Speech Pathology

We met with the speech pathologist yesterday. We had just learned of the appointment the night before when we checked our voice mail ...bad timing.

MD Anderson uses floors and elevators as the guidance for finding the area you need. For example, the Head and Neck Center is on The 10th Floor near Elevator A. MD Anderson has several buildings on their campus. We will primarily utilize the Main building and the Mays building. They are a city block apart, about a quarter mile via the overhead skyway.

We arrived for our appointment at the Mays building, near elevator R, 30 minutes ahead of schedule. So far, so good. I checked my calendar to confirm our floor. Uh-oh. Our appointment is on floor 10 of the MAIN Building, Elevator A. We confused this appointment with the plastic surgeon appointment we have set for next week. Time to book-it through the skyway.....not a good start.

Btw, the skyway walk was nice.


The pathologist was very personable

We discussed the range of possibilities for removing the tumor and their impact on the tongue and speech.

I forgot to ask if he'll teach me to roll my R's, but I did ask if he'll sign an order for Jennifer not to yell for at least 6 months -- you know, because of the strain put on the tongue. Right? He almost went along with it, but backed out at the last minute (most likely due to some inappropriate thing I said). Oh well. It was worth a try.

The bottom line is that we will not know the full impact to speech and swallowing until the doctors get in there to remove everything. Then about two to four weeks for post op swelling to go down.

He demonstrated some of the intricacies of forming audible letters, especially those most likely to be affected by tongue damage -- s, l, k, c, g. Try these letters. Envision how your tongue behaves as you form the sound. The tongue is made of four sets of muscles interlaced among themselves. That's why you can maneuver that thing to form sounds, eat sunflower seeds, shoot seeds, play a little tonsil hockey...all taken for granted. Cut into the muscle, possible graft skin onto the exposed area, and you restrict some of the flexibility. How much? We don't know. For the record, he was optimistic and we left his consult feeling pretty good.


Side-note:
Jennifer and I both almost busted out laughing when the pathologist demonstrated the "s" sound in a case where someone would have moderate-to-severe tongue damage. Spit flew out of the mouth. I had a vision of Sylvester the Cat.

Additional side-note:
We have decided to change a few names during Jennifer's recovery and rehab period to ease the strain on the tongue. Cat, Gray. You will now be called "Ben 1" and "Ben 2" respectively. Ben, Jake. You will be called "Ben 3" and "Hey you" respectively.


After we left the speech consult, we met with the clinical trial docs...this particular trial is a third for Lymphoseek. The first two trials were for melanoma and breast cancer and have been submitted for FDA approval. This trial apparently will help the drug company forego the use of Head and Neck as an off-label use and move it into a use they can publicly advertise. Hopefully well still help someone down the road with the study other than just the bottom line to the drug company. ;-)

The intent of this trial is two-fold: to test a lymphatic tracer element that will actually bind to receptor cells in the lymph nodes rather than pass through the system too quickly to trace as the more common tracers do, and to identify the Sentinal nodes and determine whether future surgeons can selectively remove nodes (sentinels) to cut off the cancer path rather than remove all nodes in the area.

The clinical doctor was very forthcoming. Again, we felt fine. Jennifer did ask, on my behalf, if I'll get to use her as a nightlight after they inject her. For the record, the answer was No.

Next week, our meeting is with the plastic surgeon (one of the best in the nation). The meeting is in the MAYS Building. Maybe well get the location right this time.

P.S. I Apologize for those expecting a witty story (assuming my others were witty). I was really fascinated by the consults today and decided to share some of that info, thus limiting my award-winning wit.

My parents had the World Book encyclopedia when I was a kid. I believe they were from the year 1969. I always liked to look up the human body because it had the clear plastic pages containing different systems in the body: Skeleton, digestive, respiratory, circulatory, nervous, and muscular. Each page would overlay the other to help "build" the human body. It felt like I was looking at those today. It's amazing what God has put together. Pretty cool.

For those who don't like my humor.....you're welcome. ;-). Glad we could oblige.

Overall, yesterday was a very good day from a medical psyche perspective.

I'm tired. Jennifer's tired. The light is at the end of the tunnel. We see it. We'll get there.

Yet again, I continue to express my thanks to all those keeping us in their thoughts and prayers. It's helping us get through this.

Love to all.