Pockets of Sunshine

My father had his voice box removed 3 weeks ago. It was radical but necessary and he is doing incredibly well. He’s looking pretty normal and beginning to learn to speak through his stoma (tracheostomy). They rewired his whole throat and he now swallows his food differently…he had to pass a test to get the feeding tubes removed.  He passed! And he was delighted to learn that he can still taste. Apparently that sense is dulled or lost completely after this type of operation.

To speak, he’s using a synthesized tool that captures the vibrations in his neck. He’s getting speech therapy to learn to “burp talk”. Thankfully he was the guy in his frat house who could burp the entire alphabet! See? Sometime stupid people tricks do come in handy. Don’t knock ‘em.

I’m eternally grateful for his wife. She’s good humored, full of optimism, completely caring and yet still able to kick him in the butt and get him motivated to live and not rest as a “patient”. I swear this is what has made him recover so quickly. He’s not a victim, he knows he’s damn lucky that the cancer was in a limited area and didn’t spread. We’re all thankful for this. My mother wasn’t so fortunate. We lost her to brain cancer just 2 weeks after Thanksgiving in 2005.

My heart and thoughts go out to anyone who has lost a loved one. The holidays are rough, and that deep sense that something is missing never fades, nor does the love and yearning to have them near us again.