Pre-Treatment Speech Issues

[knakag01]

Has anyone experienced any speech issues due to their AN? I am not sure if it is related or not...I don't want to blame everything on the AN but it's hard not to go there first.

I have noticed that in the past year or so, I have been stumbling over words as if my tongue doesn't want to say what I am thinking. This is difficult, as I talk to people all day and feel ridiculous when I stumble over or mispronounce common words.  

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this prior to treatment?

Take care,
Kim

[rupert]

  Yes,  I know I have .    I used to be a very good oral reader.   People were always asking me to read things because they loved to hear me read.   Now I stumble over words.  Once in a while I just stop in the middle of a sentence.   If I try to read as I used to,  sometimes I begin to stutter.  That really bothers me.

  I have no absolute proof that it is because of the AN or not ,  but I certainly can tell the difference over the last few years.    I find that if I purposefully slow down my speech ,  that helps a lot.    I think speech therapy would help,  but right now I'm just doing my own trial and error.   Bryan

[Vivian B.]

Hi Kim,

What a coincidence that you should be asking this question. Just last week I was telling my husband that I am noticiing that I am having speech problems whether it is letters or words that I mix up. He actually said that he noticed it too. I have no idea what it sis from. I am hoping that it is due to hearing loss and not brain related. I also tend to blank out lateley, really strange.  I would also like to hear from others.

Vivian

[salamander]

Kim,

I do struggle a bit with words.  One thing that I have problems with sometimes is either having trouble finding the right word, or using the wrong word.  The other day, I wanted to ask my daughter for a "downy" ball for laundry but instead asked for a "tide" ball.  She laughed and figured it out, but I didn't even realize that I used the wrong word.  It was in a text, so I certainly couldn't deny it!!  In the same note, I used the word "camcorder" instead of "webcam".

I do blame my headache drugs and just normal aging though.  It is hard to really pin down the causes of this stuff sometimes - so I just blame the AN!! LOL.

Samantha

[skamper]

Kim,
I so do the same thing.  I actually had asked this same question on here about a month ago.  I have a 2.6 x 2.3 x 1.9 AN on my right side.  The doctor said I have minimal hearing loss but have no balance left on that side at all.
The problem I find is the same as yours.  I stumble over the correct words to say.  Sometimes I mix my words and they come out a complete mess.  My girls think it's funny when I say the wrong words completely.  I am usually embarrassed by it.  I do it a lot at work when I'm talking fast.  I also lose track of what I want to say, I just can't spit the words out fast enough.  I hope this is due to the AN and that I don't have other things going on with me.  I just get so embarrassed when I scramble my words. 
I hope others have an insight to our craziness.
Best of luck to you.
"Accept what it is and keep on living"
Susan

[sharonlynn]

Hi,
I"m a newbie, but I can't believe what I've read on this page. I was diagnosed with a left AN
about a year and a half ago. I have serious vertigo, but no hearing loss. For the past year I've thought I was losing my mind!
I've been saying things like "Do you want a walk?" instead of "ride". I have also been blanking out. I recently got off a plane in
Florida and couldn't remember what or where the Everglades were even though I knew I should know this. I am unable to spell or
remember the meanings of simple words like " of course." I am confusing homonyms when I write. I have even blaned out and found
myself in the men's room at a rest stop!  An MRA showed some seizure activity in the temporal lobe and I am on anti siezure medication.
It has helped somewhat with the blanking out, but the speech issues continue. Anyone have any ideas or similar issues?
Sharonlynn

[opp2]

Me too...

Vacuum the lawn..is perhaps my most often used example to try to explain to people how I mix stuff up. I want to mow the lawn, I know what I want to do and say, the motions are similar but the words are the wrong ones.

Mix up words that sound the same but mean different from what I meant to say....

My kids laugh too, but they've been trying not to because they know how embarrassed I get.

I find myself proof reading all my emails and reports more closely now, because I will even type words that don't belong there. I've caught some real doozies lately.

I do blame it totally on the an and the pressure on my brain stem.  2.9x2.4 ish.

Take care and just keep trying to concentrate on what you're doing and saying. I am practicing more word twist on facebook and more one vs 100 to try to keep my brain active in my spare time. I have also gone back to practicing Wii yoga and balance exercises on my otolarygologist's recommendation.

Nikki

[LisaP]

Count me in too,

I sometimes stumble over words or the wrong word comes out of my mouth.  I thinks it's related because did not have this problem before my AN

LisaP

[Pembo]

That stumbling over words and saying the wrong word when I'm thinking the correct one was a big symptom in the months before dx. It didn't completely go away either.

[kiwi]

Count me in too... I didnt want to blame the AN for everything though.  I have noticed my mouth cannot keep up with the brain and sometimes I join two words together like stomach and tummy, brain cant decide which one to say before my mouth just picks "stummy".

Luckily no one seems to notice or they are to polite to say anything.

Jacqui

[knakag01]

Thank you for all of the feedback, everyone! It is nice to know I am not totally losing my mind. 

[phx]

I have the same problem. It's something I've been struggling for over a year now. A while ago I noticed that I was having speech problems, except I didn't know what was causing it. I just thought it was because I wasn't using my English enough. English is my second language and I'm very fluent in it, but since this tumor, I stumble like crazy. I even stumble in my native language. I know what I want to say, but what I say comes out wrong. I even write my words and numbers out of order. It's very weird, so yeap, I understand.