I'm sure you know this, but there are a variety of kinds of trach tubes, some with speech valves, some without. Joe had a 2-piece stainless steel one. When we needed him to talk, or he wanted to talk, we just put on some gloves and covered the hole with a finger briefly.

It was something like this - https://www.betterli...m?ndc=08225139506

He was very happy the first time he was able to talk again after the operation. :-)

The brain is an amazing organ. Thanks for the updates and the good news. Best wishes.

Cheers,
Scott.