Hi Zarker

I had severe displacia of the vocal chords around 5 years ago and was told that I needed laser treatment immediately as it "was very close to cancer". I had laser treatment a few times and had to have biopsies done around every 2 - 3 months but in my case it had gone too deep so they could only laser the surface and it kept coming back. If you are a smoker you should give it up immediately as my consultant told me to avoid smoke at all costs.

I went on to have larygneal cancer but I was stage T2-3 when I was eventually diagnosed. I was successfully treated with radiotherapy 28 months ago and touch wood everything is fine and my voice is better than it's been for years.

On a positive note they are closely monitoring you and as you are at a very early stage hopefully they will be able to get rid of it with laser treatment alone.

I wish you well and hope that the next laser treatment will be the end of it.

Marion x

Hi Marion ,

Thanks very much for your reply it was most helpful. I hope you don't mind me asking but how long was it from when they found displacia to you being diagnosed with laryngeal cancer? As this is what I think may be happening to me. They said inicially It could be treated with laser alone and after my last laser treatment yesterday that the return was on the surface only and did not warrant rdiotherapy at the moment and he had done deeper biopsys which he says hes sure arn't cancerous. This has as you know been a very difficult time for me as i'm so scared of loosing my voice or having to have a laryngectomy which I've been told is unlikely. i'm reassured to know that after your treatment your voice is now good. Thank you again and I hope you continue to do well. Andy

p,s gave up smoking 5 years ago and after this will never go back to it!

Hi Marion.

how are you at the moment has your cancer gone, I didnt want to worry Zacker to much, I have had 3 mri scans one last week, I thought the cancer had come back but I had a infection in my suliva glands only,

I had T3 before my op and had 2 biopsys before they found out what was wrong, it no good thinking what might happen you just worry yourself about it people dont understand if it hasent happend to you.

I hope Zacker gets better and all is well for him and you, I am not to bad I did a abseil down a castle for charity to prove to myself that life goes on.

Well hope you dont mind me getting intouch.

Love joeninty

Hi Joeninty

Thanks for your message, of course I don't mind you getting in touch!

I have only just realised that you have actually had a laryngectomy. That must have been very hard for you and something that I worry about a lot. Do you have a valve so that you can talk? Were you offered radiotherapy?

What a relief it was an infection in your salivary glands - you must have been very worried waiting for the results of your MRI scan.

Well done for abseiling down a castle for charity! I take it you did it for cancer research? I'm terrified of heights but I did the Race for Life with a couple of friends a few months after my treatment and we managed to raise £2,500. It made me feel good to give something back to cancer reseach and I burst into tears as I ran (or rather jogged!) across the finishing line.

Hope Andy (Zarker) and Chris are doing ok and speak to you all soon.

Take care

Love Marion x

Hi Marion.

How are you getting on is your health improved, I did have radio after my first biopsy, I had it for 6 weeks that left me very tired, then I had another biopsy and was told it had moved onto my other vocal cord, the radio hadn't shrunk it.

I had a total laryngegtomy I was in hospital for 10 weeks, I have a voice valve fitted it took a lot of patients to be able to speak again, you don't know how you miss not being able to just talk when you want to.

Like a said I did a abseil down a castle only 80 feet, heights dont worry me as I used to be a slinger and used to walk along girders with chain blocks the charity was hope house for kids we dont see anything for charity for cancer.

Why do you worry about a laryengectomy.

Well love you and leave you if you want to know anything else let me know, what upset me was I dont smoke and the specialist kept asking how lond I had been smoking.

Love Michael.:p

Hi Michael

Sorry it's taken a while to get back to you.

I'm well at the moment and hope you are too. My next hospital check up is on 28 July but hopefully all will be well. It will be 3 years August since my treatment finished and I've been going every 3 months for the past year so I think my appointments might go up to every 6 months then.

In answer to your question about why I'm worried about having a laryngectomy, I am the biggest chatterbox going and I don't think I could cope without my voice. People deal with things in different ways but I know I would find it very hard as it was really frustrating when I had cancer and just after the treatment when I had to write everything down.

Take care and keep posting.

Love Marion x

Hi Marion.

Nice to hear from you, when you say that you worry about a laryngectomy do you think that you may have one in the future, its a couple of years that I had it, what wooried me at the time was I had to go back into hospital for 5 weeks as the right side of my neck hadn't healed, it is verry rare. I have a voice valve in and I dont know if you know what the operation intails, I have a stoma, do you know what I am talking about. If you want me to go on and talk about it I will let you know, some people don't like to talk about it, I have talked to patients in the hospital about how I am and how I feel after the op.

You talk about being a chatterbox well I am a geordie and you can see how I felt about the op.

Let me know if I can help you with anything, the specialist it is very rare for the cancer to come back after the op. one of the people I spoke to before the op had his 6 years ago He has hadf a couple of chest infections as I have had but no trouble, Like I said I have a voice valve in and can talk, that is a great help.

I wont bore you with more boring info let me know how you are getting on.

Love Michael.

Hi Michael

Thanks for your reply and explaining more about your situation.

According to my consultant there's no need for my anxiety about a total laryngectomy as he feels that I will be OK. It's been nearly 3 years now so I'm getting out of the "danger of reoccurance" zone. I can't get complacent though as I still haven't got to the 5 years "all clear" stage but as the years go by I am starting to get less worried. My consultant put me forward for counselling last year, as in his words "your throat is OK but your head isn't!" I wasn't offended as he knows me so well now and we share banter.

I do know what a stoma is and I see quite a lot of people who have them at the clinic. I'm glad to hear that you are getting on with life as normal as possible and that you are managing to talk with your voice valve.

Take care,

Love Marion x

Hi Marion.

Glad to see you are not as bad as I thought, its great newes to see you are all clear you know how I am if you know what a stoma are. when you have cancer it is hard to talk about it and I found that people seem to shy away from you. I have been to the hospital and spoken to people like me about treatment and the future and it helps,

With this site you can talk to people and exchange messages about your problems,

Well keep well for the future.

Joeninty

Hi Michael

Thanks for your reply. It's great that you are talking to people in a similar situation as it always helps to talk to someone who knows exactly what you are going through.

I'll let you know how I get on with my next appointment on 28 July.

Love Marion x

Hi Marion. Chris,

Just thought i'd drop you a line to say I'm going in tomorrow for my micro endoscopy so keeping my fingers crossed they won't find the cancers come back and they don't have to do too much lasering. I guess they will do some biopsy's. Will let you know how I get on. Hope you are both well and hope all is going well with your RT Chris.

Best wishes

Andy

Hi Andy/Chris

Good luck tomorrow, let me know how you get on. I'm off to New York with my son (who had testicular cancer last year) on Wednesday morning but I'll log on when I get back on the 26th.

Fingers crossed you wil be fine!

Chris, hope you are doing OK and let us know how you're getting on.

Love Marion x

Hi Andy/Chris

Good luck tomorrow, let me know how you get on. I'm off to New York with my son (who had testicular cancer last year) on Wednesday morning but I'll log on when I get back on the 26th.

Fingers crossed you wil be fine!

Chris, hope you are doing OK and let us know how you're getting on.

Love Marion x

Thanks Marion,

Have a great time in the big apple!

Hi Found out my husband had Vocal cord cancer ( T1) last week and have since spent a lot of time on this site and have read all this discussion i would like to say a huge thank you to Mariontaylor, Joeninty, Zarker and Chris77.We needed to know what was likely to happen and through reading this honest account of your lives feel we have a better ubnderstanding of what may lie ahead. I dont think you realise just how helpfull you are thank you. i know we are just starting down a long long road but we are lucky that my husbands cancer is so small they are lasering it soon and hope for a full recovery. thank you for all your honest stories that have been so informative. my heart goes out to every one on this site whether you are a sufferer or just someone you know is suffering.

god bless

Hi Andy

I'm back although feeling very jet lagged back at work after arriving late last night! Had a fantastic time in the Big Apple and now have the statue of Liberty as my wallpaper on my phone (sad)!

How are you? Please let me know how you got on last week.

Love Marion x

HI Marion,

Glad you had a good time in NY, I love it there. Had my laser procedure a week ago, so still feeling a little tender and voice is v hoarse ( whats new!) and they did some more laser and biopsy's. I have a strong feeling its not good news. Since I had a the laser I have been sent for another neck and chest CT scan today, the resluts of which I won't get till tomorrow and I had an ultra sound on my neck which fortunately seems to indicate there are no lumps and my lymph nodes aren't swollen.

I rang the macmillan nurse who works with my consultant yesterday and she seemed to indicate between the lines that they may have found something else and that I may need to have RT. This is all hearsay at the moment as my follow up appt isn't till tomorrow but I think this is what they will say as all the tests seems to have been done super quick.

Its really disappointing as I was so hoping there wouldn't have been a reacurrance, still I guess I have to wait till tomorrow to be told for sure.

Regards

Andy

Hi Luckyus

You've probably seen that I've been away for a few days so have only just seen your kind message, it was so nice of you to write. It's great to hear that our postings have helped in some way as I tend to forget that others are reading them as well!

I'm so sorry to hear about your husband but I'm sure he will be fine as it's at a very early stage. If you're ever worried about anything please get in touch as I check this site regularly.

Take care and let us know how your husband is getting on.

Love Marion

Hi Andy

Poor you, I know only too well what you are going through. Before I got my results I was send an appointment for a MRI head and neck scan and then a CT scan for my thorax so I knew before my appointment that it wouldn't be good news but it could all be routine and they might just be checking.

Roll on tomorrow, at least you will know what you may have to deal with and if you do need RT at least you will be able to get rid of it once and for all. Try not to get too down - easier said than done I know.

I'll be posting tomorrow to see how you get on - good luck!

Love Marion x

Hi there,

I'm sorry to hear of your husbands cancer but glad to hear our posts have helped. When your first told you don't quite know where to turn thats why I decided to post and see if there was anyone else going through the same thing. As you can see fortunately people did respond and its been a huge source of support to all of us as people on the outside don't always understand what we are going through, Marion and Chris have been especially helpful.

It sounds like your husbands cancer is at a very early stage and can be successfully treated with laser and he will be monitored carefully through out. As you can see from our stories its not always an easy ride and there are lots of ups and downs along the way. Its always best to remember that this disease affects everyone differently and while its useful to know what might happen in one person may not be the case for the other so don't be too disheartened by our stories, hopefully soon there will be light at the end of the tunnel for all of us as there has been for Marion. In the meantime if you want any information or just a chat don't hesitate to ask.

Regards

Andy

Thanks Marion, will let you know how I get on.

Andy

Hi Marion

will keep you informed he is going for laser and biopsy on 10 november.

I hope you had a good trip.

i am a realist, but also my glass is always half full, so i live in hope i needed to know the good the bad and the ugly and i am gratefull you all told me honestly without even knowing it. i started reading the first day we were told it was the dreaded C word. i am sure so many more people read and do not post it feels like stepping on a private conversation but i needed you to know how helpfull you all were.

Thank you

Lucky us

Hi Andy

Thank you for your kind reply, i have gone on this site every day since we found out. in perticular this post ( as it was so relevant) i am a get the knowledge person and my husband puts his head in the sand ony asking me the odd question.

Although he is at the very early stage and i am so gratefull it was diagnosed early i do realise we are on a long long road for a few years now. and through reading this post i have gained so much knowledge about the treatments.

Thanks again

Lucky us