Our Stories: Mary Murray
"I surpassed all my goals."
~ Mary Murray, Courage Center client with Parkinson's Disease
At age 87, Mary Murray had developed some difficulty with her balance. As a result, she began to trust her mobility less. To avoid falling, she found herself taking smaller steps and restraining the movement of her arms, keeping them in close proximity to her body. She began using a cane, then a walker.
“My friends, too, were telling me to speak up because they couldn’t hear me,” she recalled. “I thought I was speaking perfectly normally, but, it turns out, I was speaking far too softly for others to hear me.”
After some doctoring and a second opinion, Murray received a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. “That’s when my neurologist recommended therapy in the Twin Cities,” she said. “But my husband, Ed, and I live in Mahtomedi, some distance away. When I learned that speech and physical therapy specifically for people with Parkinson’s Disease was offered at Courage Center St. Croix in Stillwater – close to our home – I was thrilled.”
Murray began her therapies at Courage Center St. Croix in April 2010. For four weeks, she attended therapy four times a week – one hour of speech therapy and one of physical therapy each day.
The therapies that Murray found so helpful at Courage Center are based on the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment LOUD and BIG program.
Speech therapy helped Murray exercise all the muscles needed for speaking in a normal tone of voice. “A typical beginning exercise is to say ‘Ahhhh’ loudly and to hold the ‘Ahhhh’ for as long as I can,” Murray explained. “At first, I had to get over the giggles, because I felt a little silly. But even giggles and laughter – as long as they’re loud – are good forms of exercise and speech therapy.”
Physical therapy consisted of BIG exercises, movements designed to encourage Murray to use all her muscles in exaggerated fashion to contradict Parkinson’s tendency to diminish range of movement. “My therapist showed me how to take big steps, to really stretch my arms in all directions, bend, make deep bows, walk and reach, step and twist. I had no idea I could do so much!”
After four weeks of LOUD and BIG therapy, Murray left Courage Center St. Croix with a regimen of speech and physical exercises she performs daily at home. “Ed watches me do my stretching exercises and he encourages me. And I love to do my speech exercises with my great-grandson. We do our ‘Ahhhhs’ together, and we both giggle.”
As for results, Murray couldn’t be more pleased. “I no longer use my cane or walker. In fact, I recently walked unaided into church and my friends called me an absolute miracle. And, they were amazed at the strength of my speaking voice.”
How strong is her voice? In June, she helped at an ice cream social fundraiser from 4:45 to 9:00 p.m., and “didn’t feel too bad. Afterward, she answered the phone and was still using her LOUD voice.
“I can thank the people at Courage Center for that. They made scheduling my therapies a breeze. They taught me exercises and encouraged me to do them. Because of their determination to help me, I surpassed all my goals. What an enjoyable experience!”