I am feeling whoozy!

Many people (including myself-at one time) do not know the variety of clientele for whom speech-language pathologists (SLP) are consulted. A large number of individuals are only aware of the SLPs in the schools- oh, those pretty ladies who help children produce "r" and "s" in elementary school. We have fun, educational decor covering the walls and doors of our clean and orderly speech-therapy rooms. We give out stickers and candies to children who work especially hard at placing their tongues on the alveolar ridge of their mouths for a clear and accurate "l".

Well... that is not the SLP I am going to be this semester in the hospital. As I will be walking around in cute blue scrubs and providing exceptional therapy to patients, I will not be dealing solely with speech, language, and cognitive deficits. Nope. I have been assigned to the head/neck cancer rotation, which includes some pretty disturbing sites and several laryngectomies.

My first day at Parkland, I was given the opportunity to clean and replace a tracheoesophageal prosthesis (TEP). A TEP is inserted into the trachea and esophagus to allow an individual with no larynx to eat and breathe safely. This patient's TEP was leaking due to fungal colonization around and within this prosthesis allowing saliva, foods, and liquids to enter the lungs which puts the individual at risk for aspiration pneumonia. The SLP's role is to remove the TEP covered in yeast from the patient's neck, and place a new four-inch long tube into the man's neck. No blood, just secretions, yeast, and a patient's life at your finger tips.

So... I thought that I felt queezy from my professor's secretions flying out of his neck, but that was before I actually delved into a man's neck that had fungus growing inside. I was very proud of myself for the professional manner in which I observed and participated in this procedure... for the first 15 minutes. But then, I began to sweat and get dizzy, and a black shadow began creeping into my line of vision. Not wanting to faint on my first day and with my first patient, I sat down (that's what Dr. and nurse Brantly advised me to do if I found myself feeling this way). Eventually, I quietly left the room leaving my patient supervisor to complete the task alone. I recovered after a few minutes and resumed my place in improving the lives of my patients one tracheoesophageal prosthesis-at-a-time! This should be an interesting semester!