Long Term Slowed Speech

[july60]

Good morning,
I am new to the forum, but not new to fibro. Was diagnosed 30 years ago. I have had a WHOLE BUNCH of stressful things happen to me in the past year (contractor accidentally set fire to my roof while soldering, father died, covid, etc). Since we have finally moved back home (after a year of moving around) I have had my speech progressively become worse as in slow and slurred, but still can understand me. I am going on four month of this. MRI, angiogram, EEG all came back fine according to neurologist. Has anyone had this happen? It is so scary.

 

[Auriel]

Hello julie60, welcome to the forum, ️, the only time I had slurred speech was after a scary experience with my stepdad (I won't go into it) but I think woth fibro our nervous systems are over sensitive so I think we might be susceptible to neurological issues (they did tell me I I'd had a mini stroke, so) I'm glad they're giving you lots of tests (I think them giving you lots of tests is much better being negligent) but you've been though quite a lot so be very nice to yourself, treat yourself, go to nice places and maybe try some holistic therapies or something (whatever you like) either way welcome!

 

[JayCS]

the only time I had slurred speech

I was wondering how to contribute, you've helped: I get very slurred speech from my focal seizures, which take about 2 minutes with 0-5 minute auras before. At a certain point no longer understandable and completely wrong words usually come out. But the reason is cortex in my speech centre, visible in an MRI. So as your MRIs and other neurological tests are fine that's no help to you, july60... - welcome here! Oh - and it is a bit scary, losing control of my speech and partly thoughts and even my perception goes a bit wonky, sort of dissociating, but whilst it makes my wife worry, I actually think it's funny, cos it's only for a short time, and such an interesting phenomenon.

You haven't asked for treatment ideas and put it under fibro fog, so I'll keep it short: There'd be about 15 supps for fog / alertness, and even more relaxation ideas for the vagus/vagal nerve and general stress.
GABA for increasing serotonin as neurotransmitter is a bit tricky, but is the one which I can control my seizures with as well as having strong impact on muscle relaxation, stress etc., and also fog/alertness/cognition....

 

[Auriel]

Could these things be connected to your epilepsy jaycs? Also when are you due.to see gyn (if it's ok to ask, if not, you can shut me down ) to

 

[JayCS]

Could these things be connected to your epilepsy jaycs? Also when are you due.to see gyn (if it's ok to ask, if not, you can shut me down ) to

Unsure what you mean with "these things" - which is good for me, cos it makes me think. ;P
The focal seizures always seemed to be pretty isolated from the other symptoms,
because they have a clear biological origin: cortex belongs on the outside of the brain, not the inside.
But the occurence depends upon serotonin, which is why SSRIs are used to control seizures, like my GABA.
The big connection with many of my symptoms (fibro, MCAS/histamine) is low serotonin, that's the origin.
The epilepsy is not cause / origin of any other symptoms that I'm aware of.
The origins of low serotonin aren't in the least known. I know how to adjust it, but not how to prevent it.
Just exciting to realize it's a neurotransmitter (i.e. nerves..) and a tissue hormone, a very potent messenger in CNS, gut, circulatory system and more - how complex these connections are, so much to unravel!

Gyn was actually 2 weeks ago already, the mamilla swelling was reduced, nothing to see or take out.
But cos of my general new symptoms she recommended to definitely go to onco (next week).
Even tho I still believe losing appetite & weight (stable low) and praps night sweats (better) are from the T4.
On the other hand I do have enough areas that could be developing something, and it'll be fun to check.

 

[Forgetmenot]

Have your heard of silent migraines.i suffer from these and they affect my speech.
Can last a few days and then gets better.comes amd goes .

 

[Auriel]

@JayCS, it was when you was talking about slurred speech. auras, focal seizures, ok cool glad gyn went ok, good luck with oncology, (I made this for you)

 

[JayCS]

it was when you was talking about slurred speech. auras, focal seizures

Well focal seizures are a form of epilepsy and they often start with an aura and mine originating in the speech centre causes slurred and confused speech, after one hand twitching. So they're not connected to my epilepsy, they are my epilepsy....

Wow, what an unbelievably brilliant pic you've made for me, thaaaank you so much! Never seen anything like it before! I can only reply with my one favourite so old-fashioned emoticon ¯\_(ツ)_/¯...

 

[Eff2013]

Auriel, you can look at that for days. LOVE IT.
That is a beautiful green. Can light up anyones day.

 

[JayCS]

you can look at that for days.

Yep. Best not to forget to eat and drink etc. while watching the "windmill" turn ...
And each leaf a heart: Can't wait for clovers to start appearing in my moss meadow...
For the time being I'll watch out for our 2 red squirrels, they come most days.
The squirrel that is on the white background when the mill pauses is the red one, the other the red-black one.
And am encouraged to try table tennis again today, see if not talking is better....

 

[Auriel]

Thankyou @Eff2013

 

[JayCS]

relaxation ideas for the vagus/vagal nerve and general stress

We'd talked about vagus therapy here, a closed thread, but I'm now listening to a brilliant 30' talk "Vagus Nerve and Stress" with Eva Detko, PhD, MSc, BA on the "Neuro-Metabolism Summit", a webinar this week (the 6 talks per day are only on for free for 1(-2) days, unless you buy the talks). Hadn't heard of her before, but as opposed to many talks of this kind (on these summits too) very dense and practical. Only not sure about the moderator saying she'd "recovered from CFS, FM and Hashimoto's", haven't checked that up.

In summary she says that it's very helpful for all chronic conditions, but whatever types we use, it's important to sense if we are comfortable with it and it really does make us relax. Yeah, I know we often say this casually, but it does make a difference to me if an expert extends this to almost all vagus exercises.
So she mentions Breath of Fire, the Wim Hof Breathing, cold showering I do, and infrared saunas and says - of course - these are pretty deep, more advanced things, that many might not be comfortable with, at least not at first. But she also says this about very basic, easy seeming things like voice / throat: singing, humming, gargling. Meditation too, because with a lively mind, meditation can be stress (ahh... I feel understood...). Same goes for things like exercise, which indirectly stimulates the vagus by first putting you into fight or flight mode -
In contrast she suggests starting only with mindful breathing, then lengthening the exhale.
And next important point was not doing things intensely once a week or month, but doing it regularly all day, e.g. mindfully stroking your pet, an hour later doing deep breaths, 2 hours later a visualization of how beautiful your future may look. It has to be something that makes us go "aaaah, that feels good", not "pissed off".
Very interesting I found her explanation (in context of setbacks thru too much exercise) that if you have had chronic symptoms for a long time, then you will be spending a lot of time in "freeze mode", "shutdown". Freeze is also a survival mode, like fight or flight, both are not helpful, and freeze feels like rest & digest, but is actually the opposite. (Exercise being superb over time, good for resilience, but not right for everybody right away, like for many with CFS and FM.) I've never looked at it that way. If freeze is like a rabbit caught in the headlights, then the headlights of FM would be the feeling of being overwhelmed of patients and doctors by the amount of symptoms, them changing, no one knowing what it is, where it comes from, what to do, what to expect. And she is saying that many of us may believe we are in rest & digest mode, but actually we are in freeze mode, i.e. "panicking" while not able to do anything. I'd think this paralyzes the feeling of panic, so we don't sense it, by changing it into anxiety, depression and other mental problems, or it may be the cause of people having occasional panic attacks out of the blue. However what I always like asking back is if this really started with the condition or was there before. If it was there before then (as she also says) that may have triggered vagus nerve issues, cos it's "a back and forth" between mind and body.
Asked about the help of vagus therapy for trauma she described a lot about her way of doing trauma work and the difficulties, but cautioned that vagus therapy is a brilliant and necessary basis for it, cos it gives us more bandwidth, resilience, stability when going deeper, but isn't sufficient, definitely doesn't take you all the way.