COMMUNICATION AND PARKINSON'S DISEASE
October, 2008
As I watched my father dying in his hospital bed of pneumonia complications, he tried to tell me something that I will ever wonder what it was. We were not ready to find alternates, we couldn’t communicate with each other.
This is why I found the need to express my feelings and let others know how important it is to communicate. I remember on how my children and I found a way to communicate with each other, through sign language.
My children or anyone else could not help me to speak; it was an impediment that I confronted on a daily basis. Parkinson’s disease had robbed my voice, as I will ever remember even my speech had a trembling sound, slurred. In my mind I would line up the words in order but once I executed communicating, it was impossible to control my spoken words. I would see their questioning face trying to guess what I intended to say.
Every time the phone rang, it was like hearing a fire alarm, I would panic. I just stared at the phone with my feet glued to the floor because one symptom led to another, I would freeze. It was too exhausting as well a challenge to answer the phone and try to put a sentence together, sadness, anger usually took over me on not able to say a few words so I decided not to talk anymore.
One day I saw my children playing with their hands without saying any words, I learned then it was sign language. So, every time I was “on” (feeling a bit relieved from PD symptoms) I would ask them if I can play with them so they thought me basic sign language. And this is how I learned to communicate with my children, I learned “call my mother, doctor”, “bring me water”, “read a book”, “stop, no more” plus many other commands and of course , the most important, “thank you” and “I love you”.
I had visited my neurologist and besides my aquatic physical therapy, she added speech therapy. It was hard enough to go from one therapy to another so, I decided to learn by myself and made a research in the internet about “How to Improve your Speech “. This is when I started singing out loud, practicing words while looking at a mirror, and to chewed sugarless gum to keep me from drooling.
It is very imperative to communicate with each other. Learn from the PD patient their needs and try to find ways to repeat the action without stressing them. When you have PD, not only your body has a mind of its own, there are other factors that we have to deal with such as eating, dressing, sleeping, walking and to communicate with your caregiver is very crucial.
Find ways that is easier to communicate with your love one, I chose sign language when I was “off” and when I was a “on” I sang. It is very important to keep the channels open so, you don’t have to regret not doing so like I did with my father.
October, 2008
As I watched my father dying in his hospital bed of pneumonia complications, he tried to tell me something that I will ever wonder what it was. We were not ready to find alternates, we couldn’t communicate with each other.
This is why I found the need to express my feelings and let others know how important it is to communicate. I remember on how my children and I found a way to communicate with each other, through sign language.
My children or anyone else could not help me to speak; it was an impediment that I confronted on a daily basis. Parkinson’s disease had robbed my voice, as I will ever remember even my speech had a trembling sound, slurred. In my mind I would line up the words in order but once I executed communicating, it was impossible to control my spoken words. I would see their questioning face trying to guess what I intended to say.
Every time the phone rang, it was like hearing a fire alarm, I would panic. I just stared at the phone with my feet glued to the floor because one symptom led to another, I would freeze. It was too exhausting as well a challenge to answer the phone and try to put a sentence together, sadness, anger usually took over me on not able to say a few words so I decided not to talk anymore.
One day I saw my children playing with their hands without saying any words, I learned then it was sign language. So, every time I was “on” (feeling a bit relieved from PD symptoms) I would ask them if I can play with them so they thought me basic sign language. And this is how I learned to communicate with my children, I learned “call my mother, doctor”, “bring me water”, “read a book”, “stop, no more” plus many other commands and of course , the most important, “thank you” and “I love you”.
I had visited my neurologist and besides my aquatic physical therapy, she added speech therapy. It was hard enough to go from one therapy to another so, I decided to learn by myself and made a research in the internet about “How to Improve your Speech “. This is when I started singing out loud, practicing words while looking at a mirror, and to chewed sugarless gum to keep me from drooling.
It is very imperative to communicate with each other. Learn from the PD patient their needs and try to find ways to repeat the action without stressing them. When you have PD, not only your body has a mind of its own, there are other factors that we have to deal with such as eating, dressing, sleeping, walking and to communicate with your caregiver is very crucial.
Find ways that is easier to communicate with your love one, I chose sign language when I was “off” and when I was a “on” I sang. It is very important to keep the channels open so, you don’t have to regret not doing so like I did with my father.
