DANG!!! I wish I'd read those last few posts yesterday! I experimented by placing a strip of duct tape firmly across my mouth and pressing it solidly in place. I saw that done in a movie once, where a kidnapper wanted his quarry to be quiet. Anyway, I tried talking. Then I realized that I'd put the tape over my nostrils, too, and I couldn't breathe ... took me about five minutes to figure that one out ... and so I pulled it away from my nostrils and when I spoke, I didn't. I tried singing the U.S. National Anthem (The Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key), but I ended up humming the thing. I couldn't get the words out. The humming sounded a bit weird, but I couldn't distinguish any words at all.
I ran to my wife to see if she could understand my speech. She looked at me as though I'd lost my mind and did check to see if my arms were tied behind my back. I asked her again and again what I was saying and she finally grabbed a loose corner of the duct tape and ripped it off my face. Let me say here that nurses are very good at ripping bandage-like things from skin. Anyway, after she got me calmed down -- apparently I was writhing on the floor for several minutes clutching my face -- I totally forgot what I was wanting to ask her.
The next day at work, several folks asked me if I'd gotten too near a fire or something. Seems that the red across my mouth and the moustache that was now missing sections was bothering them. It bothered me pretty much last night, too, but today I have to decide if I'm going to shave the moustache off or try to let it grow back in.
Dean