What’s Wrong with Dad’s Speech?

On and off for a few months, my Dad’s speech has been garbled. For the last month, it seems as if he is trying to talk with a loose marble in his mouth. I raised the concern with Assisted Living and asked that they schedule a dental review. It’s been more than two months and I’m still waiting for that appointment to occur. The on staff doctor had seen him and didn’t find any issues.

In the meantime, I took my Dad for an annual physical outside of the retirement community system and the doctor just thought my Dad might be “tired.” After explaining that this has been a pretty regular change for my Dad, she has scheduled a follow-up with their Speech Pathologist. In the meantime, I found that my parents Assisted Living community has a Speech Pathologist on staff. I asked if she could visit with my Dad. It’s been a week and I haven’t heard back.

I continue to recognize that Assisted Living is designed to take care of basic Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and will manage critical care issues.  The smaller day-to-day issues that might proceed the critical issue are going unnoticed.

Today, my Dad commented that he was having trouble swallowing and stopped to spit several times during our visit. My Dad has never been a spitter.  I am continuing to follow-up with a variety of options. I have found no references to this being a normal symptom of any kind of dementia and would love to hear back from any readers if you have some suggestions on what might be going on. Asked.