Progress Report

I've been doing really well and the girls are doing ok. Chloe woke up sick and has been throwing up this morning. I hope she gets better soon. I've come a long way in 2 weeks (its actually been 18 days, but who's counting), boy has it been that long. I no longer have tingling numbness and I feel most everything (a lit too much if you ask me) and I'm not in any pain and I'm not taking anything for pain, nausea, sleep or congestion. I had these preconceived notions that I wouldn't be talking much and I thought that talking would be on the last thing on my mind as I healed but far from it. The Doctors and Nurses were tired of me signing everything I wanted and writing down anything Ken couldn't translate. They keep pushing me to talk. I was like no way and what made it worse was the first day I had these really tight rubber bands and I couldn't open my mouth. I also was asked by everybody why I looked at Ken and signed every answer and then told him to tell everybody what I had said. I used up 10 pages writing down on paper what I couldn't say with my hands. I'm also no longer repeating myself to everyone I speak to. I still occasionally ask Grace (my younger sister) do most of the talking for me out in public. I'm never sure what comment or question I'll get from perfect strangers about my mouth. Some of the funnier ones are, "oh my what did you have done?" or "Ohh what we women have to do for beauty." I also like "If you believe in miracles God can heal you today" I'm still not sure if that man understood I choose to have this surgery to fix my problems and that I can hear and I can speak. Ken and I are sure he thought I was deaf and dumb but he was very sweet. I've had a lot of people express their concern and good luck in recovery and it has been interesting and eventful each time we've ventured out in the cold. No, I'm sorry to say I'm talking and only a few things are really hard for me to pronounce. I feel like that kid in school that had a lisp or the cute little kid (like 4-5 yr old) who just plain talked funny and the parents asked them to say funny phrases over and over again. Speak of which my younger sister laughed at me all through church as we sand hymns. I keep nudging her to stop but she could help but laugh at me. My Mom's friend came over to the house and said I sure did talk a lot for someone who had jaw surgery. A few others have asked if I was allowed to talk. I thought I'd talk a whole lot less and I did at first but now I talk as much as I want. So you can call if you want. I've gotten a lot of "do you know what you sound like" from almost everybody I've talk too. Some one said I sounded british, another said I finally sound like I'm from the south. A few said I sounded like a young child (mind you anyone I talk to on the phone thinks I'm just a kid before surgery), a few others said I sounded like a kid I grew up with. I decided I sounded like homestar runner. If you don't know who I'm talking about, well you should check out this web site. Its homestarrunner.com and homestar is very funny and says some pretty stupid stuff. My favorite and still cracks me up is the voice mail homestar leaves on his girlfriends answering machine. He's apparently forgotten who he's leaving this message with because he says "Hey Marzipan this is Homestar. Um I was wondering if you could help me with a delima I'm having. I can't think of what to get my girlfriend for Valentine's days. Um she's kind of annoying and overbearing and kind of a big hippy. So if you could uhhh . . . do de do the number you have reached is not your boyfriend calling you right now. do duh duh duh duh dooooo this the dial tone doooooooooo. OK bye." I think it is so funny and if you like that sorta thing then check it out. On the home page click toons and then marzipan's answering machine and then click archive menu and click on 6 and then go to message 1. I know my humor is pretty silly. I'm also a bit weird but that's ok. Well I'm going to go check on Chloe and see how she's doing. I may have a long couple of day in front of me. Until next time.