A brief update 6 Sept 2006

Pete's Points

As they used to say in the work place - "I have some good news and some bad news which do you want to hear first?"

The good news is that I went to an ENT specialist who had another look down my throat via the nose and after looking suggested that there was a treatment for my condition namely an implant of a thinggy called VOXtm a sort of plastic bulking agent that in a 20 minute day surgery can be inected into the vocal chord to 'bulk it up' and so that the other vocal chord which DOES move in and out is able to get within a sufficient distance to enable the voice box to make sounds again.

I don't know about any of you out there but the temptation to go in for 20 minutes of surgery, and walk out with my voice restored to full functioning is a really tempting suggestion. The question is what are the down sides.

Apparently when one breathes the vocal chords separate to enable air flow. If the chord is bulked up and cannot move then of course it impedes breathing. Apparently this would only be a problem if I engaged in really heavy exercise (not one of my favourite sports of course) but something to consider.

Implants in the past have not had a great reputation for being free of any negative downsides (just look at women's breast implants for example) er ... I mean look at how many disasters there have been with silicon implants!

Apparently Teflon and your own body fat have also been used in the past to enable this process and there appear to be some down sides to both of those.

I can find very little on the net about the clinical trials of this VOX stuff and so find myself in a slight quandry about whether to proceed or not. Obviously I will ask more questions and get some answers before I do anything drastic.

Meanwhile I am still voiceless.

Oh yes, that brief return to voice the other day - well it appears that by my hacking cough resulting from trying to clear some reflux debris I managed to inflame the vocal chord which is the equivalent of bulking it up and so got my voice back instantly. However as the inflammation
decreased I lost the voice again just as quickly.

Which means of course that the process of implanting this stuff is likely to work and work well.

The question is at what cost.

If the thing is likely to fail in a few years - should I care?

After all the prognosis of my cancer is not all that hot and I may as well enjoy the good times while I can have them.

On the other hand what if I am one of the lucky ones who does NOT die within the five years out from surgery and treatment - then what?

Life is a crap shoot anyway I guess, but somehow I still have this silly little voice that wants to know just a little more before rushing in.

In the meantime I will keep my anxiety levels high while you all enjoy life doing whatever you are doing!