Brain Injury Support Group

When I had my accident in 1999, I talked hardly at all in the beginning only because talking was such a chore and I had bad word recall (aphasia),. There was a risk every time I opened my mouth still is, but I have gotten less afraid. I went to speech/cognitive therapy for 3 years to help me with mine. I used to work in live theatre, so it was huge to have bad speech. It took me time and confidence building and realizing people don't so much care if I have a speech problem. Good luck.

my husband has trouble with his speech. its slurred sometimes but if u pay attention u can usually understand him. he just gets very frustrated because people have called him "retarded" because of the way he speaks.

Has your wife been given a course of Amantadine? My husband had only said a few words and was responding to commands inconsistently and when they started giving him Amantadine, it really helped him get past that stage.

Even months later, he has some aphasia. When he is tired he rambles on and on using whatever word happens to pop into his head, thinking that he is actually managing to communicate. He also makes up words and has problems with his inflection and voice tone. He actually spoke with a British accent when he first started talking, then he went through a King James phase, and then a country hick phase, followed by British again, and then Australian. Who knows? Speech is a strange thing. I talked to a mom in the rehab hospital what said about her daughter, "my daughter started talking and hasn't stopped!" I didn't understand why she said that until the same thing happened to my hubby. He used to wheel himself through the hallways yelling any word that came to his mind. Some brain injuries cause people to talk excessively and then some cause others to be mute.

Does your wife attempt to communicate in other ways? One of my hubby's fellow patients had a massive aneurism and she only attempted to communicate after being presented with a laptop. She then typed her name. The therapists used this enable her to begin communicating. She then started nodding and gesturing.

Bill, it may take along time for her to speak. I was in a coma for three months back in 1977 at age 12. I'm extremly lucky my speech came back within three months. She'll be in our prayers.

Stay positive, your her best friend!

Shaun

That's funny lilfawn, i had a British accent when i first talked too, you just reminded me of that. It did go away, but people seriously thought I was faking.

My accident was in 1/06 and I was in 3 hospitals that all had speech therapy, but now my parents can't shut me up. The recovery is SLOW BUT SURE. Don't worry, she'll be talking normal eventually.

well all i can say to you is i will pray for your wife.i wish you both the best of luck.thats all i can say cuz my brain injury i had was pretty much nothing i was only in the hospital for 2 months and only didn't talk for a month.but, the other thing i can say is just tell her to say things often because my father did that constantly an finally i started being able to say what he told me to say because when he told me to say stuff i was trying to say it so it was workin up my muscles that we use for talking.

Hi all - my boyfriend has been in a minimally conscious state for almost 7 weeks and he has begun to try to speak. He is moving much more too.

Regarding the return of speech - did others notice that when their loved one was trying to speak, they would move their tongue in their mouth and move their lips but nothing came out? Like they are forming words but not talking — is that how they began to try to talk again?

I'm seeing more and more improvements just in the past week. I believe they increased his meds - I think he is on Ritelin.

They say he is trying to speak and has said a few things - and I think he's also said he's thirsty.

Yesterday when I spoke to him he'd open his eyes and appeared to try to speak. Then he took his right arm/hand and was reaching towards me, and then moved his right side of his body and head towards me. I took his arm, leaned over to him, took his right hand in mine - it was wonderful. When the nurse assistant came in to move him to his bed - I tried to move away he opened his eyes VERY wide and it seemed as though he did not want to let me go. I told him they were just moving him into bed - I was not going anywhere.

For the remainder of my visit he was really aware almost the entire time. I think I saw him fall asleep for a few minutes a couple times - and that was about it. I would sit quietly if I thought he began to doze off and then would open his eyes on his own and move and look towards me on his own. He doesn't appear to really engage with you when he looks tho - seems far off. He stared at my watch/bracelet for a little while - looking confused.

He continues to move his right leg a lot and pull it up towards his body so it is bent. He even moves it up further and was pushing it against my arm and then moving it back and forth. His right arm is moving even more now. He lifts it up over his head frequently and he is now rubbing his forehead, rubbing his nose, pointing at his eye etc. At one point I said does your nose itch? I took a tissue and wiped it for him and he said "Ahhhhhhhhh!"

And at one point he was reaching to touch my face with his right hand. I reached over and gave him a light kiss on his upper lip - WELL, he popped open his eyes and puckered his lips to kiss back. I was so happy - I smiled and laughed and said "that was great wasn't it!?" He then made this face that he use to make moving his nose. And then he moved his lower lip inside his mouth and pulled his upper lip down over his lower lip - seemed to definitely be an expression. I'm seeing more and more expression in his face. I hated to leave when he was still awake - so I waited until he took a nap to head home.

I'm praying that he will continue to come out of this and recover more and more day by day.

I'm sorry - I left out my first thought in response to this discussion, and that is for Bill's wife to continue to heal and speak more and more.

Sending prayers for Bill's wife.