only hope and pray it comes back soon (although it looks doubtful) or I don’t know what im going to do. I won’t be able to work, it doesn’t bare thinking about. I know there are must worse off than myself but its abit scary! x
Sparkle
Nothing to add sorry just wanted to give you a hug x
It must be very scary. How long have you had this sympton for?
I know symtons can take a while to clear up and I understand steriods continue working for a while after you finish them.
Aww, thank-you.
I’ve had symptoms for 3 weeks. I just woke up once morning and I couldn’t speak, ironically I was supposed to give an interview on local radio that morning! x
My speech was affected with a relapse last year and took about six weeks to get back to almost normal (no steroids). It improved a lot in the first couple of weeks, but it was a month for it to be almost impossible for people to notice and six weeks for me to feel it was ok again. However, when I go through bad periods of tiredness and fatigue it’s always the first symptom to return and makes me sound like I’ve had one too many drinks! I feel for you as it’s been one of my least favourite (!) symptoms to date and I hated the way it made me feel about myself (drunk and stupid!) Take care and I hope it gets better soon X
Hi Emma
My sympathies. Speech was my first ever symptom; woke up one day with a lisp and honestly thought I had bitten my tongue in the night as it was a bit sore and felt too big for my mouth. Within a few days my speech was slurred. Became progressively worse over 2 weeks while I was waiting for MRI scan, ended up presenting at A&E as I was so scared and Christmas was approaching. It started to get a bit better on its own but took a further 2 weeks to become noticeably better and I still struggled with certain words for several more weeks.
Now, it’s just certain words when I am tired or stressed that trip me up. I have to make the effort to slow my speech down at these times as that seems to help.
I hope it clears up for you soon. I found it really knocked my self confidence more than any other symptom.
Tracey x
I have had speech problems on and off for a few years. Last time i saw my MS Nurse she referred metro a speech therapist. So far I have only had one session but I have had some benefit. She gave me exercises to do including stretching my mouth wider and speaking slower. It seems to have had some effect already. Perhaps you could try something similar, via your MS Nurse.