Did you suffer from aphasia?


gatitoplata

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hi WHEN I HAD MY STROKE 22 MONS AGO I HAD R SIDED DROOPINESS TO THE R SIDE. I COULD NOT SMILE, EAT,AND HAD A HARD TIME TALKING. MY SISTER IN LAW , WH O LIVES IN FLOR AND IS A PHY THER, SUGGESTED E STEM TO THE FACE AND NECK.I HAD TO FIND WHERE THEY DID IT IM MY AREA.THANKFULLY I FOUND A HOSPITAL NEARBY WHO DOES E STEM. THEY PUT A LEAD ON MY R FACE AND ONE TO MY R SIDE OF NECK AND THEN A MACHINE VIBRATED FO R 10 MIN. I WENT FOR 6 WEEKS OF THAT AND SPEECH THER AND IT WAS A MIRACLE MACHINE, I THINK SO. NOW TODAY I CAN SMILE, TALK PRETTY GOOD, EAT, LAUGH ETC.THE E STEM ...IT WAS GREAT. ALTHOUGH ALOT OF PLACES AND PEOPLE WILL SAY THEY NEVER HEARD OF IT!!! GOOD LUCK. PATTY

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Hi,

I had my stroke back in June 08. The immediate affect was speech and language difficulties. I was able to go to speech therapy for about 6 months, 2 or 3 times a week. I moved to West Virginia in late Nov 08. By the time I moved, my speech ability was alot better. Not perfect. But alot better. I still suffer from aphasia. I know I have more issues when I am trying to have a conversation on the phone. I also have more issues when I am tired. It seems sometimes it is easier to put my thoughts together on the computer than it is to say things outloud.

 

 

hostlinda

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hi there, i had my stroke 8 years ago it was a left side strokeischemic, and i use to think that i don"t have asphisa, but in talking to a speech therapy i found that in fact i do have classic asphisa, i tend to mix up pronouns he is she she is he now in order to try to fix it i just go to a speech therapy, from my stroke club, and she gives me speach exercise to do themand it does work, but i never really lost the ability to speak, i just have a very hard time with the proper grammer, so that is what i am working on, and yes when i get overly tired i can"t do anything righti spent with a speech therapy for about one hour a week

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I see this is your first post so I welcome you and hope you get the info you want. I have no experience with aphasia but I got so many other problems from my stroke.

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I'm aphasic. It was from a stroke in March 29, 2005. I did 4 years of speech therapy (4 hours a week- 2 hours Mon and 2 hours Fri). I was 34 at that time. The first 1-2 years you do the most recovery. It slows down abit but progress is progress. My speech went really good. People don't even know I had a stroke. My major issue now is my language (understanding). I get confused when people change topics. I stopped speech therapy in June of this year as it costs alot.

 

I also joined an Aphasia group in Burlington, Ontario. I was in it for 2 years. It helped alot!!!

 

Bill :)

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my speech and language problems started with my 2nd stroke in march this year. I go to speech therapy but she mainly deals with children so she only saw me 4 times - she couldn't deal with it. so I'm slowly getting better by my self and friends say that my speech is getting better

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Guest lwisman

You may want to check out the several interesting articles our newsletter has published over the years. Aphasia has been a topic of great interest. We are also beginning a column next month where a husband and wife team share monthly their experiences especially with aphasia. He is a survivor and she is his caregiver.

 

Look under Aphasia in the Classic Articles Index

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Ernie has aphasia and apraxia. He stroked just over 6 months ago. Rehab for 2 months w/speech therapy daily. Now it is 2 times a week, however we do homework/practice daily. He is speaking, (nothing at first), repeats alot, mixes up yes and no, uses gestures and does alot of pointing to make his wishes known. It is the most frustruating part of the stroke, at least to us it is! He now does simple math addition and subtraction. Did learn with melodic intonation, however we stay away from that now. S Therapy important to do on a daily basis. Hang in there, it does get better in time, however who knows how much it will get better!

~~Sara

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Hi, I'm the caregiver half of the couple who will be writing the column starting next month :) My husband, J.J., had his ischemic left MCA (Middle Cerebral Artery) stroke nine months ago tomorrow. The first symptom of his stroke was his speech, and it's been the most enduring of his stroke difficulties. He was completely nonverbal for the first two or three days after the stroke, but his speech has been slowly improving since then. The first things to come back were automatic responses (yeah, no, okay, hi, take care, I love you). Proper nouns have been the hardest area for J.J. to recover; it was about a week and a half after his stroke before he could say his own name, about another week before he got back my name and our kids' names. He's still pretty hit or miss if he's trying to recall a person's name or the name of a particular place. His expressive aphasia is classified as mild now--if he's having a casual conversation, it's no big deal. If, however, he's having a more in-depth conversation, it becomes apparent within the first few minutes. Honestly, though, in our one-on-one interactions, I really don't even notice it anymore. We've become very, very in tune with each other through this experience; I often know what he's talking about just from a word or two.

 

J.J. received speech therapy three days a week until he reached our insurance max of 20 sessions per year (so, for about seven weeks). We also found an aphasia support group where a speech therapist volunteers her time to do some group therapy, so that has been helpful. Most of J.J.'s recovery we've handled on our own, though. We've found that any cognitive activity that has to do with planning or sequencing is good therapy for J.J. This can cover lots of ground; some of our best finds have been bowling, the game Uno, always being the first one to check over our 9 year old son's homework (of course, I still check it too, just in case!), making out the grocery list, following recipes, etc. Also, once J.J. reads a word a few times, he tends to recover that word in his speech. He probably reads for at least three to four hours per day. Writing helps too, although it's still the most difficult activity for him. In our column submissions, I'm still editing for spelling and grammar (his sentence structure is still a little off at times). I think this will all continue to improve with time, though.

 

Hope this helps, and welcome to the board!

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  • 1 month later...

Hi to gatitoplata and to erobertson,

 

i suspect that some of my questuions will be answered somewhere, but I'm still navigating....

 

The survivor is my wife, left bleed Oct 2006, still nearly without speech. I think that the pdifficulty is in the very last stage of output, that is, she recognises what she wants to say but can't get it past the watchkkeper in the dispatch room. I think of the watchkeeper as a Jobsworth (a very boring little person in a dull hat), whose job is to say "You can't do that" or "It's too difficult", so my wife Det doesn't try, but gets sad.

 

My questions are:

 

1. Is it significant that the best results with reading are to tell Det firmly to look at all the words and pictures on the page and NOT try to say them out loud. Just run a finger down and say "Yes" or "No" accotding to whether she knows what the written word is. Quite often, she suddenly says out loud a word that may be five or ten words before the one she is pointing at, so she "read" it a minute or so earlier. Her speech is quite distinct and the words sound normal speed, but there is this delay. Sometimes, she has produced an accurate answer if cross or taken by surprise, e.g. show her a picture of a school group, she sees herself, I say "How old were you then?" and she immediately says "About seven". She doesn't seem to say any sentence longer than two or three words, except for the blessed day when I said "Do you want me to get the nurses to do something about your pain?" and she said "Of course I do, you stupid man." It was wonderful, but it was two years ago. She can speak some flash cards. But she tires of all these exercises in less than ten minutes.

 

2. I think there is also some cognitive or analytical problem. If you give Det a choice of things she can see, she can easily choose by reaching out, sometimes saying "Juice" or "orange" if you have named each item. But if you ask if she wants juice or milk or tea, she gets very puzzled and can't deal with more than two options.

 

If anyone can comment or suggest what to try next, I would be very grateful. And perhaps these comments may help gatitoplata to identify where the block might be.

 

HughW

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Det's aphasia sounds much like my husband's... he's four months post stroke. This is by far the cruelest aspect of stroke. He knows what he wants to say, but can't articulate it. He has several words or phrases that come out (persveration) when he's trying to say something else. He says "I can't do it" often, which elicits a sympathetic response from family and makes me think the sympathy prolongs the perseveration. Our speech therapist (who is absolutely wonderful,) uses flash cards with pictures and words and story boards where she says 3-4 sentences and then he repeats part of what she's said. This repetition has increased his vocabulary but it seems that the increased vocabulary just causes him to make more mistakes since he has more words to choose from! It is a step in the right direction, though, and this will be a very long road.

 

The therapist thinks he also may have something called Agosia (sp?) because he doesn't seem to recognize objects. You can put a hammer in his hand and ask him if it is a hammer and he doesn't know whether to say yes or no. On the brighter side, though, when he does speak, it's clear and precise. You can understand his words easily but as a sentence, they don't make sense. And interestingly enough, he knows he's not saying the right words. We're still trying to figure out exactly what is going on in his brain to determine the best way to help him and plan to try a computer type machine that you can program to say what you want when you push a button. This will hopefully help him communicate some things and also be used for him to repeat back the phrases that we program into it. Other than that, we just continue with the pictures and words and speak simply, clearly, and directly to make sure he understands what we're saying or asking. At home, if I ask him something, I ask again in a slightly different way, just to be sure of his response. The repetition helps his comprehension and increases the chances that he's answered the way he wanted. Like Det, he does sometimes say whole sentences that make sense. I write these on the calendar so that somewhere down the road he can read them and see how much progress he's made. Some things he's said are quite humorous or profound.

 

So for your questions, (sorry so long,) I think running down a list of words until she finds one she recognizes IS helpful and I'm going to try that with my husband. He can't read or write, either, but he can spell his name. It might be helpful to show her familiar writings... my husband has a well-worn Bible and many people remember the Lord's Prayer or Psalm 23. I've had him look at these passages but he doesn't recognize them yet. It was something to try.

 

As for the choices, we're going to try a dry-erase board this week and when I ask him if he wants, say, a hamburger or taco for lunch, I'll write each word and have him point. Other than that, like I said, I just reiterate each choice several times to be sure.

 

Bless you for your patience and all best to both of you...

 

 

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also, we play Scrabble sometimes and my husband can actually string small words together from random tiles. (He doesn't place the word on the board correctly, but we make up our own rules!) This might be something for you to try as I think eventually it will help with reading. But also like Det, ten minutes is about all he can take, then he gets fatigued and starts making mistakes.

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hi i had my stroke on march 19th2001 and i got help with the speech patoligist in my stroke club, and yes the speech patholigist was very helpful and i am a male

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I had my stroke Feb 2009 and yes I was. I heard myself as distorted but I wasn't hearing that I left off vowels and talked nasal. I went to therapy for about almost 8 months and it helped alot. My speech is fine to others but because of my vestibular issues, I still hear myself as "dick clark" Female

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi qatitoplata! Welcome to our group!! I am a 20 year Stroke Survivor and also have had Aphasia for the entire time. Aphasia is a communications disorder which affects anyone with a traumatic brain injury --- most notibly a stroke survivor. It only occurs when the person has had a stroke on the LEFT side of the brain because that is where the speech centers in the brain are located. Aphasia can affect people other than stroke, like those that have been in a severe automobile accident, but it's usually the person has been on a motorcycle and their head had been hit extremely hard; I have a friend who has Aphasia who has MS,Multiple Schlosis (I know i didn't spell that wright-but that's partofAphasia).

 

Aphasia involves 4 major areas of communication: Reading, Writing, Speech, & Listening.

 

Aphasia, needs to be diagnosed properly by a Certified Speech-Language Therapist because there are multiple types. I have 2 types: Expressive and Receptive. Now when people are talking to me normally,they may never know, that's because if I am leading the conversation, then I'm OK. But put me in a party or social situation and I am as quiet as a church mouse, that's because I'm scared that the "ugly" part or the Expressive side will come out. This is occurs where I am not in control and I haveto answer questions or talk off the top of my head. Be "Expressive" in other words. I stutter, I have problems with something called "Word-Finding" and also do something called "Circumlocute" Now that is a fancy term meaning nothing more than I keep talking all th way <u></u>around<u></u> a subject until I get out what I want to say. This is sometimes when my husband will tell me to be quiet - -- wrong answer!!!!!

 

Another problem I have is my Receptive Aphasia. this is when questions are posed to me and I have to try and anwer them. Sometimes it's good and I can get the information out of my brain and answer their question. At other times, the poor person get what Ihave deemed my "Deer In The Headlights Look" meaning I'm clueless ----at that point in time only ----as to what they are asking. Give me a few minutes and generally, I'll catch up and can anwer. But generally, I'll have to ask for clarification,or forthem to re statethe question in another way.

 

What steps do you need to take qatitoplata? Well, I absolutely didn't get all this information by myself. As I said earlier, one of the best things you can do for yourself is to go see and have a complete evaluation by a Speech Pathologist. Some ENT offices have Speech Paths within their office, but the best placeto go is the Stroke Rehab Center at a Major hospital. Some cities, like mine, are lucky to have community outreach programs for people with speech problems. My program is called TAP or Triangle Aphasia Project. The speech path whoruns it is bringing it back to the community after having associated with one of our major hospitals for the last couple of years, i wasn't able to attend when it was atthe hospital.Nowthat she' moving it back to the community,I'm hoping I'll be able to attend. That helps tremendouly, being with other pleople, like yourself whohave Aphasia and you can share stories and tips, etc.

 

My biggest tip for you is to never be afraid to tell whomever you may be dealing with,if it's in the grocery store, the department store or McDonalds that you have Aphasia and please be patient. A sort of unofficial universal sign that I use is holding up my pointer finger, while I explain I have Aphasia, meaning I speak slower than other folks, and just bear with me, I'll get it out in a minute.

 

Finally, never underestimate the value of humor in any situation. It has helped me tremendously through the years; maybe not with my family,but always when I'm out dealing with people in the public sector. They turn out to be very nice.

 

Folks know I'm "long winded" but I've lived with this for 20 years, and I'll be happy to helpyou any way I can. Just keep on hanging in there. It does keep improving year after year after year after............

 

Peace,

Susan

 

Hi Again!! :) Talk about Aphasia...Forgetfulness is another Halmark!! I had meant to give you the Web Site for the Nationa Aphasia Association when I wrote my tome, but per usual, I forgot!! :) So, here it is: www.aphasia.org

. I hope it at least give you a place to start researching other information. I think you can also get a free online magazine as well. Hope This will help!!

 

Peace,

 

Susan <img src="http://www.strokeboard.net/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

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  • 4 months later...

Hello,

I am a caregiver for my mother who had a severe stroke on the left side of her brain back in October of 2009. At first, she had the droop on her right side... was pretty much paralyzed on the right side of her body. She has since, however, recovered physically since then. What she has not recovered is her speech. She has aphasia... wernickes and global.... fluent, expressive and receptive. She has cognitive deficits as well. She went to a speech therapist one time a week. There was a day a few months ago where she was trying to tell me something but couldnt find the words... she was very frustrated and got a paper and pen and started handwriting. To me, it was jibberish... with a few words. To her, interestingly, it made perfect sense. Another interesting thing was it was her old handwriting. She has started to read small words on flash cards. Its a little progress... but hey, its progress! She can now tell time too. This is very encouraging.

Her speech therapist has told me (after I showed her my mothers handwriting) that she believes the memory of words, etc is all intact. We just need to reconnect or rebuild the connections of the neurons in the brain. She says my mother will spontaneously, in spurts, start speaking. Her automatic is very good... she says hello, etc quite clearly.

Her challenges with the aphasia, however, is starting to hit her hard. She is 81, so her recovery may be slower than others. However, just because she is "elderly" does not by any means mean that she can be written. She is suffering like anyone else in this situation. She is the mother of 8 and the grandmother of 17. She was always the matriarch (sp?) of the family... and for her to not be able to communicate with family is pure hell to her. She was excited to get better... but a month ago... her inspiration to get better started to decline. Now she has full depression and has given up hope. Honestly, its breaking my heart to see her this way. I have stopped my life to come and live with her for the summer, but our time is limited. I am also struggling with financial issues of which I have to hire a full time caregiver for her. Its alot of work. I have her scheduled for a summer group session at the Boston University Aphasia Resource Group in hopes that it will help her. However, I do see her getting weaker every day. I think this is due to her depression. Having aphasia seems to be liked being almost completely cut off from the rest of the world. She is embarressed of her situation and does not want to go out any more for fear people will laugh at her or not understand. She was a social woman.

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Well, I guess I have to say that I did experience aphasia last week on Monday after I had this mysterious vertigo attack and a blackout in my bathroom. Not sure what happened, yet, and I have doctors' appointments coming up. So far, the CT scans are clear, but strokes don't always show up at first. The vertigo attacks I get are probably a result of the brain damage from the stroke. I have never had a blackout from my vertigo attacks before.

 

Since the stroke in 12/20/2005, I have had a mild problem finding a word that I've known for years in my head to get into my mouth to say it. After my blackout, I was talking nonsense to my husband. I don't know what I was talking about. I forgot what I was talking about in the middle of the sentence, even. I also had trouble talking, and just could not move forward in speaking. My mind was totally blank. I knew what it was and actually said "aphasia" to my husband. I don't know if he knew what it meant, but he was freaked out enough to know that something was not right. He took me to the e.r. This expressive aphasia lasted for 3 hours. I don't think the nurses and docs in the e.r. even noticed it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I found this useful http://www.aphasia.org/

 

hope it helps

Hi, Diana here. I was told I had aphasia with my strokes. I have had 3 due to an illness that can cause strokes. I have no lasting effects of the strokes except I have a hard time with my balance. I have fallen due to balance issues and have broken my arm.

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hello i am male and i had an ischemic stroke and yes i do have asphasia and when i noticeactually i went to the chat room where a speach therapy was in the chat room and when itold her of my problem i was told that i had the classic asphisia so i then joined my stroke club and went to see a speech therapy that is on staff and i went for about 2 years before i started to notice an imorovement

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hello gaitoplatal,

When I had my stroke 9 yrs ago, I was told that aphasia affects those whose brains are affected on the left-side.

I on the other handwas affected on the right- side of my brain- the left side of my body.

Sorry, I'm not able to help. Hope you got the information you were looking for.

anna

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  • 1 month later...

hello gaitoplatal,

When I had my stroke 9 yrs ago, I was told that aphasia affects those whose brains are affected on the left-side.

I on the other handwas affected on the right- side of my brain- the left side of my body.

Sorry, I'm not able to help. Hope you got the information you were looking for.

anna

 

That's odd. I had the brain lesion/stroke in the right hemisphere of my brain with the left side of my body weakened. I have gone through bloodwork, an E.E.G. scan, and CT scan with contrast. Nothing turned up. I will find out more in November in my next appointment with my neurologist. My new primary care physicians thinks I have lyme disease, even though I always tested negative. I'm having more bloodwork done. So, we'll see.

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Hi gatitoplata . I have been away for quite a long time and I'm still getting used to the new look to the site and figuring out out to manuver around it---Quite a challenge for a soul likeme! :rolleyes: Please forgive me for those of you that have heard this before!

 

If you remember reading my disertation from February '10 I do indeed have and deal daily with Aphasia. I am a little over 21 years into my 2 strokes at the ripe old age of 53. My first stroke was one month after my second child was born, my son,born 9 pounds 12 1/2 ounces; 22 1/2 inches long without the blessing of any drugs. This after he flipped his last three weeks from beng breech, transverse, breech again and then the cute little monkey on the Sunday Morning of an External version to place him into proper position, he decided to put himself back into the proper delivery spot. However, my OB's still severely underestimated him weight. (During this entire procedure I kept hoping that I would be able to hve a C-section, which we were cautioned might happen with the Version Procedure). Well, I digress and with Aphasia, that happens frequently, and while I was having a multitude of TIA's after my son was born while lying in wait to receive an arteriogram after having had and MRI showing a Left Carotid Vertebral Artery Dissection. I instantaly returned to the Hospital for the afteriogram to show the condition of the arteries. Very, Very long story short, after the canula was inserted into my brain and the contrast media was injected, an instant "POP" was heard in my head and I saw stars. That is when I had the major stroke. after the canula was removed, my right arm bagan to drift all over the table, called a "Pronator Drift" The staff was awesome, especailly since they knew I had a newborn and a 2 year old upstairs.

 

Now, what does all this have to do with Aphasia!!?? My severe strokes (all the TIA's and the one from the procedure were affected to the Left side of the brain, which is where the Speech centers are. There are multiple types of Aphasia one can be affected with. At first, I could barely speak at all. That was really great as I was an Business Office Manager/Register Health Educator for a Pediatric Practice. The Senior Partner innediately sent a note to the OB that delivered my son.......I have never seen such attentiveness from a physician practice. It was not there fault and I had no intntion if suing them, but it was funny watching then squerm!!

 

When the hospital sent me down to Speech therapy I learned the types of Aphasia I have-----and Still have 21 years later. I have Expressive Aphasia, which means I have a great deal of trouble getting the words out of my brain, into my mouth to make a logical sentence. I also have Receptive Aphasia. This means that, as I like to jokingly say, this is my "Deer In The headlights Look" someone may ask me something and I will likely just give them a blank stare for several seconds/minutes until a logical responce comes to mind and hopefully makes sense, at lease to that person. I also refer you back to the Feb/10 notes on Circumlocution. That is a common state a person with Aphasia finds themselves in in a horribly painful attempt to either answer a question or anything from give directions to an opinion.

 

I know I'm wrong, but I find myself keeping quiet......ok lets be honest.....shutting up because I don't want to sound like a stupid idiot because of misunderstancing about Aphasia.

 

Help...........After initial strokes in 1989, I went through Speech Therapy. after Second stroke in 1999 I had some additional therapy, but my benefits were limited. There are some community programs but I'm unfomfortable with them, BUT, DON'T KEEP YOURSEF FROM ATTENDING THEM, SOME OF THEM CAN BE WONDERFUL!!

 

 

Well, As my Neurologist told me this week, my meds can severely complicate my Aphasia, especialy my Receptive, as well as my Memory Loss----Wonderful! Don't let that influence you though!!

 

Well, The "Gown With The Wind" novelist has returned I wish you all well!! :goodjob:

 

Have A Wonderful Week!!

 

Susan

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Hi guys , I had my stroke in 2003 it was my in the right side of the brain . my speaking skills were horrible I used to talk like a mentally retarded :( I went to my language therapy for about a month, it helped a little but what I think was more helpful for me was that I started to work in a call center taking more than 100 calls a day and to make it worst it was not in my native language since my first language is spanish and I warked for Dell computers -US consumer -call center. At the begining was really dificult for me but I woked there for 5 years ( was the best therapy ever . also I love singin a lot so I decided to take singing lessons and now I speak 100 normal as I used to speak before my stroke . so I encourageyou that if you don't like to attend to the language therapies ,try to find some activities that you like that will help you improve your speaking skills. As soon as you are ready let me know so you can come with me to sing a beautiful song to my stage at the Hilton Princess Hotel where I sing every friday night . good Luck .. hope to be of some help .

 

 

 

Jose mauricio Monzon

 

 

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