Vocal cord paralysis - "is a condition in which you can't control the movement of the muscles that control your voice. It happens when the nerve impulses to your voice box (larynx) are disrupted. This results in paralysis of the vocal cord muscles."
And that's what I've had for going on 6 to 7 weeks now. I went to the doctor like a week after it started mainly because I had a check-up scheduled anyway. His first thought was !!COVID!!. So I took a COVID test and... nope. Then he gave me a PCR test. He called the next day... nothing. What do I do I asked. Nothing, it will go away.
So four weeks later it was still there. What to do. He said to call an ENT doctor. Two weeks for an appointment. Two weeks later I go. He puts a scope down my nose and says say eeeeeee. Yep, your right vocal cord isn't working. Hmmmmm, it's usually the left. Oh well. Here's a prescription for a six day course of prednisone. And we'll have the MRI people call you to set up an appointment.
The MRI people waited to call. I think because they were waiting to see if the pills fixed anything. They didn't. My MRI is set up for next Tuesday. I think the whole plan is to wait to see if it gets better on its own. It hasn't.
The funny thing is it doesn't bother me at all. If I don't talk for a while I can forget that I've got this and then I try and talk and I sound like a frog. I'm not supposed to talk anyway. Forcing yourself to talk can make it worse.
Here's all the info on the condition so you don't have to try and find it yourself.
Posts
25 comments:
You can't talk? I know a few people I wish that would happen to.
I do hope you get fixed quickly though, it must be so irritating to sound like Kermit the Frog.
I was going to make a funny about being able to say whatever to you and you can't talk back, but then I remembered ... you can type. Get better soon, then don't yell so much at your neighbors.
River - I can but I can't. It has to be quiet for people to understand me.
Shirley - HA! I don't know how long this is going to take. If you need any creepy phone calls made to someone you don't like, let me know.
I am sorry to hear this, and hope a solution can be found. Mind you, my nasty, nasty self can think of several people I would like to get it. Incurably.
I agree with River. There's a long list of people who ought to suffer from this before You do. Hope it gets better soon. If it doesn't, at least You can keep writing me those long, chatty letters.
I hope this gets figured out! It must be really frustrating.
I hope the MRI gives you some answers and that the specialist can give you (even better) a solution.
Mike geez that is awful! I'm sorry. Just came out of nowhere or did it creep up slowly? So are you sounding all sexy now Mike? Breathy and sexy? I hope the MRI gives some answers quickly. This must be frustrating!
This happened to a friend of mine. It did go away and she's fine.
Sending you best wishes for a recovery like hers.
That's some bizarre stuff. But you know? With my tinnitus, I probably couldn't tell the difference!!
Yeah, been forever since I updated. Big changes happened, mostly good ones. I'll get right on catching up.
Sorry to hear about your issues. Hope things are resolved soon, but in the meantime what great blog fodder it will provide!
Have you had a laryngoscopy done? In the fall of 2000 I lost my voice much as you described. I saw an ENT who diagnosed vocal cord paralysis (only on one side; I did still have a voice, although faint). A year passed with no change. Fast forward to April 2003 and I'm wheezing. I see a different ENT who checks me into the hospital for an emergency tracheotomy ("your vocal cords are less than 1mm apart and totally immobile").
Two days later I received the cancer diagnosis.
Seven weeks of radiation later, the cancer was gone and I'm now almost twenty years in remission. My voice isn't what it used to be before all this shit started, but I still HAVE one, and for that I am thankful.
Don't waste any time - get a second opinion ASAP.
Sue - I wish I could cast it to a deserving person.
Bill - Would you believe I was just getting ready to write you a letter? No? What about tRUMP has turned back into a democrat? No? I'll come up with something believable, let me work on it.
Martha - Frustrating only when I try and talk. I could get used to this. If someone would ask me a question I'll just point at my throat, shake my head no, and give them the 'go away' sign with my hand.
Deb - Time will tell.
Peg - I left the house to go donate blood with nothing wrong. By the time I got to the donation center (10 min), I was coughing a little. I thought air pollution. By the time I left the donation center, I couldn't talk. Still thinking of some kind of allergic reaction to something in the air I waited a few days to see if it would go away. Nope.
Shaw - If I had to answer the question is it getting better, a very little bit.
Brian - You probably knew all the info in the tinnitus post yesterday.
Kathy - I'm surprised at myself for waiting this long to use it.
VR - All the articles on this mention cancer as a possibility. I'll wait and see what the MRI shows next week before pushing for more tests. But I won't let it go.
Your lovely singing voice! But seriously, I hope this all works out for you friend. Going to hold a good thought for you.
Cloudia - I've never had a singing voice and therefore have never liked to sing. Keep those thoughts coming.
Careful with prednisone. They gave it to me when I was in the hospital, and I turned into Mr. Hyde.
Jerry - It was just a six day course (6,5,4,3,2,1) and I didn't notice anything different and it didn't help.
Sorry to learn this. That must have been a big surprise! The obvious thing to say would be that silence is golden, but it's not everyone else that can't talk so that's not true. Hope it heals quickly!
Allen - A big surprise indeed. See what I commented to Peg.
I'm sorry to hear about your medical issue and hope you get a good news resolution to the problem soon. I lost my voice for several months in late 2019 and was told it was probably from an increase in acid reflux while changing medications. It was very inconvenient, but like you said, didn't bother me until I wanted to say something. Talking definitely made it worse. But it came on gradually, not all of a sudden like yours.
Jenny - I assume yours eventually went away. How long did it take?
It took about five or six months before I was completely better. I remember it started in August and was still not better by Christmas; it was well into the next year before it went away. I've always wondered if the diagnosis was correct, but my doctor seemed unsurprised by it happening.
Jenny - Yuck!
yikes - I hope you feel better soon. What is the cause?
Lady - I don't know. I'm getting an MRI Tuesday that I hope sheds some light on this.
Post a Comment