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 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)

Hi Luckyus.

You dont say how old your husband is, I am 66 now I started when I was 64 with a sore throat, mine started on the left then I was unlucky it started on the right. I had radio for 6 weeks but it didnt seem to help, I wont go into anymore. I have met a few people in the hospital that have had different stages of this type of cancer and have had treatment and everything has turned out allright. have you talked about this with your husband, or is he the type like me that wouldnt talk about it.

There is a lot of people on this site that will help with blogs on here and offer support for you both if need be. the laser is not that bad I had it, nothing to worry about . if you want to let me know if you would like anymore info I will look out for your reply.

Dont worry to much it will get better.

Michael.

Hi Marion,

Well its mixed news. They have found a small lesion under the lasered tissue which my consultant say's is behaving very much like cancer although at a very early stage, it looks like something that could in the future become aggressive and he could laser it but there is no guarantee it won't come back and continued lasering will make my voice worse. So he wants to give me a 6 week course of RT which he says will clear it all up once and for all. Its not the news I wanted but I'm relieved that its completely localised and all the other scans, neck, chest etc are clear.

He also said that I would only need the RT in a very small area of the larynx so the side effects will not be as bad as I thought, eg, lack of saliva, swallowing etc, although I'm sure its not going to be easy but if this is what it takes to beat this once and for all then i'm prepared to go through with it. Its strange I almost feel relieved like chris did when he was told as this has gone on so long that I am so glad there is a good chance I can get rid of it.

Thanks so much for your support and thoughts today, I know we havent met but you feel like a real friend and it buoyed me up to know you were thinking about me, so thanks for that. There's lots of preparation as you know so I think it will be 3 weeks ago before I start so will keep you up to date on how I get on. Thanks again.

Andy xx

Hi thanks for your kind message its good and bad news as you will see from my post to marion. Will keep you up to date on my progress. Hope your not reading this and thinking oh god all this is going to happen to us as I'm sure it won't.I just think i've been unlucky in terms of the laser treatment not working and remember everyone responds differently to treatment. I'm sure your husband will be fine with laser alone. All the best for his treatment and keep us posted on how he is getting on.

Best Wishes to you both

Andy

HI Joeninty thanks for your message. Hope all is good with you.

Hi Joeninty

My Husband is 55 years old i had a friend a few years ago that went through vocal cord cancer and had a full larnxoscopy (which i belive you have had done). so we are in this with our eyes open!! it is only with the knowledge of our friend that my husband went to the doctors so early (thank goodness). My husband will ask me the odd question as he knows i have read a lot of info (like you do) but he won't say a lot ( i still think he is in total shock), i think this is why i found all the post so helpfull it makes you realise there different people in all the different stages, willing to talk (well type but you know what i mean).

Best wishes Luckyus

Hi Zarker

This is the problem with cancer there is no easy answers i am sorry you got such good and bad news yesterday .i have read this whole post through many times before even registering and its the open honestness that i needed i also know every persons journey is different and we will see where our journey takes usgood and bad.

thank you for taking the time to reply life is so busy and you are all going through so much i am just so gratefull to have a place to "talk"

thanks Luckyus

Hi Andy

Sorry to hear that the news wasn't really what you wanted to hear but you are at a very early stage and there's no sign that it has spread so I'm sure you have an excellent chance of a complete cure. As you know, I was staged at a T3 + 1 lymph node and I was given a 95% chance of cure so hope you find that reassuring. Looking at everyone's posts I've noticed that we seem to all have had it on the left vocal cord - that seems like a bit of a coincidence! It's good news that you only have it in a small area.

Your consultant / oncologist will probably have told you what to expect in terms of your treatment. You will probably have an MRI scan first, next they will take a "mould" of your face to make a radiotherapy mask which fits very snugly over your face and neck and it then attached to the RT bed to ensure that you don't move. The RT itself is completely painless and takes around 15 minutes. You may remember that I had it 3 times a day for 2 and a half weeks so I felt the side affects after the end of the first week. You will probably get the weekends off to give you a break from it. The main sympton you will have is tiredness. I used to be overwhelmed by fatigue and slept a lot from the second week, often having to be woken up for my next dose!

It won't be an easy ride but at least you know that this will be the end of it once and for all and hopefully you will have your voice back to normal at last! Strangely enough, I too felt relieved in a way when I was finally diagnosed and I had been going back and forth for check ups, biopsies and lasering for the previous 4 years. My two sisters were with me and crying their eyes out at that appointment and I had to comfort them! I seemed to get this inner strength and thought "right, I got it and now I'm going to get rid of it once and for all!"

It's so nice of you to say that I feel like a friend, I feel very touched and humbled. I feel the same - it's amazing that you can get to know people by sharing the same experiences and knowing that you are talking to someone who knows exactly what you are going through. Everyone on this particular subject has been very kind, helpful and supportive.

Let us know how you are getting on. I know there will be a time in a few weeks that you may not feel like posting but be assured that I (and I'm sure the others) will be thinking of you every step of the way in your journey.

Sorry if I've waffled on too much - as you can see I like to talk

Speak to you soon.

Love Marion xx

Hi Michael (Joeninty)

Nice to see that you are still reading our posts - I haven't forgotten you!

I have just replied to Andy so there's probably not a lot to add but hope you are doing well.

Keep posting!

Love Marion x

Hi Marion thanks for your reply. Its strange but in an odd way I feel like a weight has been lifted and actually feel v positive about the future, its like the buck stops here and i'm finally saying, GO!... be off with you!!! I'm obviously wary about the treatment and how I will feel during and slightly worried it could affect my voice, but hey , it sounds bad enough now, and they told me at worse it may only stay the same, so i'm hoping for some improvement. Funnily enough now my throat is healing from the laser my voice has been slightly better over the last few days and I went back to work yesterday.

Not sure if I mentioned i'm a personal fitness trainer, I use my voice a fair amount but I don't shout at clients and work in a small private gym, which thankfully isn't too noisy. Do you think I will be able to keep working during the first few weeks of treatment? My consultant said he'd leave it up to me but if I felt ok then I should be able to. I know towards the end of the treatment I will need to take time off, which I guessing should be round about xmas time. I think i'm going to tell my clients that I will review it on a weekly or daily basis depending on how I feel as I work for my self so want to keep some money coming in.

Thanks again for all the info and don't worry about waffling I do a lot of that too so your in good company, and its much easier to waffle with your finger tips than with a hoarse voice. It is strange about the left vocal chord...I'm left handed so perhaps its that!

Was thinking.... looking at all our posts, that perhaps each time we post we should mention something were've done or somewhere been which has absolutely nothing to do with cancer, eg, film or play you've seen or album you've heard etc just to lighten things up a bit and find out a bit about each other, perhaps its a bit naff but might make things a bit more fun. Will keep you posted and up to date on my progress and thanks again for your continued support.

Love Andy xx

Hi Marion thanks for your reply. Its strange but in an odd way I feel like a weight has been lifted and actually feel v positive about the future, its like the buck stops here and i'm finally saying, GO!... be off with you!!! I'm obviously wary about the treatment and how I will feel during and slightly worried it could affect my voice, but hey , it sounds bad enough now, and they told me at worse it may only stay the same, so i'm hoping for some improvement. Funnily enough now my throat is healing from the laser my voice has been slightly better over the last few days and I went back to work yesterday.

Not sure if I mentioned i'm a personal fitness trainer, I use my voice a fair amount but I don't shout at clients and work in a small private gym, which thankfully isn't too noisy. Do you think I will be able to keep working during the first few weeks of treatment? My consultant said he'd leave it up to me but if I felt ok then I should be able to. I know towards the end of the treatment I will need to take time off, which I guessing should be round about xmas time. I think i'm going to tell my clients that I will review it on a weekly or daily basis depending on how I feel as I work for my self so want to keep some money coming in.

Thanks again for all the info and don't worry about waffling I do a lot of that too so your in good company, and its much easier to waffle with your finger tips than with a hoarse voice. It is strange about the left vocal chord...I'm left handed so perhaps its that!

Was thinking.... looking at all our posts, that perhaps each time we post we should mention something were've done or somewhere been which has absolutely nothing to do with cancer, eg, film or play you've seen or album you've heard etc just to lighten things up a bit and find out a bit about each other, perhaps its a bit naff but might make things a bit more fun. Will keep you posted and up to date on my progress and thanks again for your continued support.

Love Andy xx

Hi Andy

Great that you have such a positive attitude! Like you said, at least you can get rid of it now instead of constant monitoring.

You did mention before you was a personal trainer but I forgot about that. That's making me feel a bit lazy as I don't do any exercise although I was going to palates regularly up until last month.

I'm not sure what to say about the tiredness after RT as I was having it 3 times a day I got tired quite quickly. It's hard to remember but I'm sure that I was feeling really tired during my second week so that would have been at least 15 doses and that would be equivalent to 3 weeks worth of radio. Just play it by ear as everyone is different and I think you are doing the right thing but reviewing work on a weekly basis.

I agree it would be good to talk about 'normal' things as well. After just coming back from New York I'm on a bit of a downer at the moment but still feeling tired so I'm sure I'll cheer up after the weekend.

How old are you Andy? You sound young but it's hard to tell by writing! Did you ever smoke and do you drink? I like to think I'm a young 53 year old (well so I'm told!) and don't smoke but still like a glass of wine (I know I shouldn't but I don't go mad).

Look forward to hearing from you soon. Have a great weekend!

Love Marion xx