A big Hi to both you - Tony and Dave. I went through your "ride" with Cancer and found a lot of things in common. Being and Indian - I love Indian food and its been six long years since I last ate a meal as in the last six years my food and air passages have closed down and the only option left to remain alive is through the peg.Now getting down to the spicy stuff like currys etc - It sounds very crazy but both my wife and mother consider me as normal as anyone else. All they do is the food that they eat is pureed throughly with either water or milk added and its down through the tube. I am really not missing the food as besides getting the nourishment through my peg, I also taste, chew orally on the food and then bin it. It gives me the satisfaction of eating " normally". I too have been putting on weight, something that the doctors are bit amazed at and in fact have asked me to control my weight. I do the same by working out really hard ( weights and all ) for an hour every day at the gym and a run of four kms. every morning. The only thing is when I go out for a meeting etc. where if I feel thirsty or feel like eating I cannot and the explainations I have to give to people is getting tiring. Now all I do is hand over the rdoc website address to them and ask them to read my story.
One thing I can say with conviction is that hyperbaric was very much instrumental in my recovery - I had a some forty odd sittings as the doc. who looks after the section of the hospital - and the only machine in Delhi is a very good friend of mine. The doctors in India do not talk about hyperbaric and it became a very harsh topic when I questioned them about the same at a seminar, where all leading oncologists and surgeons were present. Their reply was that it was too expensive for the average India. I agreed about the cost bit but got a bit angered at their attitude and they did not have much of an answer as to why dont they mention it if a patient can afford the same !!. My oncologist and ENT docs. both told me about it and so it made me aware.

Well coming back to the present - I had all the time in the world to experiment on getting a "voice" that would be asnormal as possible ( I wear a stoma button to keep the trach. open. My larynx are both fixed and if I do not block the track I cannot talk.There are some orators in the market but all being imported are really expensive ( about US$150/- ). and very limited. As I said I had the time I worked upon it and today I can talk just as I was doing before my surgery. My " orator" is a baby's feeding bottle nipple and it fits beautifully on the inner part of my stoma button and when I breathe in The flap I created at the edge of the nipple works like a dream - opening to let air in so that I can talk and it closes when I breate out giving me a totally clear voice. Noone can even imagine I have no voice!! We have decided to go into full production and will be doing so very soon. We will be giving the hospitals where I was treated about a 100 each every motnh free of cost and will also be on sale in every super market, chemists for Rs.25/- ( Rs.50 = $US 1 ). I do hope it will make a difference. I am now working on a similar product for people with total loss of their voice box - no harm in working and trying out something new I guess - and who knows???!!!. Do read my story as my doctors or anyone has been able to tell me why and how I have survived so long and still lead a very normal life.
Do write in if you have any questions or just want to chat.
Take care,
Ananth

hi ananth
your story gives hope to anyone.....good luck and take care

jeff