Hi Katrina,

You should really start your own thread on this but I will reply here.

I have a TEP and a voice prosthesis in it that allows me to speak. A TEP is a trans-esophageal puncture, a small slit in the back of the trach in which they fit a small plastic prosthesis that has a hole in the center. When you put your thumb over your stoma, hole in the neck, it forces air up the esophagus and you speak like you normally would. Your speech pathologist should be explaining all this to you.

All the gear I wear on the stoma is glued on the outside in the morning and nothing goes down into the trach, although they do make some that go into trach. I would hate that. I think they are called cannulus (sp). If you give me some time, I'll try to find the links to show you what they look like. I order gear from two different companies, In Health and Atos medical.

I had total laryngectomy and left neck dissection which also included partial thyroidectomy and partial parathyroidectomy. My right side thyroid did not kick in, so am now on synthroid for life, no big deal once you figure out the correct dosage which can take a while.

I was out of work 8 weeks. I have a desk job and probably could have gone back in 6 if I had wanted to. If you have neck dissection, you will need PT for about 2 months for the arm. My biggest problem after surgery was an irrational fear I had of not being able to breath and afraid that I wouldn't be able to talk to tell someone. That didn't go away until I got a medic alert bracelet and sent a letter to the police and fire depts. alerting them to my condition. You will not be able to talk until you have the TEP which they do not always insert with surgery. Talk to your doctor about this. Sometimes they take an artery from the arm and then need to take skin from the leg to patch the arm. I did not have this but this will probably add to recovery time. I am told it is the worst part of the operation.

Why are you having this surgery? Have you already had radiation and chemo? Is there any chance they can remove it with a laser? Not all hospitals have the talent to do it. Where are you being treated. You want to be at a CCC. Tell me more about your condition. We also might want to do this on the main board because if might be useful to others lurking. I haven't signed back on since Friday. I'll look for you post next time I'm on.

Take care,
Eileen