My husband, John, was diagnosed with LBD in 2007. He is still in early stage with signs of progression, but basically stable right now.

It was getting harder and harder to hear John speak, so since most other issues seemed pretty stable I decided to ask for a prescription for speech therapy from his neurologist. Dr. Kaufer had recommended it about a year ago if we wanted it, but I had put it off. Three weeks ago, John started seeing a speech therapist who came highly recommended. We go twice a week and it is about 45 minutes from our home.

He is doing much better already. It is less tiring for me to have to ask him over and over to repeat himself. And he is more confident and even safer now that he can be heard more easily. Our minister visited a few days ago and commented that John's voice was stronger.

Last week I mentioned that John was choking a lot whenever he ate. His therapist went on high alert and immediately started to train us both in proper swallowing techniques. She told John that swallowing issues could send him to the hospital and he needed to take this very seriously. She said that if John could get good results from using her techniques that a swallowing study would not be needed at this point. That got his attention. As soon as we started to do as she said, John's choking sounds disappeared from our mealtimes. Wow! It was impressive to see it work so well so fast.

Medicare covers most of the cost of speech therapy. So I thought some of you early stage caregivers might want to know that this can help if your LO is having swallowing issues or a voice that is much too soft to hear well. As with most issues, the sooner they are addressed, the better. (We also try to do something fun while we are away from the house on these therapy treks...that is good medicine, too!)

Take care,
Pat

Pat,
I would be interested in knowing once the therapy is stopped how long the therapy John has had will last !