posted
I don't know quite how to explain this new and unthrilling symptom.
Frequently, when people are talking, on TV or in person, they will begin a sentence and the beginning part of the sentence sounds like Swahili to me and it's not til the middle/end of the sentence that the words start sounding like English again.
It's quite disturbing and happens with alarming frequency lately. So this is what I hear:
"Slaw, heeber dol mungin flabber to the store on Saturday?"
Now, maybe people enjoy mungin flabber at the store, I'm not one to judge. But maybe, just maybe, they were actually saying something in Actual English Words that I perhaps wasn't comprehending.
And now it takes me a few startled, wide-eyed seconds to piece together what anyone is trying to say. It's like the world has turned into one giant Mad Lib.
Does anyone else have this? Any neuro lymies out there able to shout out a "me too" and make me feel better?
Heeber flabber,
Alison
--------------------
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. --- Edward R. Murrow Posts: 923 | From California | Registered: Aug 2005
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Yes, I had that in the beginning of my treatment when all my symptoms worsened for the first few months. Just for me it was a mix of Urdu and German
It was hard at work when my boss was throwing strange sounds at me and I had to figure out what I was supposed to do.
Fortunately, it only lasted for a short while. Hang in there, it will resove with treatment.
All the best,
Gabrielle
Posts: 767 | From Germany | Registered: Feb 2004
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shazdancer
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 1436
posted
LOL, Alison, with me it would just take a few seconds to kind of remember what the sounds were, and then a few seconds more to decode what words they made, then a little extra to extract meaning from the words. Made it funny when it was a joke, as I'd laugh 5 seconds too late!
My son would just look at me if I get like this and say, "3...2...1...." When I was sick, i couldn't multitask if you paid me, and "multitask" meant thinking and listening at the same time!
I could muster up concentration for about 30 minutes if I had to. Then the "Swahili effect" would start to kick in again. But it improved enormously as I got better. Hope that happens for you.
Take care, Shaz
Posts: 1558 | From the Berkshires | Registered: Jul 2001
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luvs2ride
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8090
posted
Same for me. It was awful.
Just a few weeks of homeopathic treatment cleared it right up along with my migraines. Wish my joint pain would go away as well.
-------------------- When the Power of Love overcomes the Love of Power, there will be Peace. Posts: 3038 | From america | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
Very frustrating. I would isolate more. What the he** was everybody saying? Just nod your head, and hope you don't get caught. You feel as if you're a ghost, an apparition walking among the living, trying to fit in, or communicate, or even better hope you get around undetected : ). It is getting better now (I think), but I'm finding I have to relearn social skills, relearn to interact, after all that ducking and hiding.
Posts: 90 | From New Jersey | Registered: Nov 2005
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Carol B
Unregistered
posted
sometimes I feel like I am in a waking coma-and nothing computes as far as my being able to respond.
Can't tell you how many times I have told my husband to write something down so I can process it at my own speed. " Dear Heart-you are wasting your breath because I do not understand a word you are saying"
Then sometimes I feel sharp as a tack and determined to make my point-look out!
dontlikeliver
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 4749
posted
Have not had it just like that - but I have a hard time understanding people on the phone if I have the phone receiver to my right ear as I just don't seem to be able to comprehend it, even though it sounds like normal English.
Posts: 2824 | From The Back of Beyond | Registered: Oct 2003
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Michelle M
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7200
posted
Alison, I HEAR YOU!!!
I have "bad head" lyme, or neuroborreliosis.
My boss would rattle off a list of tasks to me rapid-fire.
I would look at him kind of blankly and say, "I'm sorry, can you go over that again?" and try and write the words down, though even as I was writing his words, I wouldn't really see what they meant...
Now he will not ask me to do something without shoving a legal pad at me, because he knows I will not remember it as long as it takes me to get down the steps and back to my desk. (I've got him trained.)
This is really something that will improve. For me, it is starting to improve after uncovering babesia, nearly a year into lyme treatment.
Things go WAY TOO FAST for people with lyme and our brains cannot process information quickly! I cannot usually even follow the plot of a movie! Slow it down!!!
Michelle
Posts: 3193 | From Northern California | Registered: Apr 2005
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ME TOO!!! Not only do I hear like this but sometimes I even talk in another language. Well , maybe not another language but you can't comprehend it either.
It is as if I am thinking I am saying, "Hey John, can you go to the store and get milk?" but I really say, "Hey John, the cat is in the tree and a biscuit get milk?"
It can be very embarrassing, especially if I am in Sunday school trying to participate in a conversation.
Mostly I just try to keep quiet when I am in a group.
This has gotten better for me but it still rears its ugly head.
Goood Luck
-------------------- Dani Posts: 102 | From Where there is no lyme | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
I get that too, but in many cases it's not me, it's sloppy sound editing of the TV program. When you watch TV with someone else, do they miss the same words you do? Older movies (pre 1970 or so) don't have this problem as frequently because they were more careful with the sound editing.
When my wife and I both can't understand the same dialog, we call it a "Keyser Soze", after the (initially) unintelligible phrase uttered near the start of The Usual Suspects.
Posts: 727 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
Wow, do I feel a whole lot better! it's so nice to not be alone!
SayYesh - I *do* feel like a stranger in a strange land or like I've been thrown into an episode of the twilight zone. Language is so hugely important to daily functioning.
Dontlikeliver - yes, it's even harder for me when I'm on the phone. Especially when people do that annoying thing where they are constantly talking to other people whilst you are trying to have a conversation with them and half the time you have no idea if they're even talking to you or not.
Michelle: kauuid sjnicn kshjfon!
Biting Back - oh yes, the words that come out of my mouth can be truly amazing. Often I at least use English, just a completely different word than I am trying to say, i.e. matches=mashed potatoes, etc. etc. I think they call that word substitution.
Kentucky girl - you are really freaking me out because I do the same thing too! Sometimes I even make up words that are not in the dictionary when I'm trying to say a sentence. Then I start to sound like a Klingon.
Cave...I have had an MRI but it was now probably a couple of years ago. Came out totally clean, happy little brain. I am now doing the Bart tx and wonder if this is somehow a herx or related to that? Did you get increased neuro stuff on Bart tx?
Also, about the music, I totally hallucinate music/nonexistant radio transmissions but only usually when there is a fan on or some sort of white noise.
Dguy - who *is* Kaiser Soze? LOL
Alison
--------------------
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. --- Edward R. Murrow Posts: 923 | From California | Registered: Aug 2005
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5dana8
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7935
posted
Hi
This same thing happened to me before the beginning of treatment 3 years ago.
Couldn't follow conversations to save my life. My husband had to go into appointments with me to remember and translate alot of the conversation.
Now I am alot better! But when I get extra tired I will still ask people to repeat what they just said and talk slower.
My MRI was normal before treatment. I firmly believe alot of this will go away with treatment,like it did with me and many others too.
It may take a while,depending on how long you where sick.
Hang in there
-------------------- 5dana8 Posts: 4432 | From some where over the rainbow | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
When my brain fog was bad my brain would forget to start listening. I would miss the first half of what someone was saying, tune in in the middle and then drift back out. My answer to most questions was "Huh?" or "I didn't hear what you were saying", then they would repeat it and I would forget to listen again.
It was really bad on doxy. It started to improve within days of starting tetracycline. Now after almost 2 years of treatment I can multi task except when herxing.
My typing became gibberish around the same time. hatsnscarfs
Posts: 956 | From MA | Registered: Nov 2004
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There have been times when I will listen to TV or to someone speak and the english language sounds foreign. It's usually for just a sentence and them I realize I have to really focus.
It does feel like my brain is not processing correctly, probably when I am most fatigued, but am sure glad to hear I am not alone, too.
Posts: 196 | From Pa | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
I either dare not speak or end up stuttering, trying to get the words my brain is thinking to come out. (Apparently I can't even type my words today tooo! ) I am always either saying, "what did I just say?" and then having to correct it, or "my brain is shot". "My brain is shot" is my favorite follow up, rather than try and explain anything. Whatever ! I do wonder what people think - but they're generally quite polite.
Posts: 90 | From New Jersey | Registered: Nov 2005
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Andie333
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7370
posted
About two months ago, I was having brunch with five people -- one of whom is thankfully on the other side of this disease.
The conversation was lively and pretty interesting, but it got to be too much for me. So I just sat there and nodded. And nodded. Until someone asked me what I thought...
I just sat there, and then my Lyme compatriot said: "Oh, she's not even remotely listening and hasn't been for about 10 minutes. She's just looking aware and interesting."
I'd been had. These are good friends, and we all had a good laugh.
Thanks to Lyme, I've learned to laugh at myself a LOT. This has gotten better for me, but I still feel like I'm at about 75% of capacity...just waiting for that next 25%...
Andie
Posts: 2549 | From never never land | Registered: May 2005
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shazdancer
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 1436
posted
LOL, Andie, nice to at least have someone who understands where you are coming from, and isn't offended.
Yeah, I'd done the "speaking gibberish" thing, too, just like Kentucky Girl -- English words, phrases that are common, but the phrases don't relate to each other or to what I'd really wanted to say. Usually happened if someone else was talking at the same time, or if there was a lot of white noise in the room.
Cave, what you experienced sounds a lot like speed processing problems. I often felt like everyone had 78 rpm mouths, but I had 33 1/3 rpm hearing!
I still have some tinnitus (not severe -- I like the sound of spring peepers, which is what I hear at times!) and some hearing loss, due to Lyme. Perhaps the hearing loss is permanent. i am going to see an ear doc in July. He is not LLMD, so I get to find out how much he wants to learn....
Take care, Shaz
Posts: 1558 | From the Berkshires | Registered: Jul 2001
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Just found your post. Such a coincidence because yesterday morning I had this same experience. Back to "normal" later in the day. It was always at the beginning of someone speaking a sentence that it sounded like a foreign language and I would catch a few words at the end. Exactly as you described. I laughed it off, but it was actually quite alarming, now thinking about it.
quote:Originally posted by AlisonP: they will begin a sentence and the beginning part of the sentence sounds like Swahili to me and it's not til the middle/end of the sentence that the words start sounding like English again.
It's quite disturbing and happens with alarming frequency lately. So this is what I hear:
"Slaw, heeber dol mungin flabber to the store on Saturday?"
Now, maybe people enjoy mungin flabber at the store, I'm not one to judge. But maybe, just maybe, they were actually saying something in Actual English Words that I perhaps wasn't comprehending.
And now it takes me a few startled, wide-eyed seconds to piece together what anyone is trying to say. It's like the world has turned into one giant Mad Lib.
Does anyone else have this? Any neuro lymies out there able to shout out a "me too" and make me feel better?
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