Tag: speech

You need to get your Dad to an Oral Surgeon

sports benchWe have solved the matter of my Dad’s garbled speech.

My brother noticed drooling and I wondered why Dad was having trouble with his speech. Back in May, I asked their Assisted Living community to schedule a dental checkup. Two months ago, I took my Dad to get an annual physical outside the community. Given both parents have dementia and are very private people, I was worried they could not be their own health advocates and wanted to be able to raise my specific concerns with their primary care doctor directly.

Their primary care doctor just thought my Dad might be tired. He has lost 20 pounds over the past year and maybe that has played a role in his fatigue?  I pushed back and requested an appointment with an external Speech & Language Pathologist. That appointment will occur in two weeks.

In the meantime, I posted my concern, and many readers suggested we get him back to the Neurologist. I called and the first appointment I could get is in October.

Luckily, I stumbled across the Speech & Language Pathologist at my parents retirement community. When she met with my Dad last week, she raised concern that my Dad’s tongue was “frozen.” She raised the flag and the Assisted Loving community Doctor visited with my parents last Friday. At 5:30, I get a call that my Dad seems to have an abscess, lesion or growth on his tongue and I should get him to an Oral Surgeon as quickly as possible.

There was nothing we could do until after the holiday weekend.  Benched. 

 

Garbled Speech and Dementia

tongueWhile garbled speech doesn’t seem to be directly linked with any form of dementia, we are treating it as a neurological issue we are continuing to investigate. I recounted my concern and the lack of any medical diagnosis a few days ago. Thank you to the many readers who sent me suggestions with the over-riding recommendation to get him back to a neurologist.

I had requested that the Speech Pathologist in Assisted Living visit him — it took almost two weeks and required an in-person follow-up before his appointment was scheduled. That happened yesterday. Her recommendation was that I get my Dad to the Neurologist.

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention,” the call begins. Apparently, my Dad’s tongue is not really moving at all and she is going to work to get him into the Neurologist sooner. I expressed my concern with his ability to eat and she will be following up with him today to join him for lunch and see how he is doing.

I’m glad to at least have my concern recognized and on the radar of the Assisted Living community, but frustrated that it took so many follow-ups to get him to someone in the medical community that would / could diagnose what might be happening.

He has seen two doctors in the past month who both failed to find any concern with his speech. I witnessed as one of them checked in his mouth and had him try a few motions. I’m lucky to have two Speech Pathologists in my life to help me understand their job and find an advocate concerning his issue in the medical community. Searching.