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Bruce A... My voice was softer than normal to the point where just about everyone was repeating "What, WHAT?" at me whenever I spoke. I became VERY self-conscious when speaking and noticed when I was self-conscious I stuttered, forgot some of the words I was going to use, and a whole slew of other things. When I had the initial collagen injections it made SUCH a difference in the vocal volume that I stopped being self-conscious, and then there wasn't so much of the distressful stuttering or other speech problems. As the collagen was reabsorbed, over the past couple of weeks, I found myself becoming self-conscious once again, and darned if I wasn't stuttering again! I'm positive that when a Parkie has ANY speech problems we end up having additional ones just because of the stress of having the original problem. Then we get more of 'em as we become unsure of ourselves. We EXPECT to have those problems... and we then do. I really have no idea if the collagen can help you, Bruce. As I stated in my post, I'm not a MD or a speech pathologist... just another person with PD. You'd really have to see a physician who does the collagen injections procedure to get a medical opinion. Good luck! Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] ---------- From: Parkinson's Information Exchange on behalf of B.Bruce Anderson Sent: Thursday, September 11, 1997 5:26 PM To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN Subject: Re: Collagen Injections at Kaiser-Follow Up Barb M., Exactly how would you describe your before Collagen injections voice? I had my first visit with a real PD neuro on Monday. I was pleased except for the answer he gave to me when I asked about these injections. He said my speech problem is in my brain, not in my vocal cords. I wouldn't describe my voice as a whisper or raspy, but the volume is definitely lower. That, combined with stuttering, stammering, indistinct pronunciation, and very rapid speech make me virtually not understandable the first time I say anything. I then repeat myself and if I try very hard to correct all those things, I am successful the second time about 50% of the time. I also have difficulty putting the right words together - sound like a complete illiterate actually; perhaps that's where he got the impression it's not a vocal cord problem. Does it sound to you like I could benefit? The regular speech therapy I had earlier this summer seemed to work for awhile only. And the nearest Lee Silverman practitioners are 2 1/2 hours away in either NYC or Philly. One last question. Do you, or anyone else, know if the injections are being given anywhere other that out there in La La Land? Thanks! Bruce A. (51, 3)