United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hey people-Does anyone have any input concerning this situation: Before my accident I had very high verbal communication skills. I knew what I wanted to say & I knew how to say it. Somehow that changed. Very often I have real difficulty putting thought into word. I have noticed that when my pain level is up or even when it is not too bad but has lasted a while I can hardly express myself at all.Other times the pain is so bad it blocks out my thoughts. I understand these "episodes". What I don't understand are the times when the pain is way down- the medication is working at minimum dose- but words will not form. Sometimes I even have a little aphasia.Ibba din aza toe tetta.Da gada da? It's like my mouth is not connected to the speech center of my brain right. Like maybe there's a short-circuit. I've read hints of other people who experience this.I had no head injury (my m.c. helmet didn't have a scratch on it). Is there something that happens to us that causes this? If you have experienced this PLEASE let me know what you think- Like-wise if anyone knows the cause. Writing is o.k. but I spend more time editing & correcting than composing......Guu toada wekza. Yimfen!---Ronin

Hey Ronin

Yes i get stumped sometimes too. I do it more when the pain is high. Kinda gotta wait till the crushing lets up then i get to think regular again. But even on my good days i sometimes i cant find the right words I know they are there they just wont come to my lips.

My accident was pretty bad but its been 4years this weekend. My helmet is only screwed up from the emt's cutting the strap. But i was in a coma for 3 weeks so they tell me. I dont recall much of the first month in the hospital.

So i guess all i can say is your not alone. But i dont really know why. I have another friend who had a bad accident and lost his leg. We were joking about not being able to find the right words sometimes just the other day. His accident was 25 years ago. I dont know what there is in common but it made me feel not so stupid. I consider him pretty well adjusted to his injury.

I also have a friend who stutters badly. I sometimes see him struggling and I identify with his difficulty speaking. I wonder how much what I do is like a person who stutters. I think there is speech therapy for stuttering and wonder if that would help me. I dont stutter as much as not getting the words to get the point accross.

My grandfather had a stroke and he gets words mixed up and can hardly get his point accross. He knows when its the wrong word but he just cant get the right one out. He is much worse then i am but i see him struggling and I know how it is to not find that word. Dr Teil was doing an operation on a stroke pateint when i was getting my nerve transfers done by him. Since thesame drs specialize in both i believe the bpi has some effect on my speech problem. But I never asked Dr Teil if it was common to bpi or not.

It would be interesteing to know if anyone else experiences this as well. And if there is anything i can do to improve my speech.

John K

Good grief! I don't believe it....you too???

I just thought it was me getting dumber as the years went by...

...joking apart, not only have I noticed my very real difficulties in being able to to find the right words since my accident, but all my family has noticed too...people I've met since just think I'm a bit eccentric...but I KNOW that I have lost something...words that used to come easily I now struggle for, or I use the wrong ones by mistake...for instance, we bought one of those George Foreman griller thingys recently and I forgot what it was called...told someone we'd bought a George FORMBY grill (George Formby was a singer/banjo player from Lancashire; famous around the 1930's I think..)I honestly couldn't understand why Neil laughed and gave me a funny look...I was TOTALLY convinced I'd said the right thing!

I often have to ask Neil for the word I'm struggling for by describing what I want the WORD to describe...all very very confusing and bluddy frustrating. I can't think of words for crosswords now which was something I used to be good at, and I am now very wary of meeting people for the first time in case I put my foot in it or make a complete fool of myself by saying something totally gormless, or by being struck dumb.

I'm not sure that it is a BPI thing tho, but possibly and operative (surgical) or breathing difficulty thing (possibly) I think everyone knows that even a small reduction in oxygen for even a short length of time can cause all sorts of relatively mild symptoms like short term memory loss and/or loss of verbal, intellectual, concentration and writing skills etc It's a well known fact that infants who are starved of oxygen at or soon after birth, even for short periods, can cause wide ranging issues later in life like behavioural problems, anger etc. No reason to believe it DOESN'T happen to adults too, even if maybe its the result of a few minutes in surgery or the A&E.

It would be interesting to find out if it is related to how long each of us may have had a significant reduction in oxygen either at the time of our accident, or after during emergency surgery maybe?

Thanks for bringing this up...! I'm kinda glad I'm not the only one...if ya see what I mean!! Interesting!

Liz x :0)

Liz
I half watched an excellent programme on BBC 1 recently which told several "life stories" of people who had had surgery ( heart surgery I believe)and who had also suffered this type of memory loss/ dysfunction - one woman couldn't remember the most basic things and constantly "lost her words"
interesting thoughts.
Karen

I also sometimes wonder if there is other brain damage, let's fac it, most tbpi hit something pretty solid at high velocity (or in some cases something pretty solid hits us) and I know I couldn't touch my head for ages on the bpi side. I had some frustration earlier on with finding the right words, but I don't have it now, maybe my brain has readjusted. Not so much stuttering as not being able to get the word out at all...I do have to think carefully what I'm going to say though, or it might come out wrong-in fact if I remember I did it at our tbpi camp recently, but that may have been the beer :0)
Lack of oxygen could be a factor or direct brain injury from the accident, there is also the fact that so many of us are forced to change to using our non dominant hand after the tbpi, long after our natural dominance has been established. This has long been thought to cause speech problems, which is why schools don't force leftys to bcome rightys any more.

This is a really interesting thread. I often stumble over words now, and my wife thinks I'm drunk after only a couple of beers. It never occurred to me that it could be even remotely connected with a BPI... I thought it was just because I was getting older, and soon enough I'd be repeating myself, dribbling, and forgetting what I went upstairs for !

I just hope that I don't say something really weird, as I spend a good deal of my working life talking to children in my job as a teacher.

I wonder if all the anaesthetic over the years has taken its toll on the grey matter ?

Yes, this happens to me at a highly depressing rate. I often feel like my vocabulary grab bag from my memory, just dissapears in mid thought, and I often forget what the original thought was that inniciated the conversation. It's quite frustrating and pushing my desires to get of all pain meds as soon as I'm done with all my corrective surgeries.

Hi all, I have the same speech/thought problems. I've been blaming it on the neurontin though. Searching for that correct word and finding it erased from memory is quite alarming. I did bang my forehead in the accident and had some blood pooling in the grey matter from what I've read in my accident/hospital reports.

This thread is excellent food for thought...it's hard to work out whether this speech/thought difficulty happens to everyone with a TBPI, and if so, at what stage? Is it caused by lack of oxygen at the time of our accidents or during surgery, the drugs we are/have been taking, or being forced to use our non-dominant arm? In fact, it could be a common problem experienced by almost anyone who has survived a disabling trauma......in a funny way, it's a relief to know that is isn't just me but in another way, it's a bit of a worry. I hope a few more people post on this.

Okay, I thought it was age. Doesn't everyone do this? Its kind of scarey but you all are right. I have a hard time telling my kids where things are, I have to think how to say things as I'm saying them. Simple things, like.."Your book is on the the the the....couch!" It takes me awhile to think what the hell is that thing called again. My husband gets frustrated because I'll be saying something and for the life of me I'll go blank on a word. I thought my arm was the only thing I had to deal with. I guess I'm losing my mind, too! (just kidding) I agree w/ Alison, I thought it was the Neurontin, but I was worse when I was on it. I did hit my head hard and I've had 8 surgeries. Does anyone really know why this happens???