Rambling, changing voice

Palentini

Hello, first time posting here. My mom is possibly in stage 4. I’ve noticed that she will just start rambling and she talks more quietly. She is coherent if difficult to hear. Is this a symptom of the disease progressing?

John2.0.1

For my mom with Parkinson's, yes. It's common for those with advanced parkinson's to become less and less understandable.

My mom mumbles all the time. She also speaks very softly and speaks looking down at her stomach. The result is that I am now only able to understand perhaps 30% of the words she says much of the time. 

When I can make out her words a statement may begin and end on different topics. My daughter is learning to drive and likes to bake. Once my mom said something like "I hope she is very careful driving in traffic and doesn't burn the crust".

I just agree.

RanchersWife

I used to miss turns all over town trying to drive, listen and make sense of what my loved one said. It was double hard for me because I’m hard of hearing and have spent my whole life working very hard to hear and understand. I’m driven to catch each word and comprehend. 

Recently. I would only press her to speak louder if she wanted something. Her aphasia is severe. We are mostly asking yes and no questions. But that doesn’t really work much either. 

harshedbuzz

Palentini-

Gorgeous ginger cat, btw.

My dad did this but it sounds a little different than you describe. Dad's conversational speech in the middle stages was pretty intact- codeswitching was odd (his speech became formal when he couldn't recall ordinary words- he complained he was "incarcerated" in a SNF after a hospitalization) but volume and prosody were his normal- loud and animated. Content was largely fictional, but to the uninitiated probably passed for reality. But sometimes when he thought he was alone, he seemed to be talking to himself in a kind of subvocalization akin to a very young child playing. He was hallucinating by this time, so perhaps he saw people and was talking to them but it felt more like filling space with sound.

That said, as he moved into the last months of his life, it seemed like even speech became a lot of physical effort. His voice then was thing and raspy- almost a whisper.

HB

rzrbaxfan

My Mom is stage 6, and I've noticed the mumbling more these days.  I lean in and listen here and there and noticed that she is talking herself through basic things. It's kind of sad, but I'm thankful that she is trying.  I'm not sure if it's a sign of progression.

I thought it was hearing related, but similar to her vision, it seems to work when she needs it.  When she wants pity, she'll talk about how she can't hear or see, but she reads the scrolling text at the bottom of the news fine and she hears "breakfast is ready" from the opposite end of the house when it's being spoken (not yelled).