How did the radiation treatments affect your voice? My Dad's voice is very raspy. It almost sounds like he has a cold and has kind of lost his voice. Do people lose their voices completely? I assume how ever much of his voice he loses, it will come back to normal eventually.....right?

Shannette, I never fully lost my voice, and I had several treatmrnts. It was very shallow, raspy for a while, and with the swollen tongue, it was difficult to speak, but does get better. Other things can effect speaking is dry mouth, sinitus, mucocitus, thrush, other oral infections, missing teeth, so treating or repairing these will help. Good luck.

Some people do lose their voices, and I think it has a lot to do with where the rads is aimed etc.. I didn't but I have heard of others that have. Best of luck... it's not an easy path but it will be over soo and then hopefully on to recovery.

At some point, it might help for your dad to see a speech and language pathologist and they could help him with voice production techniques.

A raspy voice or losing your voice is very common with radiation for OC patients. I experienced a sore throat which sounded alittle raspy. It got progressively worse as rads continued. I lost my voice for about 3 weeks around the end of treatment. It came back, it just took a little time.

During treatment, my throat hurt so much I barely spoke for 3 weeks. About two weeks after rads ended, speaking became bearable again. After about 6 weeks, talking was much less painful. Now 20 weeks out my voice is close to normal, but after long conversations it dose start to fizzle out. It's the rads, it stinks, but his voice will recover with time.

At times during treatment I could only talk for a moment or two. Now, 5 months after last rad treatment, I can talk normally but still a little raspy and have to watch that I don't overdo it. I am or was an amature bluegrass singer. My singing voice lost most of its range and I now can only hit the low notes clearly. Don't know whether this will improve but my singing voice is gravelly and rather shallow (not much volume.

Mr Mike

The voice issue is of paramount concern with me being a professional musician/singer. Almost halfway through treatment and my voice is starting to get rough. My team is aware of my concerns and we're addressing them. My rad map has less hitting my saliva glands and larynx.

"T"

Jeff totally lost his voice about 5 weeks in or so. He had to take a break from radiation to let his mouth and neck heal up a bit. 5 or 6 days without rads and his voice made a reappearance. He resumed radiation on Monday, but is still talking (voice is rough, but it'll come after treatment is finished.) We were encouraged by how quickly he felt an improvement during his break (chemo was also suspended due to poor blood counts,) so hang in there. It will get better!