I "heard" something this morning

[PCIntern]

driving in to work.

I was listening to NPR, and since it's Tuesday, I don't have to endure Cokie, but I digress.

They were playing a tape of McCain from yesterday and I was struck by the dramatic change in his enunciation. He is speaking thickly, with greater forced deliberation, and having difficulty pronouncing words which heretofore had been easy for him. One thing you could always say about him was that he was 'well-spoken'.

There are a few reasons which might account for this sudden change:

1. Significant change in his dental work: a new prosthesis, substantial (intra)oral surgery, or pain associated with a pathological condition such as dental or periodontal abscess.

2. Significant complication involving the structures which were compromised following his surgery for melanoma (extra-oral). these might involve the muscles of mastication, the facial nerve (a significant cranial nerve) and/or motor nerves associated with the whole apparatus.

3. Cerebro-vascular accident - unlikely but always a consideration in a differential

4. Other CNS issues which one can't speculate upon without specific symptomatology and history as described by the patient.

****************************

As a dental clinician, a significant portion of my job involves phonetics and if a patient of mine came in presenting with a radical change in enunciation which we have witnessed here, I would inspect and/or refer for diagnosis.

[Oleladylib]

1. absolutely agree...possibly medication result also.

[Tesha]

2. Given his age and medical history, I wonder what the actual (actuarial) odds are of McCain...

o Surviving to the election?

o Surviving to the inauguration?

o Surviving his first term?

I guess it will be very interesting to see who his
Veep candidate is.

Tesha

[MADem]

12. His mother is 96. And so is HER twin sister!!!!

He's got some good genes. His father and gramps were boozers and smokers, though.

I guess it depends on who he takes after...

[KittyWampus]

15. you know what just scared the bejezus out of me? Your post had me thing HAGEL

and I just realized that might be a hard ticket to beat.

[Tesha]

16. The right Veep choice could make McCain tough to beat indeed!

Especially given *OUR* dynamically-destructive duo.

Tesha

[Inuca]

19. It might, except that it will not happen n/t

[jasmine621]

3. You are seeing the beginning of why McCain will not be the GOP nominee

in November. I keep tell'in yo'all that the GOP will field another candidate who will appeal to the RW base and many Independents. Most people think I am too tin foil but just watch the events unfold.

[zanne]

8. If things go badly for McCain for any reason..

I think it's possible that the RNC will come up with another candidate to rally the base. The problem is, the "base" no longer shares the "values" issues with other Republicans. I think everybody, even Republicans, want a change.

[PCIntern]

14. He's the 'straw man'...

you could be right...

thanks for fillin' usall in!

:hi:

[rurallib]

4. Noticed that since @February

I have a friend that says he shows signs of Alzheimers and using ?aricept? (I think)

[PCIntern]

7. I think that's extreme...and

I'm the one who, in 1980, was virtually certain that Ronald Reagan's reliance (pretty alliterative!) on the glass jar of jellybeans was a symptom of early Alzheimer's. (He needed grounding in reality and sometimes the first sign is fixation upon 'interesting' objects within the field of vision).

[UALRBSofL]

20. rurallib, if he had alzheimers he wouldn't take aricept, it would be Exelon

I know this because I use an Exelon Patch every day and it's the newest thing out for Alzheimers. It went on the market less then a year ago. That being said, I don't have Alzheimers as far as I know but I have spells of brain fog from when I got sick from West Nile Virus 2 years ago.

And I think his medical records were recently released because the media was bugging him about them and if he had Alzheimers the media would have already reported it.

[rurallib]

21. Thanks

This was my friend's observation based on what her father-in-law went through.

[zanne]

5. That's really interesting.

I wouldn't have noticed anything like that. Please keep us updated.

[zanne]

6. I think we're on the lookout for Alzheimer's since Reagan...nt

[lisa58]

9. I'm glad you posted this because...

...this morning I heard him on something on the teevee before I was completely awake and I kept asking myself, I recognize this voice, who is it - and when I looked and saw it was McCain I thought how did I not recognize his voice, so I think it is changing as you suggest.

[0007]

10. An extra load of smegma .... that most fuckfaces walk around with!

[MADem]

11. The guy doesn't have many of his own teeth. They were smashed by the North Vietnamese.

It could be an aftereffect of the lymph node removal he had concurrent with that melanoma surgery on the side of his face.

[PCIntern]

13. I understand this and

did say that "new Prosthesis" could be one answer.

I don't know...

[pompano]

17. You may be right.

Was he “sputtering”?

I know from experience, not dental office experience, living in the south experience, people that won't wear their dentures tend to sputter their words. It's like they can't get any traction or rather torque to separate words. There is no speed bump at the end of the gum line allowing for residual sounds even after the word is over. Just having one or two teeth makes it worse.

Many years ago I knew a guy that was a dispatcher for a trucking company and he had a tooth or two in two different places. Apparently he had a lot of trouble saying Saskatoon Saskatchewan as he would have to repeat it 10-12 times to some poor soul on the other end of the phone line. People would peep in his cubicle and laugh when he kept saying it as well. Snag English is hard to understand person to person, I would imagine it's hard to understand via the airwaves?

I have no idea if he wears dentures or not? May not of had them in if he does when you heard the radio. Your guess is as good as mine. :shrug:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

18. I think he sounds more like **

all the time, even looks like him.

I think they have been exchanged somehow