No Speak Week, Initial Thoughts
First and foremost - thank you to every person who has been thoughtful enough to reach out to me, send me suggestions, and toss thoughts/prayers in my direction. I was warmly blown away by how many people reached out - it was a wonderful reminder that I have such incredible people in my life. Yesterday morning I had my vocal chord surgery, and my doc said it was a great success! My throat is a little sore, and it hurts when I clear my throat/cough, but other than that I feel like a million bucks.
But I thought it might be interesting to share what it's like to not be allowed to talk! I downloaded a text-to-speech app call "Speak," am texting a TON, and also bought and have been using a whiteboard. It's nice to have the whiteboard simply so that I don't have a glowing screen in my face all day long. I haven't used the app much yet, but I selected a woman with a British accent in my futile hopes of having Adele's voice when this is done with because she had the same procedure done. ;)
Other thoughts:
It's fun to actually write (versus type!). I'm having a good time sending pics of messages/doodles I scribble on my whiteboard. I realize I could text them too, but it's fun to change it up and do something different.
I feel like I'm having to relearn how to write.
This is a good one - only people who know me extremely well would know this, but I happen whistle a ton. I don't even realize I'm doing it half the time. My dad and brother do, too. But given the restraints of no-speak-week, I instinctively started to respond/acknowledge with a whistle. Especially "thank you."
I clap whenever I'm trying to express being happy or excited. I didn't think to do this, I just sort of did it. Funny how one can naturally and quickly adapt as their environment or circumstances change.
The spidey sense effect is real. Everything is 1000x louder, I swear to God. I hear everything.
I think I'll venture out into the public either today or tomorrow - we'll see how that goes! :)