#69692 02-11-2008 12:38 PM | Joined: Dec 2007 Posts: 138 Senior Member (100+ posts) | OP  Senior Member (100+ posts)
Joined: Dec 2007 Posts: 138 | To everyone...I was just wondering...how long did it take to get your voice back to normal. When i talk it feels like I'm straining and talking from my chest and not my diaphram. Did any of you have that problem? I'm sure everyone's voice gets back to normal or near normal at different rates, but I'm just asking each person to give me the story on their own situation. Thanks!
Nine years out. New normal with limitations, but surviving and living life to the fullest.
| | | | | Joined: Sep 2006 Posts: 8,311 Senior Patient Advocate Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) | | Senior Patient Advocate Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Sep 2006 Posts: 8,311 | Mine was normal within weeks of the end of treatment. I did go a few days during the last of Tx when I used a pad to communicate because it hurt to talk and my jaw felt like someone had screwed it shut but other than that I never really had any speech problems.
David
Age 58 at Dx, HPV16+ SCC, Stage IV BOT+2 nodes, non smoker, casual drinker, exercise nut, Cisplatin x 3 & concurrent IMRT x 35,(70 Gy), no surgery, no Peg, Tx at Moffitt over Aug 06. Jun 07, back to riding my bike 100 miles a wk. Now doing 12 Spin classes and 60 outdoor miles per wk. Nov 13 completed Hilly Century ride for Cancer, 104 miles, 1st Place in my age group. Apr 2014 & 15, Spun for 9 straight hrs to raise $$ for YMCA's Livestrong Program. Certified Spin Instructor Jun 2014.
| | | | | Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 5,260 Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) | | Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 5,260 | I'll answer that in a few months.
Since posting this. UPMC, Pittsburgh, Oct 2011 until Jan. I averaged about 2 to 3 surgeries a week there. w Can't have jaw made as bone is deteroriating steaily that is left in jaw. Mersa is to blame. Feeding tube . Had trach for 4mos. Got it out April.
--- Passed away 5/14/14, will be greatly missed by everyone here
| | | | | Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 510 "Above & Beyond" Member (300+ posts) | | "Above & Beyond" Member (300+ posts)
Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 510 | 28007: FYI, I live less than an hour from you. If you ever need someone to talk to, please remember me. Have you ever been to Troy?
Lois
CG to 77 y/o hubby;SCC Alveolar Ridge; Wake Forest Baptist Hosp surgery: 07/19/07; bi mod radical resection/jaw replacement;
T2 N2-B M0 Stage IV-A
28 IMRT +
6 Paclitaxel/Carboplatin
Getting stronger every day!
| | | | | Joined: Feb 2007 Posts: 1,940 "OCF across the pond" Patient Advocate (1000+ posts) | | "OCF across the pond" Patient Advocate (1000+ posts)
Joined: Feb 2007 Posts: 1,940 | Robs voice deteriorated throughout rads and he never got it back. After two months it was barely a whisper,and yet he had no disease in his throat,it was purely from radiation burns.
Liz in the UK
Husband Robin aged 44 years Dx 8th Dec 2006 poorly differentiated SCC tongue with met to neck T1N2cM0 Surgery and Radiation.Finished TX April 2007
Recurrence June/07 died July 29th/07.
Never take your eye off the ball, it may just smack you in the mouth.
| | | | | Joined: Jan 2008 Posts: 82 Senior Member (75+ posts) | | Senior Member (75+ posts)
Joined: Jan 2008 Posts: 82 | I lost mine for about 3-4 weeks... toward the final days of rad, then afterwards. Could barely sustain a whisper for a while, and simply didn't talk, but used a note pad and signals to communicate. Slowly came back, and mine was a direct result of the radiation; kinda cooked my goose... and my goozle. It does pass... it will take some time, but it does pass.
John - Proud to be here...
Hemiglossectomy 08/02/07, 4 lower molars extracted prior to 6 weeks IMRT 09/10/07-10/19/07, SCC w/met to L neck lymph nodes, rad only, no ND. PEG 10/26/07-02/05/08.
"We're all in the same boat in a stormy sea, therefore we owe one another a terrible loyalty."
| | | | | Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 5,260 Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) | | Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 5,260 | I'm getting used to sounding like Elmer Fudd, LOL , Ihaven't talked in a normal voice since Aug 3rd. As long as I'm still living, I don't care really what it sounds like. Make em wonder what we did say and might keep us from getting our butts kicked.
Since posting this. UPMC, Pittsburgh, Oct 2011 until Jan. I averaged about 2 to 3 surgeries a week there. w Can't have jaw made as bone is deteroriating steaily that is left in jaw. Mersa is to blame. Feeding tube . Had trach for 4mos. Got it out April.
--- Passed away 5/14/14, will be greatly missed by everyone here
| | | | | Joined: Oct 2007 Posts: 83 Supporting Member (50+ posts) | | Supporting Member (50+ posts)
Joined: Oct 2007 Posts: 83 | I'm about 11 weeks post TX and sound OK most of the time. It does have a tendency to come and go. I think its really caused by talking too much...my throat will dry out and I'll drop two oactive's and start to croak more....makes for some wild phone calls tho.....
Stage 4b BOT and node on right of throat. did 38 trips of TOMO PEG tube,Cysplatin,Taxotere & 5fu 1st 4th and 7th week, changed to Erbitux for the last 4 weeks. 1st PETS since end of TX..CLEAR 6mos out and 2 nodes are hot. Bilateral neck dissection on 10/31/08. Clear Scan 3/31/09 & 8/02/2010
| | | | | Joined: Sep 2007 Posts: 16 Member | | Member
Joined: Sep 2007 Posts: 16 | My story is just the same as GaryG above... as long as I keep my mouth shut, speech is OK. But as soon as I talk for more than a minute or two... look out, it gets ugly.
Tom Alexander
SCC Stage IV BOT, completed 35 Tx TOMO & 7 Tx chemo Taxol + Carboplatin 12/04/07. No surgery.
| | | | | Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 16 Member | | Member
Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 16 | My voice has been really raspy or froggy since mid-radiation, but got really bad the week that I took my last Fentanyl patch off, and really hasn't recovered. I work all day checking in patients at a medical office, so it's pretty bad by the end of the day. I feel like I have a bubble in my throat most of the time. I also did not have any disease in my throat, only metastasis to the lymph nodes in my neck.
Lisa - Diagnosed 8/14/07 with Stage 1 metastatic squamous cell carcinoma, unknown primary, most likely nasopharyngeal, status post 2 surgeries, completing 6 weeks IMRT radiation on 11/26/07.
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