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MY ENCOUNTER WITHCANCER OF THE LARYNX
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Written 07/07/1999
About June 1998 my voice on occasions would break up slightly and sound a bit gruffy. It was a little bit like having a slight case of Laryngitis. After 2 - 4 days my voice would return to normal. This condition repeated itself about every 3 weeks. There was never any pain when my voice went gruffy, it was just annoying when I would be talking and my words would not only sound gruffy, but would break up in the middle.
I did start to worry about it after about 4 months, but took the attitude, "If I have something wrong with my throat, I don't want to know about it". Just before Xmas 1998 I went to our doctor about it. He had a look at my throat and said that he couldn't see anything wrong, but if it persisted after the New Year then he wanted to send me to an 'Ear Nose & Throat' specialist to have a good look at my Larynx. I didn't like that idea at all, I didn't want to know if I had cancer or not, I just hoped it would go away.
Well I didn't go back to him until the beginning of February 1999. I was getting worried as this time the gruffy voice didn't go away in 2-4 days, it had been with me about 6-7 weeks. Well when I saw my doctor he sent me to have it examined by an ENT specialist. The appointment was early March 1999, so that gave me plenty of time to decide not to go. I still just hoped it would go away. All my family and friends told me to go and have it checked out and assured me that nothing would be wrong anyway.
Typical of me, I made a last ditch effort to have someone convince me that I didn't need this checkups. I went and saw the associate doctor of my doctor, I was hoping that he would disagree with my doctor and tell me that I didn't need my Larynx checked out. How crazy this attitude was, I was just so scared of the word cancer, I just wanted to close my eyes and everything be OK. Needless to say, this doctor totally agreed with my doctor and talked to me for sometime and convinced me to go.
I went to the ENT specialist early March 1999 and he looked down my throat and then pronounced the very thing I didn't want to hear. I had cancer of the left vocal chord. He said I was to go to Campbelltown Hospital Day Centre where he would perform a biopsy to confirm his diagnosis.
It was about this time that I started to look around the Web for information on Larynx cancer. I found many sites of great value, with lots of information and encouragement. One of the sites I came across "Dutch Helms Home Page" was of tremendous help to me. I sent an Email to him and told him of my condition and how I liked his site. Before long, I was receiving Email from a lot of people with encouraging comments. I used to get up in the morning and rush to see if I had any Email as their messages gave me so much help. Along with this contact and the tremendous support of my wife Sandra, I got through it all much easier.
It's strange, but talking to people that have had similar problems as yourself is a tremendous boost and makes it all so much easier. I would encourage anyone with cancer to do the same.
I had the biopsy done towards the end of March 1999 and went back to see him on April Fools Day [ 01/04/1999 ]. His original diagnosis was confirmed and he told me that he would make an appointment for me at the Liverpool Cancer Therapy Centre [ CTC ], Liverpool Hospital NSW , so as to be examined and to start on a treatment program. He also told me that this cancer had a very high cure rate and that mine was only at stage 1 [ Caught very early ]
Four days later, I went to the [ CTC ] and was examined by a team of doctors, who also confirmed my ENT specialists diagnosis. I was given a choice of treatments
[ 1 ] To have surgery
[ 2 ] Have radiation treatment.
All the pros and cons of each treatment were explained to me, The cure rate, The side effects etc. The final decision was mine though, as they said, It was a personal choice, There was no pressure to have one treatment over another.
In 2 days I decided to have the radiation treatment, it seemed less intrusive and besides I had a serious complication when I had an operation in 1990, so I thought radiation was best. Actually, I thought it would be a breeze. I was to find out different.
I began the radiation treatment 2 weeks later [ End of April 1999 ]. I was to have 33 treatments consisting of once each day for 4 days of the week and twice a day on the fifth day. At about the 2 week mark I thought I was doing great, I was still eating normal food, I only had a slightly sore throat and the outside of my neck didn't seem to be burnt at all.
This all changed about the 3rd week. My throat felt like it was full of broken glass, I could barely swallow, I was eating nothing but liquids, the skin on my neck was becoming raw and I could now only speak in a whisper. By the time I only had 4 treatments to go, I wanted to call it off, but I had come this far so I would go the distance.
I was glad when I had the last treatment, now I thought, "I will be back to normal in 2 weeks". This was another one of my miscalculations. Three weeks after my last treatment and I still had a very sore throat, It still hurt considerably when I swallowed, I did not sleep well and I was only just starting to get my voice back. It was about 1 month from the last treatment, when I was eating most solid food, had my voice back for short periods and only had a slightly sore throat. It all seemed to come together in the 4th-5th week after treatment finished.
I have explained the difficulties I had after treatment ended, Not to frighten you from this treatment nor to give you a Poor Me story. The only reason for telling you this is so you won't have the false expectations I had. As was explained to me, It took 5 weeks to fry my throat, so it was going to take a while to heal it. The other thing that was explained to me was that there is NO easy treatment for cancer. All treatments have to be aggressive and all of the different types of treatments have there own type of side effects. The hardest part of this treatment for me is being patient.
All in All, I believe I am slowly getting better, My throat hardly hurts at all now, I have almost got a normal voice back and I am eating most of the solid food I used to eat including ' Take Away '.
Just remember, The healing process can be slow for some, so don't worry.
If I had to choose again, I believe that I would still choose the radiation treatment.
POST SCRIPT 09/10/1999
I have had two check ups since I finished my treatment and both have been clear. Hopefully all future ones will also show clear. My voice is totally back to normal, though occasionally it does break into a rough gurgle for a short time.
POST SCRIPT 10/03/2000
Have had two more checkups since my last Postscript and they have also been clear. Now I have checkups every 3 months, One by my ENT specialist then one by the Dr at the CTC unit at Liverpool where I had my radiation treatment.
I must admit that I am always anxious when my check up is due or when I get a bit of a sore throat. I have found that some air conditioners can make my throat very dry and a little sore, but I am not complaining, I am just happy it is gone and staying gone.
My Dr at the [ CTC ] unit asked me if I was worried about the scar the radiation had left on my neck. I told him that was the least of my worries and that I was not planning on being a movie star. The scar is a very small price to pay. One other thing, I NO LONGER SMOKE, that is another win.
I will do another Postscript in about 6 months, in the meantime I hope all goes well with you all.
POST SCRIPT 20/07/2000
Had another check up about 8 weeks ago by my ENT specialist and all was OK. I was supposed to have another check-up at the [ CTC ] by the specialist there last week, but I decided not to have it done. For some reason I was just too anxious about it and I had reasoned in my mind that there didn't seem all that much point to it. Even if my throat showed clear, what about the rest of me, It could appear anywhere, if it did come back and that was bothering me.
To make things worse I had got the flu about 4 weeks prior and my voice was acting up where I had what sounded like laryngitis and that was depressing me a lot.
Besides that, my wife's treatment was about to finish and the last thing I could imagine was being told that there was some problem with me, and we would end up maybe coming for more treatment. Between my treatment and my wife's treatment, we had been going to the [ CTC ] for 15 months and I think it was getting us down a little.
Any way, it all sounded so logical at the time, but now sounds pretty stupid. I now have an appointment to see the specialist at the [ CTC ] in 5 weeks. I suppose it is not unreasonable to sometimes get a bit depressed as long as we get back on the straight and narrow quickly and keep thinking positive, which I think I have been for most of the time.
I will put another Postscript here in about 12 months. Until then, I hope that the things I have shared with you in this article have been of help, at least in some small way. That has been the sole intention of this web sit.
Regards Ken
If you have any suggestions, know of a good cancer site or
you find Broken Links. Please Email me at the address below.
Ken
Jordan
kenj@lightstorm.com.au
Date Last Modified: 21/09/2000