Kate,
Hi and thankyou very much for your response and mostly just for your example of triumph. I am more in the same boat with Pete. I too still have my trach and can hold my finger over it and breathe through my nose and mouth better each day but no where near enough to do without it. The Dr said back in December it would be six months. I was so amazed to read you got rid of your trach in about 2 weeks huh? Wow! I am not seeing any therapist yet, I go in June to be fitted for the palate prosthesis thingy and after that the Dr said they would do a swallow study. I can talk if you call the peewee herman sound that comes out talking. No one can understand hardly but I guess that will just take time like you said. I did try the gargle thing and that was interesting. I am not scheduled for anymore treatments as I have had all the radiation a body can take and the chemo Doc said that the radiation and chemo go hand in hand so I did not need that either. The surgeon said I had clear margins and all the lymph nodes were clean, 100% cancer free! Yay! I am just in that holding pattern I guess waiting for this muscle flap to shrink down to the right size? That's what the Dr said anyway, wait... it's hard a thing to do when you want to go back to work and function in some sort of a normal way again. I will get there someday I know. SO thank-you again and I will take you up on your offer you will hear from me again I am sure.
Clark