People suffering from head and neck cancers including cancer of the mouth, pharynx, salivary glands, and especially cancer of the larynx, often have at least one specialist in common with those who’ve suffered brain injuries or have Parkinson’s disease – a speech pathologist.
Bretton Jenks, a speech pathologist at the Indian River Medical Center, says she sees a lot of “head and neck cancer patients,” along with many stroke patients.
One of the most traumatic situations Jenks deals with is helping people who’ve undergone a laryngectomy.
A laryngectomy is the surgical removal of the larynx. The larynx, sometimes called the voice box, houses the vocal cords and is what allows most of us to produce speech and vocal sounds.
However, if the larynx is surgically removed, the patient must learn new ways to speak, to swallow and even to breathe.
“When a patient has their voice box removed,” Jenks says, “they lose all ability to communicate the way you and I do.”
That’s actually something of an understatement given that, according to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute, for patients who’ve gone through a laryngectomy, “Your nose and mouth will no longer be connected to your trachea. You will breathe through a new [continuously open hole] in your neck called a stoma. Air will pass through the stoma into and out of your lungs. This will be your only way to breathe.”
Yet despite that, Jenks proudly points to the laryngectomy support group she works with here at IRMC and says several members of that group have learned to do much more than speak.
Some, she says, have mastered the art of swimming with an open hole in their neck and perhaps even more astonishingly, others have resumed playing musical wind instruments including, of all things, the trumpet.
“It’s really a unique population we have here in Vero, because these patients are very resilient. Most of them find ways to do things that surprise us.”
Besides cancer and stroke patients, Jenks says she sees “a lot of age-related voice problems. A lot of the older population in our community have difficulty producing their voices just because of changes in muscle function over time.”
Each patient brings unique needs, challenges and, sometimes, inspiration.
While the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics rather dryly describes a speech pathologist as “someone who assesses, diagnoses and treats communication and swallowing disorders,” Jenks turns the tables by saying her patients “teach me. I’ve been doing this for a long time but they teach me new things every day.”
In her 26 years as a speech pathologist, this Vero Beach native logged time at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa before retuning here. She has spent the past 11 years at IRMC.
“This is my hometown,” Jenks says. “It’s where I grew up.”
Whatever the reason for a patient’s need for speech therapy, Jenks observes that, “I think the psychological part is almost greater than the actual physical component.”
“Some people,” Jenks continues, “are very word-oriented. They’re big communicators whether it’s verbally or in written form. To lose that ability to communicate is life-changing. Some patients, if they lose their ability to vocalize, they may lose their ability to communicate in written form as well. It may come down to pointing to letters or pointing to pictures or using gestures.”
While the bulk of Jenks’ patients do remarkably well, there is no such thing as a 100 percent success rate.
“I tell people I don’t have enough pixie dust in my pocket to take care of everything,” Jenks admits. “I’ve had patients use drawing as the primary means of communication because that was all the function that was left intact.”
“You have to accept the fact that you can’t fix everyone. I wish I could,” Jenks concludes.
Bretton Jenks is with the Indian River Medical Center. Her phone number is 772-567-4311, extension 1096.