God’s Help

God’s Help

In 1997, 32 year old the Reverend Scott Schmieding was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue. During an 11-hour operation at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, doctors removed his tongue through his throat. Then, they reconstructed the cavity in his mouth with a muscle from his abdomen.

During his rehabilitation, he suffered from blisters in his mouth from intense radiation, making his speech therapy sessions agony. He calls it “the most painful part of the entire ordeal.”

For eight months, he had to breathe through a hole in his neck, and he ate through a feeding tube. Doctors told Schmieding they feared he would choke to death if he tried to swallow food, and that the feeding tube might be permanent.

The loss of his tongue meant Schmieding permanently lost almost all of his sense of taste. Radiation treatments to his head eliminated the ability to produce saliva. He had to learn how to replace the sounds of consonants in his speech ó making the “T” sound, for instance, by shooting air at his retainer, which acts like a megaphone and replicates the traditional sound of the tip of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth.

But through the years, Scott’s speech improved and he returned to the pulpit full time. Few notice anything different about his speech. Scott believes strongly that he’s been able to reach more people without a tongue than he would have had he not had cancer.

“The history of the Bible is the story of God using imperfect people for his perfect purposes,” he said. “I’m just one in a very long line of imperfect people being used by God.”