inability to speak - what can cause this?

[daiwai]

About 8 year ago, I had a TIA while in hospital for kidney stones. I had full hemiplegia paralysis on the left side, with facial droop, and difficulty speaking. A couple years later, I began having sudden spells of not being able to speak that lasted about 45 minutes. I could not form words with my mouth, could not whisper, but could write fine. As "whatever" it was "wore off" or recovered, I'd begin to be able to pronounce "ah", "oh", but not "oo". Over another 10 minutes, I may be able to say "Ma", "Pa", "Ta" etc, and I recovered to full function like this.  This happened many times. After so many, as I recovered, I would be able to force my speech but it sounded distorted, like I'd lost muscle tone in my tongue and lips. Almost like a muscular dystrophy, but always immediate onset, and lasting about 45 minutes.

I have also had these rather brief episodes of what I perceived as "falling asleep", but I was aware of what was going on around me. If I was talking to someone, I would continue talking, but my words became "sleep talk", which were completely nonsensical, but I didn't know it.  After some amount of time, maybe 5 minutes, I would "snap out" of it, and realize that I was just speaking nonsense, and excused myself with "never mind" when the people I was talking to behaved confused. I realized what happened, did not notice the onset, or what to do with that, and I recovered, recalling the event. It appeared almost as a "micro-sleep".  What kinds of neurological condition might cause these things?  Could the be "vasoconstrictive" events?

[specialmom]

The episodes sound a bit like a type of seizure.  And the language/talking issue is concerning.  Have you spoken to a neurologist?

[daiwai]

I've spoken to most of the neurologists in this area. Some say "complex migraine", some TIA, some "vasospasm", then some idiot put "psychogenic seizure" in my file and now after 3 years of treatment for that things have only gotten worse and I can get zero help at all.  Immediately after my first "TIA" I had a transesophogeal echo cardiogram (for some reason without a bubble study) which found nothing. I had another done with a bubble study which found a "small PFO." I was also diagnosed with an atrial septal aneurysm. I had yet another one done with a bubble study which found a large PFO. That cardiologist said "I'd get that repaired if I were you".  As it turns out, I was on testosterone therapy with testosterone cypionate injection, which I found on Pubmed is known to cause increased clotting with increased risk of heart attack and stroke - so I should never have been put on that.  Now it's been 10 years since my first TIA/stroke and that hospital purged my records, so no doctors will fix my PFO, even though repairs for PFO are done simply for migraines in other industrialized countries. The doctors are "afraid" to do any work on me for "fear of being sued". I have never heard of a doctor being sued except on CNN. I have never sued anyone. I know of nobody who knows of anyone who has sued a doctor. Yes, I was put in observation for epilepsy twice (5 days of having 24 electrodes glued to my scalp and severe sleep deprivation) but if it's a frontal or temporal seizure - they couldn't see that anyway. So I'm having all of these expensive procedures done, just not the ones that docs don't feel like doing, and getting nothing solved. That's the new medical paradigm in the US. Everything boils down to "can we sell you a service you don't need?"

[daiwai]

Just as an FYI, did you know the US ranks 50th in the world for neonatal death, and has the 3rd leading cause of death as medical errors? We also have the most expensive medical system on the planet. Bush's tort reform cut the statute of limitations for medical malpractice from 7 years down to 2. If you find you have a bunch of  scalpels and retractors sewn up in your body cavities 2 years and 1 day after your surgery, you're out of luck.

[Roxanne21]

go to good reliable sites.  some times a place you can call into and ask there which I have had good experience doing that.  they may not solve your problem but they will point you in the right direction and it don't cost as much as gas to get to another doctor.  not just for medical but for almost anything.  you at least start somewhere   Doctors listen to some symptoms but some other type of doctor sees something else.  keep going.  5 doctors and several visits and I finally got somewhere but I should have kept going cuz tghere usually some other condition to look at.