Hello,

I have recently been diagnosed as having a solitary extramedullary plasmacytoma on my vocal cords. Apparently it’s very rare! My only symptom was a hoarse voice and 18 months after the voice started to change, I had the polyp removed on 2/11/17. Following the results of the biopsy, I underwent several tests to check if the cancer was anywhere else, which thankfully it wasn’t.

I’m now due to start a course of radiotherapy and I am really, really scared! I’m 45 years old with 4 children. I’m healthy, fit and until diagnosis had nothing wrong with me. From what I’ve read, I’m going to be very ill during and following the treatment and I’m really struggling to come to terms with it. 

I’d like to know the truth as I don’t want to be shocked by the side effects. My oncologist just said I’d have a very sore throat! I’m now reading about hospitalisation and feeding tubes and am very scared. 

I’m due to have 4 weeks of 2gy a day, so 40gy in total, starting on 8/1/18. If anyone else has had the similar treatment of the same area, I’d really like to hear from you. Part of me is wondering if I should just ask to be monitored to see if they got it all out in the surgery and wait to see if it returns before going onto radiotherapy. Obviously, I don’t want to have cancer but equally, I don’t want to have the radiotherapy unless it’s 100% necessary. 

Help and advice gratefully received.