Hi Shirley, 

After you tab down to the suggested list and your word is not there, I find I can shift-tab back up to the misspelled word.  The focus is at the end of the word.   I use insert-left arrow, which places the cursor at the beginning of the misspelled word.  I can type the correct word, space once and use ctrl-del to delete the misspelled word.  Hit ALT-C to make the change.   Spell checker moves on to the next error.