Aphasia

CindyBum

Hi all,

Though I had seen some things early that concerned me about my DWs brain health, the thing that really stood out about her cognitive decline was a moment when she went from being able to speak, to suddenly unable to find words. She may have had slight word-finding issues earlier, but they all seemed like early aging. One night, though, she suddenly couldn't complete a sentence, though she could fight for it and eventually find the words. I thought she'd had a stroke. Nope. Dementia and presenting itself more fully like it did with her mother in her late 80's.

It's been a little over 2 years from that moment and she's now barely able to finish a sentence at all. Can't even remember what she was starting to say or the topic. It's so frustrating for her. We did speech therapy for her for a while, which I'm not sure really did anything to help. They offered some technology my DW could use to help her, maybe, and we didn't take them up on the offer. My DW has never been good with technology and there's no way she do anything with a tablet now.

For those that have a LO with this issue, do you have any suggestions? Tips? Tricks? Methods or anything to help my poor, frustrated DW. She's getting more and more depressed by the inability to speak and I feel so helpless and sad for her.

Vitruvius

My DW has Semantic Dementia, which is characterized by a problem with language as the name suggests. So I understand a bit. Unfortunately we tried various things to help but nothing worked. We tried speech therapy but it was pointless, they tried to "teach" techniques to help, but PWD can't really "learn" like others who are having speech problems due to other causes.

For a while she knew she wasn't able to properly say what she wanted to, but after a time she stopped realizing she wasn't making complete sense. The the only thing I could do to make it a little easier was to pretend I understood, which worked a bit as long as she wasn't trying to actually ask for something, but was just trying to converse. Remaining calm and patient, almost nonchalant, as she struggled to communicate seemed to help a tiny bit.

I hope you find something that works for you and your DW.

M1

we deal with the same issues and no, I haven’t found anything that helps. I just go along when I can and pretend I know what she’s talking about. Just a minute ago she meant to say “you’re not going to leave me, are you?” But what came out was “you’re not going to finish me, are you?”

CindyBum

Yeah…that's what I thought. I scoured the internet, but progression is progression and going back is not an option. This whole disease is one prolonged need to accept that things are just how they are now.

I have been pretending to understand, for sure, but boy, there are times she really wants to say something and can't get past the first word or two. Harder to pretend in those moments. She had a career as a therapist and social worker — all of her life was engaging with people and talking. And, she's still with us enough to be terribly frustrated by not being able to speak. What I don't think she's noticed yet, is that she also understanding less and less of what I'm saying. I'm not sure how much longer we'll even be able to communicate with each other. Sigh.

sandwichone123

For a long time I could mostly figure out what my dh meant, but now I go mainly from his tone of voice to gauge my response, and even that's getting hard to do now. The relationship is just fading….

jsps139_

So many of us are dealing with this issue, so you are not alone. This morning my DH was so upset and couldn’t find words. He finally pointed to his pants and said … THESE! DID YOU THROW THEM AWAY? It took awhile …. showing him his 4 pair of khakis (one in the hamper and 2 hanging up in the closet) only to figure out that he was wanting his wallet, and was in a panic because he thought it was gone. He finally looked in his dresser drawer and said … THIS! He kept sighing loudly with relief! I felt so sorry for him! What they go through everyday!!!!

CindyBum

Big hugs to all of you.

fmb

DH (Stage 7) rarely finishes a sentence, and if he does, it is incoherent. I have to guess what he is trying to communicate through context. His aphasia is due partly to his stroke, which was in the area of the brain that controls speech and memory. ALZ has only made it worse. Speech therapy in the weeks after the stroke was not effective.

Laurie1282

My husband with Alzheimer's has severe aphasia, bot expressive and receptive. Like others, I pretend I understand, do a lot of OKs, yeahs, I sees, uh-hums etc especially when he is just jabbering away in the evenings to no one in particular. If he wants to communicate with me, I often ask him to show me what he is talking about. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

Since he also has much difficulty understanding what I say, I do a lot of gesturing and acting things out. I definitely think of different ways to say the same thing instead of just repeating the same words over and over.

Aphasia is a really hard part of this disease. I miss conversing with my husband and sometimes just crave an adult conversation. Hang in there!

Iris L.

When I was on the Alzheimer's cruise, one of the workshops was about the PWD using sign language and hand signals. For example, pointing to the mouth for wanting food and using a drink sign for wanting to drink. These are fairly common techniques for patients with aphasia, who can learn these substitutes. If interested, one can search for "hand signs with aphasia".

Iris

mpang123

My dad has never been a talker. The stern, serious, quiet type. Used to drive my mom crazy cuz he hardly ever talks to her. No conversations and trouble expressing himself. But now with dementia, he cannot say a single complete sentence and can't get his point across and can't comprehend questions when asked. Even when he tries to write his thoughts down, his words don't make sense. How frustrating for him! My mother, also cannot follow a subject of conversation over a few descriptive sentences. She gets so confused. What complicates more is that English is their second language although they've been speaking English for over 55 years. But they both seem like they don't understand English that much anymore. But they don't speak much Chinese either. It's funny hearing them trying to speak to each other in broken English and not being able to understand each other. When I'm there, I try to be the mediator/translator to explain things to them in very simple language. Dementia has made communication so much harder.

Denise1847

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/219630#Comment_219630

Just a thought: I suspect she cannot write? That would at least help for awhile. I know my DH wouldn't be able to write. He is going through the same thing. It is terrible.

Karen711

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/70310/aphasia

My wife has both difficulties, accessing words/sentences, using the wrong word for the meaning she wants to convey, and trouble understanding what I’m saying to her. If I’m not looking directly at her and into her eyes- sometimes she’ll stop trying to communicate, saying she can’t talk if I am not looking at her (this happens when she starts talking to me from another room in the house). It does seem to help, at least for now if I can look into her eyes. Also, asking her to show me what she’s talking about, if it’s anywhere nearby, is something that still is helpful. And I’ll offer multiple choices out to her (something she wanted me to do in the past) as to what I think she’s trying to tell me. But she’s beginning to get frustrated by that if I can’t get it right. Also, as far as her understanding me, the more I can show her versus tell her something the better.
Best Wishes to All!

M1

Just a comment, I find it very interesting that my partner can continue to recognize written words (she'll say them out loud correctly, so technically she can still read) but clearly has no clue what they mean. Just interesting in terms of what parts of the brain are involved—

ButterflyWings

Ditto for the “reading” or at least decoding most words properly, with no clue as to what those things mean anymore.

And ditto to everything else aphasia-related, I started to just reply “Welcome to my nightmare”. But it really is my poor DH who has lost everything.

Vitruvius

M1, ButterflyWings,

You have hit on the very definition of my DW's Semantic Dementia, aka Semantic Variant of Primary Progressive Aphasia. One study notes that, as with my DW, "patients become essentially mute with only a limited repertoire of stereotypic phrases and a complete loss of word comprehension". She has now lost even the ability to speak "stereotypic phrases", and is completely mute. She hasn't opened her eyes in many weeks. It truly has been a nightmare to watch her decline to the point of having the most tenuous connection to the real world. How much worse can it get?