Please Call Stella, If She can't Understand You, Maybe This Will Help

I recently stumbled over the following paragraph:

Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.

What is the point of this strange shopping list? According to Steven Weinberg of George Mason University's Speech accent archive, "The paragraph is written in English, and uses common English words, but contains a variety of difficult English sounds and sound sequences. The paragraph contains practically all of the sounds of English." It was composed to study people's accents (fun game based on this here). But it occurred to me that it might be useful to those of us with PD who have trouble enunciating.

If you are like me and have trouble in making any kind of speech clear, this could be the most efficient string of practice phrases ever devised. If you use it in combination with "Speak up for Parkinson's" a  free app from the Northwest Parkinson's Foundation, or as part of your LSVT drill, you should have the most difficult sounds covered, no matter what your accent.

August Parkinson's Disease-Related Events for Southcentral Alaska

Once again it's time to gaze slowly into the crystal ball, and go out on a limb with predictions about what the semi-sultry month of August has in store for those of with an interest in PD...  I see... YES! a Telehealth conference!... Details follow: You are invited to attend the Parkinson’s Education TeleHealth Presentation - A PDTeleConnection Monday, August 11th, 2014 at 1:00PM Providence Hospital Room 2401.

Presentation Titled: The Hidden Message of Anger and Depression Speaker: Elizabeth Daniels, M.A., LMHC Elizabeth is a Mental Health Educator. She has been in private practice as a licensed mental health counselor for 15 years and concurrently taught psychology at the college level for 7 years. She specializes in couples counseling, anger management, depression and anxiety disorders. Topic: The Hidden Message of Anger and Depression. Have you ever felt trapped in the feeling of anger or depression and believed there was no way out? During this talk you will learn the big-picture map of how our emotions work and the directions you need to find your way out of suffering and into a happier life. You will learn: The purpose of anger and depression, How anger and depression are connected and the force that drives them both,  A step-by-step plan to minimize and even eliminate the experience of anger and depression How to decrease anger in others. To find the Alaska meeting, proceed with all deliberate speed to  Providence Hospital oncology wing on Piper St. Go to the second floor, walk down the lonnnnnnnng hall that stretches South from the cafe and look for room 2401 pretty much at the end of the hall on your right.

Following at a dignified pace behind the TeleHealth event, we come to the August support group meeting, Saturday the 16th, and for once I got off my lazy... Boy Recliner, and actually got us a speaker! A speaker who will speak about speaking! After fighting over the phone all morning with an insurance company and a hotel reservations web site , you can bet I will be listening carefully as the one-and-only Anne Ver Hoef, speech pathologist and LSVT-trained practitioner gives us an earful on talking understandably and swallowing without choking. The usual time, 3:30, downtown and upstairs at the gracious and commodious Pioneer Home. When I put it like that what can you do but plan to be there?

And now, taking a giant step into the future, I see that at the October 18th meeting we will have Dr. Ryder Gwinn, neurosurgeon at Swedish.  He works with the team at Swedish Neuroscience Institute (including Peggy Shortt, Susie Ro, Jennifer Witt and Peter Nora). He will be able to take your questions about the latest on Deep Brain Stimulation, and the neurosurgery program at Swedish in Seattle.

As he crystal ball fades to black, I look forward to seeing all of you LIVE AND IN PERSON at these landmark events.

Your PD Maitre'd

Peter