Speech Therapy

https://www.gofundme.com/shonnastbmremodel

Last Monday I spoke with Julie, one of Dr. Meguid's nurses and my primary contact in his office. She asked how I was feeling and inquired about my voice, or lack thereof. I told her I had not been able to really talk since the stint trial. sound a little like Jessica Rabbit if I do say so myself! She said that wasn't necessarily uncommon, but she would talk to the doctor about it. She called a couple of hours later and said he referred me to an ENT, just to see what was going on and to avoid doing any permanent damage. Neither one of us thought I would be able to get in before the big remodel, but at least we’d have the ball rolling.

To my surprise, on Thursday morning at 9:30 Dr. Fink’s, the ENT, office called and said he had a cancellation and could see me at 2:00. So, I got dressed and off to Denver I went. Since beginning to work with Dr. Meguid, most of my appointments are now at UC Health Denver. It's just a bit further drive than National Jewish - and it's west instead of north. Much like National Jewish, I have not had to wait long for any of my appointments. They are on-time and on top of everything. My experience with healthcare in Colorado, aside from one or two ER visits (You know the ones I'm talking about!), has been phenomenal. I'm very grateful and tremendously blessed for that.

I first saw Dr. Hirsch, a resident, who reviewed my case with me and did a preliminary exam. A little later Dr. Fink came in. I really liked both of them! Dr. Fink had a bit of a quirky sense of humor, but it resonated well with me and made me laugh! They were thorough in the explanations and analysis of what they thought may be happening with my vocal chords. After much discussion they finally got around to numbing up my nose with the oh so pleasant smelling and even tastier numbing spray and we waited. Then, ever so slowly, they began sliding the flexible camera scope down my nostril so they could get an up close and personal look at the ol’ vocal chords.

I ran through a series of voice sequences, some high-pitched, some low-pitched, some loud voice – or at least as loud as I could get, and read through some rather oddly worded , but very heavily alliterated sentences. All-in-all it wasn’t too uncomfortable, except for when I had to tilt my head down. The flexible wand didn’t prove to be too flexible after all. The cold, hard, ball point pen sized scope dug into the floor of my nose. The further down I tilted my head, the more it dug in. I think the numbing spray must have missed the floor of my nose!

I could see everything on the lard HD screen attached to the wall directly across from me. It is actually pretty interesting to see the vibrating and opening and closing of the vocal chords as I put them to work. The human body is definitely an amazing wonder to behold!

Upon reviewing what we witnessed during the scope, the good doctors reassured me that they did not see anything that would require any additional surgeries. Can I get an amen!!! J He did proclaim, remember is quirky sense of humor, that, “It looks like some thoracic surgeon was digging around in there and got things stirred up – oh, I’d say about two weeks ago!” Did I mention that he and Dr. M. are really good friends? Yep, that’s exactly what we already knew. Additionally, he said the airways were still pretty inflamed and that there may be some extra tissue up around the vocal chords making them not close all the way as I speak, causing the breathy, Jessica Rabbit voice. He then went on to refer me to a speech pathologist for some speech therapy.

As it so happens, I was able to get in to see Julianna the very next morning. We went over several of the exercised that I already knew to do for my Vocal Chord Disfunction (VCD) and then threw some new ones at me. The primary exercise for both is to blow bubbles in your water with a straw while doing voice runs. The new ones she introduces were lip trills, with and without the tongue. Those would be making motorboat noises by blowing air through your pursed lips or through you lips with your tongue sticking out. I literally had not done anything like that since I was a tiny kid. So much for being a forty-something class act . . . A lesson to you all, the next time that you tell your kids to stop blowing bubbles or making motor boat noises, remember that they are actually a good thing for them to be doing and strengthens their voice/vocal chords!

Julianna was a little concerned that I could not do some of the exercises we tried and that my voice was still breaking up quite a bit, or not being smooth/consistent, on some of the other exercises. She concurred with Dr. Fink that there could be some extra tissue around the vocal chords and that was causing the breathlessness. She said she was curious what would happened after my tracheobronchoplasty. She definitely wanted to see me a few weeks after my procedure and was feeling a bit better. She also said that if I had any voice issues at all to contact Dr. Fink directly, otherwise if I asked the nurse they would most likely send a resident and they would try to do things that may do more harm with my situation than good. Mental note made!

Since meeting with her Friday, and faithfully doing my exercises - there's no telling what the people in the cars next to me at stop lights think! - my voice is doing much better and getting stronger bit by bit. As I already said, it is amazing what blowing bubbles through a straw and making motorboat noises will do for the voice. Now we are moving forward and counting down the days until the big remodel!

Thanks as always for the support and good thoughts.