Hello,

I had a huge tumor outside my tongue, and it was nicely removed by cisplatin and radiation. I expected the same success for the tumor cells within the tongue, but this sadly was not the case. I underwent tumor extraction last tuesday, and I had to sacrifice 1/3 of my tongue. A little "package" of cell tissue was taken from my forearm and attached to the tongue and currently it is healing well. But I have almost no voice currently! The doctors promise to me big success by speech therapy.

May I ask for your experiences with speech therapy and the impact on the usage of different consonants?

Best regards - Peter

Peter
I too just had between a third and half of my tongue removed and wrist tissue put into its place. With the trach tube in, speech very difficult in hospital. Once out though, I had very good results with speech therapy - going from no voice to unintelligible noises to understandable "stroke speech" (you know, like Dick Clark sounds on New Year's Eve the last three years ). the worse part is the phone since they can't see your lips. Plus phone voice recognition systems are hell ("sorry , we did not understand what you said, was that appointments or payments?")
Sadly, I have to start all over again as the CyberKnife radiation burned my tongue and it has swelled up. The key is to get a good speech therapist with some experience with tongue cancer patients
As for consonants: big time trouble at first with k-k-k-k-k and g-g-g-g-g sounds (eg bark gag ) technical names: lingua-velars.
Once those are down, then onto lingua dentals (th) lingua alveola (t, d, l,s, z) lingua palatas (sh, ch)
I was also promised "big success" but it turns out our definitions were different. They mean you can talk slowly and people will understand you - but you still sound like you had a stroke. In comparision with not being able to swallow though, then yes, speech therapy was a big success . This next time around I am going to try VelaStim electric stimulation as recommended to me by one poster for swallowing and speech therapy.
Good luck - be patient
Charm

Charm,
thank you very much for the details! In Germany, there are 4 "speech therapy centers", dedicated explicitly, among other themes, to cancer patients. I hope they have certain experience as compared to therapists in small towns, who rather take care of children-related problems. I don`t know yet if I will get more radiation recommended, nor how much. Will hear it in a couple of days. I have to add that the lower part of the tongue was not removed, so I hope not to be forced to use a trach tube. The doctors never mentioned any, and I am in a university hospital (Heidelberg).

What is VelaStim? I searched for the phrase with the "search" window, but got no result.

Regards - Peter

Peter,
it depends which part of the tongue was removed. This affects what sounds are altered. I lost about 25% of the anterior tongue and except of for a sharp s and z (german) all others are now pretty much ok. It did take a while but to some extent you adapt and compensate using different words. It also depends what language you are using i,e. German vs English for example.

cheers

M

Alles Essig ?

Peter

It was a typo: It is called VitalStim. it turns out that my CCC in Georgetown does offer it. My understanding is that t is used more with swallowing than speech. Here is the company link: Vitalstim
My current speech therapist used to use it at her prior hospital but they do not have the machine at my local alexandria hospital. It is a form of electrical stimulation but it is FDA approved and some posters here have said it really made the difference for them.
I will do a full report once I start using it but again, it is for swallowing more than speech. finally, I did not mean to sound defeatist, the key to speech recovery is to do the exercises over and over and over. I am told it gets better every year. I am just impatient. You should do just fine.
Good luck

Take all of the sses out of words and just maybe I could be understood for a few of them. It gets tiresome to keep hearing the question,, "whay did you say" or I can't understand you,, tell them it makes us even, I sure as hell can't understand you either.

@Markus: Yes, alles essig = snafu = situation normal, all f*cked up.. of course, it depends on the precise type of defect...

@Charm; Thank you, well, I have no idea yet, maybe I will swallow training, too. Currently I have artificial nutrition.

@EzJim: this lets me guess what is waiting for me... fortunately I can do my work without talking much, but the private life....

lol Jim...I feel the same way. My speech is affected by my facial/tongue paralysis however I'm understood in a normal/quiet environment so I haven't felt the need to go to therapy.

I spent 6 years in speech therapy growing up due to an impediment and then went through several public speaking classes for career purposes. I've used some of the techniques learned from them however I still can't raise my voice since the neck dissection.