We made an interesting discovery today about the connection between speech difficulties and hearing. Dick's ears have an unusual tendency for the wax to form a thin, almost transparent shell coating the inside of his ears. Once there's nearly a solid shell in one of his ears, his hearing is almost totally gone. I don't know if it's because it becomes so tight across the eardrum that it can't vibrate, or what. Today he saw an ear specialist to have the wax removed, and suddenly he could hear again. Amazingly enough, he could also speak normally again, too. He'd been having increasing difficulty with voice volume, and, as I'd noted but probably not convinced him of, he wasn't moving his lips when he spoke, either. Once he could hear, he could also speak. I know when Dick thinks his voice isn't loud enough, that sets up an anxiety situation which causes his vocal cords to tighten up, making it even harder to speak more loudly. He notices this, and gets even more anxious, and therefore even quieter. It's a vicious circle. I'm not sure why he ceases to move his lips too, but it may also be an anxiety thing. Apparently when he couldn't hear his voice because of his ear problem, it worked to produce the same anxiety and the same results as when his voice is actually at low volume. I'm not saying other PWP have hearing problems, but it's interesting to realize what a role anxiety and fear of low voice volume can have on further reducing volume. Wish I knew of a cure for this "anxiety feedback" loop. Margie Swindler cg for Dick, 54/17