hoarseness

benjamin2121
benjamin2121 Member Posts: 24
in Head and Neck Cancer #1

So anyone out there who has had Larynax cancer and radiation treatment....My voice still struggles with hoarseness ...is this something that gets better or will it come and go from now on....i know I am only five weeks out of treatment but I was hoping it would start to get more consistant......

 

Thanks,

Benjamin

Comments

  • CivilMatt
    CivilMatt Member Posts: 4,724 Member
    #2
    have water can speak

    Benjamin,

    My voice is something that I work on constantly.  At 5 weeks post I was nowhere near where I am at 19 months.  I have to purposely speak clearly when I speak to groups.  To me, it feels like I am tired talking and my voice gets softer and softer.

    Until recently I would not talk on a phone without my water, but I might venture to answer a call now.

    At your stage I was hoarse, even whispering. It does get better, at least mine did.  Some times when I try to raise the volume, it jumps to a yell without anything in between, I am working on that.

    Don’t feel disappointed, just learn a few facial expressions and hand signs to supplement your voice till it returns to new-normal.

    Matt

  • phrannie51
    phrannie51 Member Posts: 4,716
    #3
    Benjamin....

    I would think it would take several months to get past all the hoarseness since the radiation was directed to your larnyx.....even folks on here who had rads aimed at other areas of their throat have had to wait a while before their voices came all the way back (just from the rads that spilled over towards their larnyx's).  In 5 weeks, you're still in the baby stages of recovery.  Keep you expectations in check....we all wanted to say we're done, and have things go back to normal in a week....but it takes a long time.  In a month you might still be hoarse, but you'll look back to now, and think..."at least it's better than it was".....That's where most of our improvement seems to come....looking back two or four weeks....

    p

  • josh r.
    josh r. Member Posts: 264 Member
    #4
    Hoarseness

    Hi Benjamine,

    I am well aquainted with your situation. God willing I'll be NED for 22 years come the 22nd of this month from larynax cancer stage iv. I still have on occasion "bouts" with hoarseness depending on how long I've been talking and under what conitions, large groups, having to talk over competing noise, etc. As Matt pointed out dryness can still be an enemy for me so having water available is very helpful. Both in my pass profession and my present one talking is a necessary tool and at times I get frustrated so I go to gum and or water. At first I used substitute saliva available at pharmacies but that was no longer needed after about six month of completeing tx. For the most part my speaking voice is fine though I have been asked if I did "voice over" for Brando in the Godfather films.

    Hang in there and you will be fine and maybe have a new career in gangster films! You're alive Benjamine and if hoarseness is your biggest problem you are WAY ahead of the game. All the best, josh r.

  • denistd
    denistd Member Posts: 597
    #5
    josh r. said:

    Hoarseness

    Hi Benjamine,

    I am well aquainted with your situation. God willing I'll be NED for 22 years come the 22nd of this month from larynax cancer stage iv. I still have on occasion "bouts" with hoarseness depending on how long I've been talking and under what conitions, large groups, having to talk over competing noise, etc. As Matt pointed out dryness can still be an enemy for me so having water available is very helpful. Both in my pass profession and my present one talking is a necessary tool and at times I get frustrated so I go to gum and or water. At first I used substitute saliva available at pharmacies but that was no longer needed after about six month of completeing tx. For the most part my speaking voice is fine though I have been asked if I did "voice over" for Brando in the Godfather films.

    Hang in there and you will be fine and maybe have a new career in gangster films! You're alive Benjamine and if hoarseness is your biggest problem you are WAY ahead of the game. All the best, josh r.

    Hi Ben

    Like you I had laynx cancer and 35 rads and 3 cisplatin's. My voice was just a squeak before treatment, 3 weeks into treatment my voice returned and was pretty much normal for the next two weeks. Then the rad field changed and was cranked up on the larynx, voice disappeared. It came back 3 or 4 days after treatment. It was pretty much normal unless I sang, my higher register was weak but got better during the next couple of weeks. Have had no problems since. I was a musician and sang a lot as well, although that was when I was younger. It also matters on the location of the tumor, mine was supra glotta, above the cords, below the cords is a little more difficult I was told. This was all back in the Spring and Summer of 2009, ENT says that in my July 2014 checkup, given all is the same with the throat, he will consider me cured of the larynx cancer.

     

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