Speaking Plainly

Wow! Thanks to all of you for your comments, suggestions and encouragement about the most recent post. I had hesitated to be so blunt. But I guess the truth is that we all have rough patches of life and it helps to know that we aren't alone in those. (My dear friend, Becky, has suggested that I reformat my response section to make commenting easier. Working on that. I know just enough about this to be dangerous.)

Meagan is about the same; her lips are swollen and very tender. The surgeon seems to be stumped. It appears that Kristin and Meagan have the dubious honor of being his first patients to ever have such an allergic reaction to the guard. Certainly not as much fun as an Olympic Gold! We are hoping the Benadryl will help matters soon.

It has been interesting trying to learn her "new speech". Did you really think a little thing like not being able to move your mouth would stop a determined young woman from talking? Smile. Not around these parts.

There are lots of new words like: Tur tle (the color, not the creature); Ter teck (perfect); Oht neal (oatmeal); suut (soup) and so on. Fortunately for us, Meagan is being very patient and willingly repeats things, uses hand motions and even resorts to writing it out in order to help us understand.

While in the hospital, she was using regular sign language to express something to me. I don't know many letters but I was quite pleased that I correctly guessed the first letter was "i".

Okay, next letter is..... ummmmm "c"? Meagan nodded vigorously.

"What did you see, Baby? Do you need to see something?" I began looking around the room. Meagan shook her head.

Again the slow process of signing the letters.

"i" I
"c" see
Ummmmmm......oh, good grief. Why didn't I learn sign language with her?

Ummmmm "e"? Is that the sign for "e"? Meagan nodded the affirmative. Woo Hoo, we got it.

I glanced at Frank. "What do you think she wants to see?" Meagan sighed.

Start again. More emphasis this time. (I think that is yelling in sign language.)

"i" I
"c" see
"e" ..............no clue

"Oh, Baby, I'm so sorry. Mama just doesn't understand."

She resorted to hand motions and gently placed both palms against her puffy cheeks.

The light dawned and Dad yelled, "ICE! She needs ice packs for her cheeks!" (Okay, so I know you caught that much faster than we did. Both parents did indeed graduate from college but it seems that's no guarantee of understanding basic communication methods.)

If Meagan were to read the precious comments you have left, she would want to say: "Tanks tor trayin tor ne. I atresate it."
Which being interpreted would be:
"Thanks for praying for me. I appreciate it." And we really do!