Charm,
Thanks again for the excerpt. They really put him through the wringer. Wonder what hospital he was at?

I was lucky. My surgery went off without a hitch and I didn't need any flap so no arm or leg recovery to deal with. They were able to install my TEP at the time of the surgery so I was talking normally, albiet briefly, two weeks after surgery. I even sounded like me until the TEP became clogged a couple of weeks later(the speech therapist forgot to give em the brush to clean it). When he changed it the jackass put in a 6mm instead of the 8mm I had because he didn't have a 8mm available. This lowered my voice very low and even though I think it was only in for 2 weeks before I got the 8mm, it left me with this new voice permanently. So good surgery and totally imcompetent speech guy. He also forgot to give me the electrolarynx for after surgery so I couldn't talk at all for 2 weeks. Very frustrating. But all in all, my experience was much better than this poor doctor's. No wonder he was depressed.

Take care,
Eileen