Oct 17 I had a cranky voice, sounded like a cold was coming but after 3 weeks I still had the voice but no cold came so my family told me to go to the doctors and get it checked out.
I saw a fantastic doctor, who referred me right away for a scan as I used to be a smoker and just before Christmas had the deversating confirmation it was cancer of the larynx but they were very confident as it had been caught so early. It was very hard to have an enjoyable Christmas, my family were great but it kept you awake at night as it would anyone.
What a hell of a start I had to 2018, the decision was made to do radiotherapy and that was tough, one of the toughest things I had done in my life. There were so many days I just didn’t want to go back and give up but the family and hospital support I had made it so I couldn’t to which i am truly grateful for.
I finished my 6 weeks of radiotherapy and all I could do then was wait to see if it had worked. For anyone out there currently going through the same I encourage you to use reach outs such as this and any help and support offered to you. Radiotherapy was tough but the unknowing was even harder and felt like a life time.
Radio therapy had serverly damaged by voice box and i lost my battle and in Feb 19 I had a full laryngectomy. I was distraught I felt like I had done the radiotherapy for nothing and it was very hard to pick myself up and prepare myself for the next step. Accept any videos help and advice offered to you. I can now say with confidence as a fighter and a winner now of defeating cancer that nothing fully prepared me for how I would feel after the op.
Ther were days in the hospital I just cried and when you in that mental state of mind it’s hard to see just how well you were doing. My family kept me smiling and were my rocks!
Doctors and nursing staff were beyond amazing, without there support and the support of my family I would it be doing as well as I am today.
Everyday I am learning something new about my new life without my voice box and all I can say is life is not over! I do more now than I did with efforts I made to keep ,my voice box.
Not everyone is as lucky to have as much family support as I did which is why I have shared my story with you. Any member of my family or me would be happy to talk or more importantly listen to anyone going through this. I know how you feel, it’s OK to have those thoughts about giving up but don’t! Life is precious and together were beat cancer.
