Wednesday, March 14, 2012

“This chili is bangin’!” – MS and Speech


Every day is MS Awareness day in our story.

Enjoying some of my home made chili at home earlier this month, Patti blurts out “this chili is bangin’!” Laughing, I couldn’t help but wonder if ‘gangsta wannabees’ had taken over Patti’s care facility. Certainly none of us had ever introduced the slang into conventional dinner conversation. Is this the new jargon of care facility life in 2012?

More than likely just MS Speech. Not one to write technical entries our story of MS Speech for MS Awareness Week/Month is best told through trial and error memories we lived and laughed through to get here.

"a church moment" March, 2006
... Patti cannot always control speaking volume and the more she tries the more opposite it can become
... “The frontal lobes are very important in regulating our behaviour. … People … fail to inhibit their innermost thoughts and do not modify their comments according to the situation.” Cerebral Function Unit, Carer’s Support Group, Salford, UK
... In a recent study of MS patients, … 62% reported speech and voice impairments
... Cursing and swearing is different than language, activating the emotional centers in the right side of the brain, rather than the cerebral communication centers on the left.
... From the National Multiple Sclerosis Society “Speech disorders are fairly common in MS. Lesions—damaged areas—in different parts of the brain can cause several types of changes in normal speech patterns. …Long Pauses … Words are Slurred … Swallowing Problems …”
Regardless of whether MS Speech is a disorder, an impairment, a symptom or whatever - after 22 years of spouse caregiving if Patti calls my chili bangin’, that’s a compliment in my book!

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer 

1 comment:

  1. I'd like a bowl of your bangin' chili! LOL.

    Interesting - because I have noticed a penchant (that's what I'm calling it at the moment...a penchant lol) for using bangin' words I never used before on a regular basis.

    Now I have an excuse. =) "My MS, it makes me cuss..."

    Heh.

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