Episode 2- What is Stuttering Really- by Stuttering DeMystified and Beyond

Lori: Hello and welcome to episode 2 of Stuttering Demystified with your host Laurie Melnitsky speech language pathologist stuttering specialist and a person who happens to stutter also. In this episode, I would love to talk to you about what stuttering is and what it is not. And I would like to start with a story that is really a little bit astounding to me because I really hadn't thought about it in many years. So many years ago, when I was in college, I decided to go on a crash diet to lose weight. It was one of these diets where you ate lettuce and tomato all day. There was no protein. So after about a month I started to feel very lightheaded obviously. I don't recommend and I did lose weight. But I 1 day was out with friends and I fainted.

So, I was 19 and I came home from college because I wanted to see a doctor to rule out any kind of underlying medical conditions. I just want to say that I think that this might be a little bit eye opening to people who don't understand stuttering. So, for some reason when I would go to see a doctor I would get like very overwhelmed. I would get nervous. I didn't know what I wanted to say. So, not only would I stutter more I would like also like try and pick words to make myself sound as fluent as I can. And it's so ironic because now I work with doctors always. So, it's just kind of ironic.

Anyway, to make a long story short I went into his office and I spoke to this doctor for maybe 5 minutes. I did not know that from my last name he knew that my father was a pharmacist in the area. I was only 19 and it was pretty much before HIPPA rules had come out, because I think I was looking this up. HIPPA confidentiality rules came about or an actual law came about in 1996. So, this was before then I don't remember them asking me if they could speak with anybody with my permission.

So, all of a sudden, he was examining me and he said, ‘You'll have to excuse me. I have to go make a telephone call.’ I thought it was a little odd because he was in the middle of examining me and all of a sudden, the nurse said, ‘Get dressed and go into his office.’ I went and I sat down and he handed me a phone. He was already on the phone with my father and he said, ‘I prescribed a certain medicine. I want you to speak with him and I will let him know because you can't drive home.’

Now, working in a pharmacy for years. I was familiar with a lot of the medicines and I knew the medicine he recommended was for epilepsy and I for the life of me have no idea how he got to epilepsy since he didn't do any medical tests, he didn't refer me out he didn't do any blood work. So, my father got on the phone and said ‘Lori get out of the office now and run and don't go back there.’ He doesn't know what he's talking about. So, I left. And I went nervous about driving home, because I knew he didn't do anything medically or any testing to really find out what had been causing me to faint. So, I went home and I didn't know this, I think until afterwards. My mother called up the doctor the next day and said, ‘Why in the world would you say she has epilepsy? Are you thinking that maybe she was stuttering?’ www.allislandspeech.com