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hoarse voice


masspa

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Anyone have any trouble with hoarse voice?? Mom's voice has been hoarse since the beginning of her treatment. Her radiation oncologist thought it might be the tumor pressing on her "vocal cord nerve"

SHe was under the impression that it would improve with treatment. She's 7 treatments short of her 30 radiation and has had 3 cycles of Carbo/etoposide.

SHe seems to feel that the chemo helps her cough (which is MUCH better since the treatment began), but that the hoarsness is no better, and some days worse.

DId anyone else have this problem - it almost seems that the days her cough is best, her voice is at it's worst. We agree that we should be thankful for the improvement of her cough, but I think she's pretty frustrated about her voice, and hopes that it won't be permanent.

She's going to ask her rad onc when she sees him tuesday.

But on a positive note - she's almost finished with her treatments and aside from some mild fatigue and some discomfort swallowing (it's occasional and mild)

she's doing well.

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The horse voice is very common with both non-small and small cell lung cancer. There are various things people have done. One person was referred to a speech therapist to learn how to improve his voice and another posted about injections. If the radiation onc doesn't help the medical oncologist should have some ideas. Glad she is handling treatment well.

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My Jim experienced the hoarse voice for months. Docs said that his tumor was close to the vocal cords and pressing on one, and it was "paralyzed" so he was basically operating on just one. It was very frustrating for him and he'd get angry when we had to ask him to repeat himself because we couldn't hear or understand him (even blamed us for being "hard of hearing" sometimes) so be patient with her. It's my understanding that there can be surgical intervention to restore vocal cord function, but unfortunately Jim was not a good candidate for it... but I think just knowing it was a possible future option gave him hope! It's worth asking about! Good luck!! Sandy F.

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My dad had a hoarse voice to no voice for a while in the beginning. It was very frustrating for him at times. When we'd go to a restaurant he'd have to have my mom order for him because the waitress couldn't hear him. Then one day, his voice returned. The dr's said one of his vocal cords was paralyzed and that the other one decided to overcompensate for it's paralized neighbor. My dad's voice is still present today. All the best to you and your mom.

:)Amanda

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My mom's voice was very hoarse but after treatment it is better. She also takes this aloe vitamin drink that a cousin of mine sells. I don't know if it has to do with this or the chemo. They thought it was caused by the pressing of her vocal nerve. She had a tumor wrapped around her esophagus and had to have a feeding tube in. Mesothelioma is rare in itself but this was even rarer. Mesothelioma is not known to wrap. Radiation burns so I don't know if that would actually heal the nerve damage or make it worse.

Stephanie

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That was my FIL's first symptom (laryngitis), and he, too, was told that one side of his vocal cord is paralyzed. There is possible surgery for it, but he also just got a microphone! (Like the kind singers use in concerts-- that wrap around your head, not hand-held.) Maybe that would help people who are frustrated about being heard?

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  • 1 month later...

The Vocal Cord scome up from belowm not down from above like you would expect them to. DEb was diagnosed because of thehoarseness. She thought she had laryngitis. TRhe good part was when she sounded normal we knew the CHEMO WAS WORKING :) When she got hoarse again we got real sad though. Hnag in there!! PRayers!!

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There is actually a nerve called the "recurrent laryngeal nerve that starts in the neck, dips down into the chest, right near several mediastinal (mid-chest) lymph nodes, and then runs back up to the larynx (hence the name recurrent to describe it going down and back up). It has lots of opportunities to get pressed on by enlarged nodes or the tumor itself, leading to hoarseness.

While some patients who respond well to treatment will have their hoarseness go away, sometimes the damage to the nerve from compression is permanent, so if a person is still hoarse, it is not necessarily the case that treatment isn't helping.

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