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 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

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 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 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

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

Andy

Hi Andy

I'm thinking of you. Let me know how you got on today when you get a chance!

Love Marion x

Thanks Marion that means a lot, i'm absolutely dreading it, as i fear its bad news, but guess i just have to take what comes and make the best of it, feels like i'm walking to the scaffold! keeping fingers and toes crossed

Andy x

HI Andy

I'll be thinking of you and keeping everything crossed making typing very difficult!

I'll check later to see how you are. I have to log off now as I'm at work and my lunch break is over.

Try not to worry

Marion x

Th Marion my appt is at 3pm will let you know later. x

Hi Zacker.

Hope you get the best results that you want. I being at the end of all this treatment had numerous operations and are free of throat cancer for 2 years, I went through all the same things that you and all people like us are feeling, treatment is a lot better than it used to be, I read the post from luckyus but dont know what problem her husband has.

As you know my cancer was T4 but I had a good surgeon as it is he has just retired, I must have been to much for him (joke).

I will be thinking about you and all the people that come on here. let me know what they say.

Regards

Joeninty.

Hope all went as good as it can do for you today and your fears were wrong thinking of you

Hi Joeninty

My husband has T1 of the left vocal cord we found out early this month he is going in for laser treatment. soon.we are still in the shock stage at the moment. again thank you for all you have wrote. i hope we dont walk down the full road that you have been down but i realise we are on the same path with our fingers crossed. not sure there is anything else to say yet thanks

Lucky Us (yer Right)