Progress

For those people, who have been following, my personal struggle with oesophageal cancer there is further news which may be of interest.

In the recent past I have mentioned that as part of the process of repairing my body again from the latest onset of this insidious cancer I managed to lose my voice thanks to something called unilateral vocal cord paralysis.

Having investigated a number of options I have been convinced that perhaps the most useful approach to the problem is to undergo some day surgery where under a local anesthetic (and some application of a sedative) I will have an incision from outside the neck and the placement within the vocal fold a small amount of GoreTex which hopefully will bulk up the tissue and so bring the currently paralysed vocal cord back into the middle position so that the other cord can meet it and so enable the vibration necessary to produce a voice.

With any luck this is likely to happen next month and following an overnight stay in hospital (just in case there are complications) I will come back home hopefully with the ability to vocalise again. I have been advised of possible consequences and of course risks but at the end of the day I am willing to take the risks simply because not doing anything is currently a very risky business as well as the risk of pneumonia from aspirating food and/or drink is high and frankly not being able to make oneself well understood is also playing a depressing role in life.

So having explored injections of stuff and other options this is the one I am opting for.

If any one has some experience with this form of treatment let me know and then please share your experiences.