Suzanne’s follow-up visit to the UI Maxillofacial Prosthetics Clinic proved again to be a new challenge for her. On this visit, Dr. S added more material to the prosthesis, both in the back and in the roof of the mouth area.

In the back, the device reaches all the way to the back of her throat. This will replace the palate that was removed during surgery and will help prevent food and drink from flowing into the nasal passages. In the past, if Suzanne tipped her head up to drink, the liquid would ‘go up her nose’, but not so much now.

The other addition to the device was to the inside upper palette. Suzanne describes it as having a butterscotch candy stuck to the roof of your mouth. This addition brought her palate down far enough that her tongue could touch it.

As Dr S. added material, she would have Suzanne try the device and say specific words to see what adjustments needed to be made. Say “judge” the Dr would say; Or “Chicken”; and finally a series of compound words to which Suzanne replied, “Go Get Gar-o-ly”. “Say that again,” Doc said so Suzanne replied “Go Get Gar-o-ly”

The Dr looked over at me with a puzzled look to which I commented, “I hear an extra syllable”, and she nodded in agreement. “Again,” Dr said, with the same result. I could tell that Doc was not hearing what she was expecting and stepped away to discuss this with a colleague.

It was then I asked Suzanne to just pronounce the sound “Gare”, which she did. Then I asked her to say the long “E” sound, which she did. So then I told her to put those together and say “Gary”. “Why do you want me to say Gary” was the response. “Because the Dr wants you to say Go Get Gary”. “NO” she replied, she asked me to say Go Get Gallery”. “I can say Go Get Gary if you want”

With that, we all laughed at how much time we had spent trying to get Suzanne to say this phrase when it all boiled down to the fact that she heard the phrase incorrectly. You see, Dr S. has a bit of an accent and on top of that was wearing a mask which also muffled her speech, so Suzanne was just repeating what she heard.

Her instructions for the next few days were to talk and read aloud as much as she could as the material the Dr added would continue to mold to her mouth for a day or so. Driving home that evening, Suzanne was texting some friends and I asked her to read them to me. “NO, my tongue is tired” was her response. As it turns out, her tongue that has been spending the last two and a half years sitting in an easy chair had spent the whole day in the gym, and was just plain pooped.

Many of the letters and words Suzanne says now are easier to understand. This morning, she asked if I understood her when she said “Sketch Book”? It actually was pretty clear, but was way more fun to write about it when it sounded like sex book.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

James 1:17