My father had a BA in September of 2020. He is physically able to do many of the things he once was. However, cognitively we are still nowhere near where we would like to be. Has anybody else experienced babbling? He is constantly ranting and babbling nonsense words, and his current doctor claims she hasn’t seen this. Does anybody have advice to improve this? Has anybody done any therapies that fix this issue? And if anybody has tips on helping us improve his short-term recall and attention that would be great.
Hey Brianna,
Babbling? me? never. (my wife strongly disagrees)
I think for me it’s not so much ‘babbling’ but repeating what I’ve already said. Sometimes I recognise that I’ve repeated myself but at other times I think it’s that little voice in my head I’ve heard, so I say it verbally only to be told ‘You’ve already said that…’ DOH.
Depending on where the annie is actually located, which structures maybe involved and depending on which surgical treatment was performed there can be a few reasons this can occur and because of the differing reasons there can be a few strategies that may assist. Post surgery some people talk of a ‘New Normal’ and some of those ‘New Normal’ traits can be very difficult to near on impossible to control. Prior to my initial surgery I was very active, working 40+hr a week, sport and volunteering with a community agency. Then they operated and going from having no spare time to having nothing but spare time drove me (and everybody around me) damn near crazy. My mind was still racing at 40+hr/week but I had nowhere to put that energy. I had to find something to occupy my mind. The computer/internet became a bit of a refuge for all involved. I also found I needed a few differing tasks to fill my day. If I got stuck on a task I would go over and over and ov… trying to get ‘unstuck’, what I needed was a change of focus, a change in task. It was the same for my thought patterns, repeating, especially when I got stressed.
Music was another tool I used and still do to some degree, I can slow my thought processes down listening to calming music. I can also escape into music when I’m getting a little too much for the wife.
My memory, once one of my better assets, has evaporated. I would sarcastically say to my wife ‘There’s nothing wrong with my memory… …but who are you again?’ I was said jokingly but I knew my memory was bad. I used to use a diary in my job, so transferring that to my ‘now’ life was not such a big step. I had lists of tasks for the day, but I also kept lists for daily symptoms/headaches/activity/diet/sleep patterns/medications. Without the diary or lists I could easily lose track, but with the diary I had a reference point. ie ‘What am I doing??’ what does the diary say?
How to improve? Repetition. It was only by repeating tasks that I got myself back into a routine. All of my ‘normal’ routines disappeared and I lost my direction. I NEEDED routine, it gave my day some sort of structure and by repeating those routines I started to relearn my ‘New limits’.
Hope it helps
Merl from the Modsupport Team
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Good Morning @Brianna and welcome to our group. I really hope the many members who have ruptured and those who have experienced issues following a repair of a non ruptured brain aneurysm will help out here.
When I ruptured, I had some speech issues. Some were from the rupture, some from the following repair attempts. As Merl said, it always depends on the area of the brain damaged. For me it was both language centers, Wernicke’s and Broca. I had a significant bleed and it zapped a good part of my brain. I developed a stutter, repeated things in three’s, had extreme difficulty in finding the correct word (aphasia) and talk a lot, so much so that my BH asked the neurosurgeon to stop my chatter box. She said she quite liked me talking LOL. I also developed Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS).
I reached out to a Speech Therapist who then sent me to another at WFBH to get the diagnosis for the FAS. Both used music to help me overcome or at least get some control over my speech issues. I used to be very quiet, hardworking and like Mel a lot of hours over 40 each week, loved my gardening etc.
What happens to our brain with an ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke is pretty much similar. The neurotransmitters or the message carriers take a blow and they need to reroute. I liken it to an accident on the Interstate and they redirect traffic to a different way the. You are used to traveling, it takes time, a lot of time. Think of it as missing the window to get to your job and you’re now stuck in rush hour traffic.
If you’ve been reading on here, you will know or will find out that healing from a rupture isn’t a quick job. It can take years, not days, weeks and sometimes not even months. But the brain can heal so never give up hope.
One of the things that comes to mind for your Dad is to see if he can sing one of his favorite songs with you. My Dad had several strokes, but he could always sing. He used to sing on the radio with a couple of his siblings. After my rupture, we would sing together. I could mostly remember all the words of the songs we sang when I was a child. If I forgot a word or two, he would carry on and I could catch right back up with him.
Speech therapy taught me to sing my words so to speak and it stopped the stutter when I would remember to do it. Speech Therapists have wonderful tools to help their patients. Ms. Stacey and Ms. Amy both had a lot of experience with stroke patients. Ms. Stacey did the initial assessment and we started from where I was at, not where I had been prior to rupture. She pretty much had to take me back to kindergarten, maybe preschool. So all told, I’m advocating for your father to be seen by a Speech Therapist.
When your speaking with him, don’t try guessing what he is saying. For me it would completely stop my brain, especially if it wasn’t the exact word I was looking for. Give him time and lots of love. Play his favorite songs whether it’s an iPod or some other MP3 player or just his favorite radio station. Ms. Amy was a Music Speech Therapist but both encouraged me to sing. We started singing Happy Birthday to our relatives and they all felt it was the best gift ever. Seven years later we still do it
Please let us know how it works out for you and your dad.
All the best,
Moltroub
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Thank you fr your response, I found comfort in knowing other people experience some similar things. However, my dad is still not at the level to get on his phone, call, text, or email anybody he used to be in contact with. How long did it take you to be able to do some of your old tasks, like texting, or writing in your diary?
I really appreciate you sharing.
Thank you so much for your reply, I found this incredibly helpful. Back to music, he absolutely used to love music. He was able to recongize his old favorite songs even a few days after her surgery. He definitely suffers from aphasia and often says things that make no sense, or he seems to make up stories. What did you feel is the best way to approach this issue? Is correcting him the right thing to do? Or is that more frustrating? It’s been 8 months and he still seems to suffer with this severely.
Thank you so much for your reply.
@Brianna does your dad have a Speech Therapist? It’s really the place to start. Keep encouraging him to sing with his favorite songs. There is something that just clicks in our brains with music. Sorry, I don’t know the exact whys of it. Perhaps one of our members who knows will reply.
I cannot speak for others as I don’t have their experience. But when someone corrected me with my aphasia, or gave me the word they thought was the one I wanted, it made my brain literally shut down, so no words could come out. Be patient, extremely patient. I did eventually get to the point I could describe the word I wanted, give the definition, but could not get the word out. If someone started guessing and it wasn’t the correct one, again my brain would just shut down. It’s extremely frustrating.
It’s hard for family to understand that it can take years, not months for someone to heal. There are huge steps which is fantastic, but they’re rare I think. Mostly it’s little baby steps so small one sometimes doesn’t even notice them and then eventually, the skill set has come back. For me, the worst thing was for people to assume I couldn’t do something because my speech and thought processing has changed
Again, I strongly urge your family to look into obtaining a Speech Therapist. His doctor should have no problems making a referral, make sure his insurance will pay for it, they are not cheap.
All the best
Moltroub
Hey Brianna,
Your ‘How long?’ question is a bit like asking ‘How long is a piece of string?’ No two patients are the same, for some there can be almost a remarkable recovery and yet for others some symptoms can be lifelong. There are just too many variables to give a fixed time.
Even in my own situation where I’ve required a few neurosurgeries none of them have been the same. The first surgery was shocking and I honestly didn’t think there could be anything worse, then they operated again and OMG, it was worse. Each surgery has left it’s own side effects. My last major neurosurgery, number 6, was in 2013 and still today some symptoms linger.
So, how long? Nobody can really say. It can take sometime and it’s not always a straight line of progress. Some days I progress, some days I regress. But a repetition of tasks can help to relearn and retrain the brain. It really can be a bit of a seesaw. All of what I considered my ‘normal’ levels of ability all had to be adjusted. I tire easily, my physical abilities have reduced and my tolerances have changed AND then there’s the headaches, these aren’t headaches, everyone gets headaches. These are bolts of agony sent from the gates of hell and they are exhausting. All of this doesn’t just add up, it can multiply any cause/effect, small changes can have a huge and dramatic effect.
So, how long? Well, I’m at 8yrs and I still battle some symptoms even today.
Merl from the Modsupport Team
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