Chicken soup easy to make: Throw a whole small chicken in a pot, add big chunks of celery and onion and water to barely cover. Cook it to death until chicken falls off the bone and strain the whole mess through a big sieve (the thing with holes in it). Throw out the bones and anything yucky looking (skin,etc.) put the nice pieces of chicken back in the broth. Put the big chunks of celery and onion through food chopper or blender and back into the broth. I blend a can of stewed tomatoes and add that to the broth mixture but don't do it if you cannot tolerate tomatoes. Add fat noodles and cook until tender. At this point, I taste it and if it does not taste "chickeny" enough I add some chicken bouillon granules. Options to add: peas, carrots, 1/2 of blended, peeled cucumber (gives a nice outsoorsey taste). Variation to noodles is rice if you are not worried about the rice getting lost in your mouth like my son is.

Thanks for the recipe, you are probably right, but for right now I'm suffering. Tony

Anne-Marie,

Thanks for the recipe but I think you missed the point of my Post, LOL.

Hello everyone, Well I have self medicated. I found some antibiotics that were prescribed to me before surgery and it is helping. My ears don't hurt and I can breathe, but I still can not talk. My voice is not there, I can not speak. Does anyone know if this is normal. I saw the pictures of my vocal chords before radiation and they were perfect. I could talk just fine before TX. It is killing me, help! Tony

Do you still have the cold? And what are you self-medicating with, Tony? You might just have laryngitis AMY

Hello Everyone, No I don't have the cold any more the antibiotic worked pretty well, also I started taking prednisone 6pills the first day 5 the second day. It is the second day and it seems to not hurt as much but still no voice. My ent scheduled me for an appointment the seventh of Feb. but I might not be able to go, its in North Carolina and I am in NY. Also I am currently unemployed and he wants $400 to scope my throat. I would do it myself if I could!
I just want to know out of the thousands of people who went through this kind of treatment had this problem and if so how long does it last. Everyone I know says to not talk because it sounds so bad and this just angers me. It infuriates me. It upsets me. It drives me crazy. do I gat my point across?!!! I can't look for a job with my voice the way it is. My contract with my old company is up for now but I don't know about the future. JAM, please help me out! I have got to know if I will talk like this the rest of my life. I thought it was only if they removed the whole thing that this would happen. Thanks, Tony

Hi, Tony. In my very limited "medical expertise", it comes to mind that antibiotics do NOT cure colds. So if what you had was cured by the antibiotic, it might well have been an infection of some sort - and it might have affected your voice. When you say you have no voice-does that mean you can't make sounds? Or that your voice sounds gravelly? If there is a speech therapist in your area that has any experience with Head and Neck cancer, you could get an evaluation before you go back to the ENT. By the way, the more tense you get about this, the harder it is going to be for you to recover. What kind of job are you looking for? Amy

Well I guess I' m froggy voice. I haven't been able to get a straight answer about my voice yet. I guess I'm not serious enough to get the answers I need. This is too bad , I know everyone is trying to helpful by playing around when things get too serious. But I don't know how long I can make it not knowing if my voice will ever come back. I certainly can't work like this.Please could someone give me some answers.

Tony, Just like I said in my e-mail to you- we are NOT doctors and while we can offer short term remedies and suggestions, no one here can diagnose your voice problem. You started off with a great attitude for beating this -where has it disappeared to ? You gotta stay tough. And by the way- I know of some very sexy gravelly voices. Amy

Amy, Thanks for the support but I was just hoping that I could hear from some different people regarding thier problems with losing the voice. My situation has gotten pretty grave. The finantial (spelling doesn't look right) front is killing me and I am looking for work but I can't do phone interviews or move forward if I can't talk.I really don't need help finding work, I need help talking to the people at the different places. I am tough but this is killing me. I can't keep racking up the doctor bills. I think I may have to apply for some kind of disability status. This is not my way. My doctor talked with me today and she is willing to do anything to help, but I can't help her help me. She's suggesting voice therapy but I told her to wait. I read one reply from someone saying it was common to lose the voice foor one week after tx. If this is true, I'm screwed.I has been 7 weeks. I will explain what happens to me again. I open my mouth to talk and nothing comes out then I force it and this froggy sound (like a vibrator for the voice box) comes out, with very little sound. Then people wince in pain and tell me not ot talk. Then I want to punch them in the face many times. You see I hate it when people shush me! It angers me to the point of insanity. If it hurt me, I'll deal with it, I don't need anyone to tell me not to talk. I you don't like it, leave. Then I had a friend tell me to get away from him he didn't want to catch my germs. This is ignorance I realize but it doesn't make it any easier. So you see my position. I am angry and disappointed and frustrated with my situation. I feel like like I will snap unless I talk to someone that knows something about vocal chord cancer and what I can expect, if this is it. Thanks