Mom with tongue cancer has a soothing solution to ensure her kids never forget her voice

Battling a serious illness and dealing with its side effects can be quite challenging for everyone in the family. However, a mom named Jamie Powell–who goes by @jamieraepowell on TikTok–battling tongue cancer, was also dealing with the prospect of her voice changing or being lost. She was worried that her young children would forget what her voice used to sound like and was having a hard time processing it, along with coming to terms with her diagnosis. Powell shared what she did to ensure that her kids never forget what her voice used to sound like.

"Favorite horror movie: Recording my voice before having my tongue cut out, so he can remember what I used to sound like," the text overlay of the video read as she sang with her son. "I may sound different now, but I am powerful with my new voice," Powell wrote in the caption. The mom had always been a performer and her voice was a big part of her identity, per Newsweek. She was worried that her young children wouldn't be able to recollect what their mom's voice used to sound like after her surgery. She shared, "I underwent a glossectomy to remove half of my tongue and replace it with parts of my thigh. I also had a neck dissection to remove lymph nodes where the cancer had spread. After surgery, I did 30 rounds of head and neck radiation."

Along with her rigorous treatment, Powell also had other worries. "I was devastated. I thought about my kids and how they would never know the voice of their mom. They were so young and I was just so very sad." The woman continued, "I felt lost and immediately didn't know who I was. This cancer had defined me." However, she was determined to do something to ensure that her children didn't feel the impact of the change in her life and decided to record her voice before she went through a glossectomy. Her doctors had told her that her voice might sound different and they won't be able to determine how it would affect her until the surgery was over. "I decided to record my voice so my kids could remember how I was before I got sick."

The mom loved singing for her sons and reading stories for them and she wanted to ensure that her sons would still have that even after her surgery. She recorded all of their favorite songs, birthday songs, little messages for them that could be played while she was at the hospital and more. She first felt a bump on her tongue in December 2019. Her dentist initially dismissed it as nothing serious. But she decided to seek a second opinion after the bump grew, before being diagnosed with tongue cancer in March 2020.

"I was in the Twilight Zone when I was told that's what it was. Just in complete shock." She is doing okay now, but still has to deal with quite a few side effects. "I can't eat normally or speak clearly, but I have come so far with speech therapy and keeping with a routine to help with the mouth pain." People in the comments shared their thoughts. @xxgrimxx999 wrote, "You can use those voice recordings and put them in a program to help you use your actual voice to talk! They're AI-generated." @nicolefithian0 commented, "Much love. My mom just battled tongue cancer last year. They removed 90% of her tongue. They rebuilt it using thigh muscles. She is now able to talk a little."

You can follow Jamie Powell (@jamieraepowell) on TikTok for more lifestyle content.