Days seem to move so slow. And still much clearing of congestion in throat when I eat. The food goes down, but it is truly work. When I talk, my mouth is full of too much saliva and I have to keep it from drooling out of the side of my mouth by swallowing a lot. I feel like I'm speaking under water. And my voice is not what it was at all because of my tongue which is not quite moving as it should.
My salivary gland was removed and that probably has to do with these problems. I keep wondering if this is the rest of my life, and come up with plans to compensate.
1. Use my eyes and gestures to communicate more. When I want them to leave, just gently push them towards the door while looking lovingly into their eyes.
2. Teach my friends sign language.
3. Keep them talking. Keep a bunch of questions for them to answer in a bowl and have them draw one out each visit.
4. Make my home a place where people can just hear
themselves talk in order to sort out their thinking. And my presence will just be a silent one. This could work. I will put a sign on the door "Hear your own thoughts".
5. When eating, always read a good book to distract myself from the throat problems and the fact that I must be alone when eating. Instead of sharing meals with friends, I now share meals with a book.
6. Find something productive in a creative sense to do that I can get passionate about and lose myself in. So far it has been movies and more movies. Books and more books. That can get old.
7. Keep giving thanks for what is left intact in my body. Like my hair - my jawbone (it was close to being affected) - my hands - eyes - legs, etc. Give them better care (my nails could sure use a manicure). Especially keep my hair trimmed and beautiful ( to impress doctors!)
8. Learn to love having a crooked smile. Consider it a unique thing about me that will totally disarm people. Maybe adding a cute little hand drawn mole at the corner will further enhance this.