First day

Message

#31 Post by **triggerhart** » Mon May 24, 2010 1:15 pm

LOL - now I know who I remind myself of when speaking. I've just seen an ad or trailer on TV with Lou and Andy - my speech is like Lou's!

#32 Post by **triggerhart** » Tue May 25, 2010 10:53 am

Ok I've obviously been very bad in a past life cos my speech is WORSE today! Surely this can't be right? My tongue has gone on strike and is only making the bare minimum effort to move. How uncooperative.....

How are you doing Becs - have you come up for air from studying yet?

#33 Post by **BecStar** » Tue May 25, 2010 11:39 am

Did you by any chance decide to sleep without wax last night? I had one day where I thought I'd be ok without it and then the next day my mouth was dried out and tongue wouldnt work! No matter how much water I drank! Maybe its somethin like that? Or did u talk a lot more than usual yday so its pooped out? Its definitely more of an effort talkin wi these things in! I've FINISHED by the way!!!!! Shopping day tomorrow to treat myself!!!

Couple of bits I still need to wrap up before I'm totally finished but now that whopper is out of the way I really have broke the back of it! Oh and if u sound like lou i reckon ur doin ok, I'm not a little britain fan but checked him out on youtube and doesnt seem bad at all to me!! I was expectin you to be soundin like ur from another planet!!!x

#34 Post by **triggerhart** » Tue May 25, 2010 12:05 pm

Yay - well done you! It's a great feeling when you're finished. Enjoy your well deserved shopping day. I am dehydrated today - not sure why - and guess that's my problem. And yes, thinking about it, I did have to talk more than usual from first thing today. Hopefully all this exercise will result in improved performance in another day or two!

LOL - I'm not as clearly spoken as Lou but similar sounding. It gave me a chuckle last night when I heard him on TV.

Have a great time tomorrow.

#35 Post by **linguallover** » Wed May 26, 2010 4:03 am

I have to admit that I didnt read through this entire thread but just wanted to offer some reassurance. I posted a reply to someone new to linguals a few months back detailing my experience so far which is here http://archwired.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=34374

Hope you find it helpful!

#36 Post by **triggerhart** » Wed May 26, 2010 11:31 am

That was thoughtful of you - thank you

#37 Post by **BecStar** » Wed May 26, 2010 12:48 pm

Hey trigger how are you doing? Any progress?? Thats so funny reading what someone else put about being told it would affect your speech but being convinced it wouldnt affect you!! I think thats how I felt hence why i am sooooo frustrated when a full week later I still cant talk lol!! I managed to eat a lamb shank today!! Mmmm mmmmmm!!

Still no better on the speech front tho... and am now starting to follow particularly difficult sentences with a growl and angry mumblings as I get more and more frustrated!!!x

#38 Post by **triggerhart** » Wed May 26, 2010 1:25 pm

Hi Becs!

I'm great (but still incoherent

) I had a big meeting today which I had been anxious about but ended up fine. The other side were people I've been dealing with for a while and have a good rapport with. I told them why my speech was so bad and asked them to let me know if they couldn't understand me. They know me well enough to feel free to ask me to repeat myself without worrying about causing offence or embarrassment - which is just as well because there were LOTS of occasions when they couldn't quite work out what I was saying. I'm so jealous when I read of people saying 'no one else noticed my speech problem until I mentioned it' because they certainly noticed mine and it got worse and worse as time went on and I got more tired. However with goodwill and humour on all sides we got through everything we had to discuss. Had this been a more contentious meeting with less cooperative clients then I wouldn't have been able to manage.

It did bring home to me how poor my speech really is and helped reassure me that I'm not making a mountain out of a molehill. My ortho has somehow managed to shoehorn me in tomorrow for the lingual to come off. It's hugely disappointing and frustrating for me but aside from some improvement in the first week my speech hasn't got any better and I know I can't keep going like this.

How's yours coming along?

#39 Post by **triggerhart** » Thu May 27, 2010 9:24 am

IT'S OFF!! My overwhelming feeling is of massive relief - the tension has quite literally lifted from my shoulders. I am sad that my lingual didn't work out and of course a little frustrated that I will now never know now long it would have taken for my speech to settle down. But wow it feels fantastic to be able to speak again. I am now the proud wear of a ceramic brace. For sure I will feel acutely self conscious at times over the next year or so but at least I know I tried the alternative. I think my embarrassment threshold has definitely increased over the last few weeks so this is now less of a problem than it would have been before. This experience has really opened my eyes to how critical clear speech is and what a hugely significant hurdle it must be for those who cannot communicate with ease.

My ortho and her team have been absolutely brilliant throughout - if they'd been less understanding this could have been a total nightmare. This evening I'm looking forward to truly relaxing for the first time in nearly three weeks

#40 Post by **fra** » Thu May 27, 2010 11:42 am

good, really good to hear that you feel it was the right choice, I really do admire your awareness and the way you seem to have faced the situation.
well... I do not hide that for me, starting tomorrow, is kind of scary, but I do not want to seem "egoistic", just that now I am really nervous.
I am sure that you will be happy at the end, the important is getting to the result, right?

#41 Post by **triggerhart** » Thu May 27, 2010 1:03 pm

Exactly! A year or so from now we won't care how we got there, we'll just be enjoying our lovely smiles. You're bound to be nervous but I bet this time tomorrow you'll be fine. Best of luck with yours and let us know how you get on.