Yesterday was THE day we've been waiting for. My voice has finally returned!!!!!! After 6 weeks I can speak. In the morning I had my first appointment with a speech pathologist. Dr. Santini was like a magic woman. After Jenny told her my story. She came over and started by feeling my neck. She then wanted me to make all sorts of noises. We started by attempting to say M words. The logic is M is the only letter you can say with your head and not your throat. At first it was very difficult and painful. But as I got used to it and it got easier. Then after a few other exercises she has me roll my lips. This exercise loosens up the muscles around my vocal chords. After a few minutes of rolling my lips my voice became much stronger. She said since I had not used my voice the muscles had atrophied. At the end of the hour if I just tried to speak I'd say my voice is about at 50% strenght. Definitely loud enough to be understood. If I roll my lips then try to speak I can even raise my voice. Dr. Santini gave me some voice exercises she wants me to do before my next appointment. Before I left the office she took me around showing some of the office staff how I could speak now. Jenny was stunned!!!!! I was stunned!!!! I see her again next Tuesday. I would think at this rate I should be able to return to work late next work.
The rest of the day was spend getting used to being able to speak again. When I got home Howie called. It was great being able to speak to someone. After each paragraph my voice was losing volume. But once I rolled my lips, it was like someone put a microphone next to my throat. While our 10 minute conversation went great I know I still have to build up my voice stamina. The boys are really happy. Daniel wants to play Strat with me. And Devin wants to do a history lesson with me. Since both me and Jenny got about 4 hours sleep we were both not only mentally wiped out but also physically wiped out. Speaking is something everyone takes for granted until you can't do it anymore. Then everything is a chore. After saying how we were going to really celebrate when I got my voice back, we didn't. We were both too tired to do much of anything. We both ended up taking naps. And at night I ended up on the couch watching hockey in between dozing off. Things are finally looking up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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