Tag: Teeth

Margerumalia – A New Year’s Resolution, Part 2

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – January 10, 2025

Part 1 RECAP: 

Infected teeth seem to have played a role in the speech impediment I’ve developed over the past several years. And because they refused to leave a bad taste in my mouth [rim shot] the infection was draining into my bloodstream. The teeth were extracted, I got some new choppers, and it’s time to retrain my brain.

Part 2 RETRAINING

I’ve never worked with a speech therapist but a few of my family members did. 

When my wife was a little girl she had a lisp—that must’ve been adorable—and she was taught to say her S’s by hissing like an angry snake.

My dad was a twin and, together, the brothers had to learn how to say their R’s. It’s a myth that twins have their own language, they just share mispronunciations. Instead of choo-choo trains, they said choo-choo twains—again, adorable.

Dad would tell a story of he and his brother telling the speech therapist about their dog, Wags.

“Rags,” she corrected them. “Your dog’s name is Rrrags.” 

“No, his name is Wags,” they corrected her. “Because he likes to wag his tail!” 

So I’ve begun working on re-training myself. I have an MFA in Theatre and have taught enunciation as a Theatre Professor, so I decided to use my knowledge and apply it to a collection of poems by Robert Frost. The book was an opening night gift from a very special stage manager and it challenges me as I read the poetry aloud. 

I sometimes read a stanza out loud five or six times to conquer the tripping points or the mushy places my mouth wants to go. 

Try saying “more loitering” out loud. Go ahead. I’ll wait…

If you’re like me, you just said “more lortering.”

The “or” of the first word sits in the middle of your mouth with a cupped tongue, while the “oi” of the second word fits further back in your mouth with a flatter tongue and more open passage. Your tongue needs to do a bit of a dance to get from point OR to point OI. Subtle but significant dance steps.

You can find those particular words in the fourth stanza of Frost’s “The Trial By Existence.” 

My goal is to tackle a poem or stanza every day and say it repeatedly until it flows easily—“trippingly on the tongue” as Hamlet put it—and not too emphatically. 

My book sells for $13.99 and I don’t want to sound like I’m tearing off a chunk of raw meat while saying ninety nine. In fact, most of us tend to soften the T into a D and say nine-dee-nine. 

A couple other phrases I’ve stumbled over lately include “toxic masculinity” and “I was being facetious.” I’ll let you try to work out the mechanics on your own. 

You can also repeat “The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles” over and over again. Preferably in a bookstore. Just saying. 

TTFN 

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Margerumalia – A New Year’s Resolution, Part 1

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – January 3, 2025

As I said last week, I don’t usually make resolutions. But this year I have a specific goal: retraining myself to speak. 

Me—actor, singer, director, teacher, public speaker—with a speech impediment? What gives?

Over the past few years I’ve noticed that my ability to say certain phrases has left me tongue-tied, and it got worse in 2024. Of course, this escalated during the period when I was scheduling multiple book signings, but I soldiered on through, and people patiently waited for me as I corrected my words. Bless them. But I wasn’t satisfied. 

I got new insight into how it feels to have a disability. Suddenly I required people’s tolerance as I saw weariness creep across their faces, maybe they even had the urge to complete my sentences for me. I’ve been told by several people that they didn’t notice, so it could have been my projection. My own impatience with myself, however, made me want to avoid lengthy conversations, and I became a little bit reclusive. I also found myself tiring more easily while directing plays.

I’d had enough. 

Over the summer, my wife and I made an appointment with a Doctor of Functional Medicine, each for different reasons. We had blood drawn at a lab where it was analyzed according to the instructions of the doctor. She then reviewed the entire blood panel with each of us, identifying levels of everything from glucose to magnesium, uric acid, iron, and much more. She also drew comparisons between certain items and discussed the implications of their levels.

Near the end of my appointment she said that certain indicators told her I was fighting off an infection. Nonsense, I thought, I never get sick and my only bout with COVID was over a year earlier. I had no idea what kind of infection she might be referring to. She prescribed a few different supplements to help my body fight off this unknown infection.

Two or three weeks into taking those supplements I had a revelation. My tooth! 

Remember a few weeks ago I described my tooth extraction experience in the dentist’s office? (November 29, 2024 – Christmas Lights and Dental Blights) My previous dentist had been “watching” that tooth for about two years, poking around at the pustule in my gums. That was the infection! And because the pustule hadn’t opened and leaked into my mouth, that meant I had a constant flow of infection going into my bloodstream. 

There had also been a previous tooth on the bottom row that we had “watched” for a couple of years before that. It had the same kind of pustule that was also draining into my bloodstream for a couple of years before it started hurting and had to be extracted.

These infections were all near my tools for articulation, and close to my brain, the control center for speaking. 

I admit to being complicit in the decision to “watch” each tooth. Shall we put off for tomorrow what I don’t want to experience today? Sure, let’s do that!

When I added up the timeline of those two teeth, one after the other, it matched the time period in which my speech had started to change.

I know the expression that correlation is not causation, but with a lack of any other known infection in my body it makes for pretty strong circumstantial evidence. (Yes, I do watch The Lincoln Lawyer AND read the books, why do you ask?)

I have another blood draw in a couple of days followed by another analysis and consultation. I have high hopes for closure on this issue. 

I’d estimate that my speech is about 50% better than it was a few months ago, but that’s not good enough for me. Next week I’ll tell you about my personal speech therapy using poetry.

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PSA: Part of the reason I’ve described this situation in detail is to prompt you or your loved ones to seek medical treatment when you need it. A former student of mine just posted a similar PSA about his recent surgery for skin cancer. Early detection and treatment is so much less expensive than what may develop. Please take care of yourselves.

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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles