Angelia,
I really think you are pushing it to try to go back to work this soon. I had only radiation and no issues inside my mouth and went back to work 3 weeks after rads ended. I am a software engineer so have no need to talk or waste any energy. Desk job on the computer all day. It was the week before Christmas so the first week was a full week, the second a 3 day week and the third was a 4 day week. It was waaaaaay to soon. I was exhausted at the end of every day. If the second and third week had been full weeks, I could not have done it. It was six weeks before I was really up to full time work. Standing up in front of a class all day and talking takes a lot of energy, not to mention the prep time. If I were you, I'd give it a couple of more weeks before I went back to work. Your body needs time to heal.

Take care,
Eileen

I must be an oddball unless my continuing ,mucous is from the aneurysm work one year ago because mine is as bad as it was 2 years ago. this damn esophagus doesn't help either. But as I always say, I am alive and smiling or acting simple.

I am oddball to. When I went to my Dr. yesterday he told me that cancer doesn't normally return only three weeks after treatment. Then he said, oh yeah your not normal. He told me I had not followed any of the conventions or the rules. Well, I did not follow rules when I was a kid so why should I now? I am scheduled for a biopsy Wednesday at 2.

LOL I like this post Angelia. I needed a smile this morning. Thank you much.

Your welcome Jim. trying to be humourus about the whole thing.

u cant rush ur recovery any more than u could your treatment. wish i had a dollar for everytime i said that to andy. he brought in firewood three days ago and is still suffering the concequences. he is sore all over and can barely move now. ur body will let u know what u can handle at this point...if it doesnt tell u today, it will hollar at u tomorrow.

Hi Angelia,

At almost 6 months out my voice still has issues. I am a presenter and after a couple of hours I get super hoarse. Docs say that is the way it is for now. It go up and down but iis very frustrating. It might wffect my carear. On the good side, I kind of don't care. This experience has changed my life for the better. I am happy to see the sun every morning and have appreciation for each day. If I can't present I will find a new job that is less dependent on my voice!

Hey, you can teach the kids how to spit...very important!

Steve

Hi, my name is Barb and I teach literacy to special education students. I am concerned that I will ever be able to teach again after my "partial tongue glossectomy with wrist flap addition" surgery that is scheduled for March 8th. Angelia, I know that you have been out for a month and I can appreciate your desire to get back to the students. I think that being gone from work has been one of the most worrisome issues that I face. I am afraid to leave them for a long time, but I know that they will be fine. I am scared to death that I will be unintelligible and that my 20 year teaching career will be over. I'm scared. Can yo tell me whether you are able to speak well even though you have mucous madness?

Barb

Everyone responds to this differently. There are posters here that have had very radical surgeries that I have talked to on the phone, and they are very understandable. Some of them did have to go through speech therapy for awhile, but like many things, for some people it will require new learning.

There are only certain things you can actually control. Your first job and challenge is to get through whatever they decide is the best for you, and come out the other side cancer free. Worrying about what your future will after that is certainly normal, but this is not useful use of your time right now. One challenge at a time. successful treatment, dealing with the immediate side effects and afterward there will be a period of healing.

For everyone that period seems to go on forever, and the associated swelling and more will make your speech poor, but don't think that is your final result. As that swelling begins to subside over a couple of months, you will start to get a sense of where you are in all this as far as how easy it is to speak and be understood. If it needs work.... you have a new challenge, new therapy, and new obstacles to work around and past. Just try for now to focus on the main thing which is getting through the disease process. After all, you have to be around to have speech (and other) problems as my radiation doctor told me..... and he was very good at keeping me focused on one challenge at a time. The mental aspect is more than enough challenge even for the most robust people - let alone the physical aspects of it all.

You eat an elephant one bite at a time, not the whole thing at one sitting.......

Hi, Barb. I'm a teacher too but partly retired at 63. Four months after the same surgery I could well go back to work. I have no regular job but I'm thinking of taking on relieving (substitute work) in the next couple of months.