A saying during WWII was, "there are no atheists in the foxholes". I feel there are no atheists among all of us, cured cancer patients.

A LARYNGECTOMEE PRAYER

O Heavenly Father, I thank you for your sweet gift of speech, the second such gift to me during my lifetime, and your help through so many times during my recent and terrible silence. Never let me forget the anguish nor the despair suffered by me while speechless. For only in remembering can I tenderly assist those who unfortunately came after me. Teach me to do so with a clear understanding, a gentle compassion, a deep humility and with great patience. AMEN

This is from the 80's. This prayer does not pertain to today's laryngectomy patient with a short silent period and almost immediate communication through medical upgrades and modern technology. Immediate speech with technology only proves one thing, you can now practice esophageal speech without disturbing your useful apparatus. Yes, a check valve closes off the hole in the esophagus while eating or using your esophageal voice. Now you can exercise and train the muscles to trap air at the top of the esophagus for speech. It is much like when you could blow up a balloon, small bubble at first and with constant trying it became larger and larger

The air bubble at the top of the esophagus wants to escape and make the esophageal sound. Not a burp but a controlled sound made by saying a vowel, such as (a, e, i, o, u).

You have no trouble opening the esophagus to swallow food because the muscle strapped over the esophagus is trained for eating. Now it is up to you to train it for speaking.

Training this muscle is easy if you do the same thing each time you want to speak. I suggest you take a deep breath. Immediately force all of the air out of your lungs. Now you can force esophageal speech without any air leaving the lungs.

A small child learns to walk with small steps. You must do the same. Start with small letters and stretch out the vowel. Force the letter for volume.

Now you must remember I have no medical knowledge. I am like the person that taught you how to drive. You were shown the gas pedal, the brake pedal and the gear shift .If it was an older car the clutch pedal. Then they showed you how it works and said get in and try it. Go slow at first, and drive carefully. I say the same, try it slow at first. Say letters until you get the vowel sound, small words using B,D,K,P T and then say a short word like bat, cat. But concentrate first on saying all of the letters with a good vowel sound Beeeee, Teeeee, Kaaa. Squeeze out the vowel. Don't rush it. When you are alone exercise your speech muscles. These muscles need training and exercise. Naturally at the start you will create mucus at the stoma, but wear a Foam Filter and wipe it off and keep on exercising. Don't exercise these new muscles more than