Just started radiation SCC vocal cord Questions???

TheDave

Hi all, just started photon radiation therapy on the 21st of December.  I am just on the 9th treatment of 28 and I have what feels like a lump in my throat everytime I swallow.  Is this normal so early? They said after 4 weeks it might start to hurt and its already starting to feel like its so raw. Also very red on my neck. Was diagnosed stage 1-2 squamous cell carcinoma on one vocal cord.  I lost my ability to talk pretty much within a month after diagnosis from the horseness. Will that ever come back? 

CivilMatt

welcome

TheDave,

Welcome to the H&N Zone, where we try to guess where treatments will take you.

You may feel like there is something in your throat for a very long time, but if your team tells you it is nothing, they are probably right.  You are burning up the cancer and it is torture to your mouth, throat and tongue, let alone the rest of your organs.  It is normal to feel some discomfort, but it should be reasonable and not feel like it will come climbing out of your mouth.

The timeline is + or – an number of days or weeks or month (post), so you may be fine.  What are you eating and drinking?  All sorts of things can cause disruptions.

Red neck, did you say you are or do have?  The red neck caused by rads usually shows up around week 6. 

If your vocal cords heal (which they probably will) you will speak again, to tell your story.

Good luck.

Matt

DarcyS

Loss of voice

My husband had scc of the piriform sinus, T1N2bM0 stage 4.  He had induction chemo for 6 weeks and 50 imrt inpatient radiation treatments over a 10 week period.  Yes, he did lose his voice for many weeks and had a lump feeling.  His voice slowly came back and the lump feeling gradually went away.  He sounds almost like he did before but can no longer sing falsetto, a small price to pay.  He has his 5 year check up next week and we are hoping and praying for another great check up and goodbye to his doctors at the University of Chicago.  Hang in there!  Your voice should return after treatment.

TheDave

CivilMatt said:

welcome

TheDave,

Welcome to the H&N Zone, where we try to guess where treatments will take you.

You may feel like there is something in your throat for a very long time, but if your team tells you it is nothing, they are probably right.  You are burning up the cancer and it is torture to your mouth, throat and tongue, let alone the rest of your organs.  It is normal to feel some discomfort, but it should be reasonable and not feel like it will come climbing out of your mouth.

The timeline is + or – an number of days or weeks or month (post), so you may be fine.  What are you eating and drinking?  All sorts of things can cause disruptions.

Red neck, did you say you are or do have?  The red neck caused by rads usually shows up around week 6. 

If your vocal cords heal (which they probably will) you will speak again, to tell your story.

Good luck.

Matt

Hey Matt, Thanks for the

Hey Matt, Thanks for the reply, Less Redneck and more Red Neck, LOL made me laugh. I needed that. I think its a bit early for it to be so sore and Red since its only week 2.  Glad to hear that feeling of something in your throat is normal. I just noticed it 2 days ago when I woke up in the middle of the night. My saliva dissapeared and my mouth was dry and parched all the way down my throat and when I went to swallow some water thats when I felt a lump in there like a chicken bone caught in the middle of my throat and its been there since.  Haven't eaten anything other than soft food and veggies that have been cooking all day in a broth. 

Glad you are here, thanks

The Dave

TheDave

DarcyS said:

Loss of voice

My husband had scc of the piriform sinus, T1N2bM0 stage 4.  He had induction chemo for 6 weeks and 50 imrt inpatient radiation treatments over a 10 week period.  Yes, he did lose his voice for many weeks and had a lump feeling.  His voice slowly came back and the lump feeling gradually went away.  He sounds almost like he did before but can no longer sing falsetto, a small price to pay.  He has his 5 year check up next week and we are hoping and praying for another great check up and goodbye to his doctors at the University of Chicago.  Hang in there!  Your voice should return after treatment.

Hey Darcy, Thanks for the

Hey Darcy, Thanks for the info about your husbands response to the radiation. I am only on week 2 scheduled for 5 and 1/2 weeks and cant imagine it getting much worse than it is right now. My tumor was big and covered most of one of my vocal cords even though the doc said it was a stage 1-2 and I mostly lost my voice before the radiation started. Now I can just barely talk. I hope everything goes well with your husbands check up. Let me know how he does, I will be praying for you.  

The Dave

Ladylacy

Loss of Voice

My husband was diagnosed with SCC laryngeal cancer.  The tumor was large but no spread.  He underwent radiation and chemo and lost his voice and ability to swallow after only one week of radiation.  He was diagnosed NED after treatment but the PET scan was done too soon and the swelling covered the tumor.  He then had to have an emergency trach done and we were sent to a head and neck specialist who did surgery which did result in him loosing his voice permanently.  He was able to swallow and eat again after surgery and did fine.  At his one year check up after the surgery they found that he was NED from the laryngeal cancer but found a second primary at the cervical of his esophagus which spread to his lungs.  

In hindsight, I wish they had done surgery in the very beginning instead of the radiation and treatment.  He lost his battle in July 2015 but not from the original cancer but from the secondary cancer so I often wonder did the radiation cause the secondary.  No one can say for sure because I did ask his specialist.  

Wishing you peace and comfort

aak16

I hear ya

Hi TheDave, I had scc on my vocal cords and received 29 radiation treatments in July and August. After maybe 2 weeks it started to hurt when I swallowed, maybe like the lump you feel but I felt more pain than just discomfort. It sounds like you're feeling more pain now, too. I kept telling my team that it hurt to swallow and when I stopped eating they kept telling me to use the mouthwash but that really didn't help because it was like a muscle pain, not something the numbing mouthwash could even touch. They told me to use the oxycodone to help but it really only made me care a little bit less about the pain- didn't take it away at all. My throat didn't start burning until the very end of treatment and I realized that's what the mouthwash was designed for. A friend of mine is a pharmacist and she tried to make me some lidocaine popsicles but again, nothing could take away what seemed like a muscular pain I felt when I swallowed. I remember it being really bad when I would wake up in the middle of the night (didn't sleep much anyway) because the drier my throat, the worse it hurt. Painful to swallow even water. Based on what my doctor said I didn't expect to experience the pain that badly and so early.

Luckily my neck didn't get too red.. I used the aquaphor gel lotion a lot that my nurse gave me and also the medicated gauze wraps, so maybe that helped.

I completely lost my voice during treatment and got it back a few weeks after I think. Although when I say got it back, I mean there was some voice. I'm over 4 months out and my voice is very weak. I saw a laryngologist at a voice center recently and she said it's still pretty swollen and irritated in my throat and that it can take a year for it to heal. Hoping it heals up nicely because right now my vocal cords aren't vibrating which is really limiting my voice.

Good luck to you! I didn't need a feeding tube and tried to force myselfnto eat one scrambled egg a day. My mom made them soft for me with butter and no milk. Give it a try if you start to struggle! I was drinking the ensure drinks until my throat started burning. After treatment the only food I could eat in addition to scrambled egg was mac and cheese. 

-Ashley

Pclark21st

treatment with trach and gtube

Hi All,  My boyfriend was recently diagnosed with tonsil/throat cancer.  It is quite large on the right and spread to the left a little.  It was large enough that it caused him difficulty swallowing and lack of air so he was given an emergency trach and a gtube for feeding.  The cancer is on the backside of his voicebox and around one of the vocal chords.  Right now with the help of a Passy muir valve he has a voice...but if he loses his voice, will he ever get it back.  And if anyone has a trach going through this treatment, any warning of what's to come or how he can be proactive to stave off some of the horrible side effects I heaar is comong?  He is not able to get much sleep eithe due to the amount of secretions he keeps coughing up.  Advice on how to get some sleep or how to help with the side effects with a trach?

Curlyn

Pclark21st said:

treatment with trach and gtube

Hi All,  My boyfriend was recently diagnosed with tonsil/throat cancer.  It is quite large on the right and spread to the left a little.  It was large enough that it caused him difficulty swallowing and lack of air so he was given an emergency trach and a gtube for feeding.  The cancer is on the backside of his voicebox and around one of the vocal chords.  Right now with the help of a Passy muir valve he has a voice...but if he loses his voice, will he ever get it back.  And if anyone has a trach going through this treatment, any warning of what's to come or how he can be proactive to stave off some of the horrible side effects I heaar is comong?  He is not able to get much sleep eithe due to the amount of secretions he keeps coughing up.  Advice on how to get some sleep or how to help with the side effects with a trach?

Re sleep- is he on pain meds at all? Many try to do without them but when they are truly needed, it's a godsend. For the short time out of his life that he needs them, he should take them. I wasn't able to function without them. The pain and lack of sleep left me trembling and ill. With the meds, I was able to eat until almost my last radiation treatment, sleep 8 hours per night ( or at least get back to sleep quickly) and function. I simply stopped them altogether when they were no longer needed, and with no side effects.

aak16

Sleeping

Hi Pclark21st, I also had a difficult time with sleeping towards the end and after my radiation treatments because I would cough too much (in addition to being in pain and being uncomfortable).  I did find a position that allowed me to get a couple hours of sleep spread throughout the night, though. I put two pillows stacked, basically standing behind my back/head. Then I put a pillow under both upper arms/elbows. Then I put a pillow on the one side of me up against the wall (sitting on the pillow I had for under my one arm) and I would basically sleep almost sitting up with my head laying against/in the pillow against the wall. I think I even slept with my face right into the pillow because it was better having my head leaning forward a bit. That seemed to help with the mucous from collecting in the back of my throat during the night.