A very moving email from Valerie

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Haha! I was just searching Facebook for "laryngectomy". I honestly didn't think there would be any results. But to my surprise there were a few. My Dad had a laryngectomy for 17 years. He passed away in December 2008. I guess it's a little late to find these groups now, but I still wanted to be a part of them. To me, my Dad was normal. He talked with a servox, and that was just his voice. The only voice I knew. My mom said it was very hard in the beginning, all the things that he went through. But he taught himself how to do it all. There were numerous doctor's appointments and ambulance calls.

My Dad worked at a shipyards painting ships, and he was over-exposed to chemicals which caused the cancer. That and smoking. In 1989 he was diagnosed with lung disease and cancer of the larynx. In 1991 he had the laryngectomy. The doctors originally gave him 7 years to live. I am only 22 years old, so it all happened when I was young. My Dad was 64 when he passed away. He had many other things wrong with him. He'd had knee replacement surgery, diabetes, lung disease, heart disease, cataracts… It was his lungs that eventually gave out. After being in so much pain for so many years, he passed away peacefully in his sleep.


I don't know if you were expecting all this information, but I'm glad I could share. :)