News About My Voice

Ok… here’s the news about my vocal cord surgery. We went to Madison, WI on Wednesday, and after some discussion, the doctor and his team decided they needed to do more testing, this time they wanted to be able to see underneath and behind my vocal cords. This entailed needing to “thread” a camera through the vocal cords and twisting and turning it until they could see.

The first endoscope that they put down my throat let them see that there was no scar tissue and the cords themselves looked good… no damage at all. I had been told that the left vocal cord had been paralyzed during the tracheotomy procedure… according to this doctor (Dr. Seth Dailey), they are not paralyzed. So they could not see any reason for my voice issues.

What they found after threading the camera down, was that the cause was actually because of the intubation that occurred during my coma. The tube caused the cartilage that surrounds the cords to become distorted. This causes an opening above the cords which allows air to escape – which causes my airy sounding voice.

The doctor said that the opening was so small that he didn’t know if he’d actually be able to fix it – and that the risk of something going wrong was higher than the chances of successfully closing it. Therefore, he thinks that voice therapy would be a better option.

I am happy that there will be no surgery, however, I am a little disappointed that I can’t just go have a procedure done and have my voice back. But… at least now I know what I need to do. 🙂

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