Losing voice- AN

[poptartme]

My sister had her surgery two weeks ago. She had a large tumor 3 by 5 cms. According to her surgeon, the surgery went well; however, she has NOT been able to speak since the surgery. She can hear and write but her voice is not at all audible.  Has anybody run into such problem?

Thank you,

Pradeep
 

[Yvette]

My goodness, no, I've not heard of such a thing. A day or two after surgery many people have a sore and raspy voice due to the oxygen tube placed in the throat during surgery, but 2 weeks is too long for that to be it. Has she had someone tell the doctors this for her? Let us know. Best wishes, Yvette

[eugd]

Depending on what procedure did she have, the surgeon may had retracted on her broca area of the brain that is responsible for speech and as a result she may have aphasia   Ã¢â‚¬Å“Injury to the brain caused by stroke or trauma can disrupt a person's ability to speak, to understand language, or both. Language disorders known as aphasias, resulting from neurological damage, led researchers to examine the relationship between language and the brain. Clinicians and scientists throughout history have observed that language impairments generally result from damage to particular areas of the left cerebral hemisphere, and have suggested that specific parts of the hemisphere are involved in producing and comprehending language.â€?
 Does she have any words? What side was the surgery on?

[trhoads]

I had my surgery May 1, 2007, but my tumor was much smaller.  I was able to speak, but it only sounded like a whisper.  For me, it took almost 6 weeks before I got my voice back.  I went to see a local ENT doctor, who put down a scope to take a picture of the vocal cords to see if they were paralyzed versus inflammed.  Luckily, mine were a little inflammed, and I did finally get my voice back.  However, I am not sure if this is the same situation, seeing that there is no speech at all.
Best wishes,
trhoads

[poptartme]

Thank you all for your kind response.  Actually, my sister has not lost her speech, she can only whisper. It has been over 2 weeks since her surgery. The doctor has said she needs a speech therapy. His reason for her loss of voice is because of the oxygen tube being inserted during surgery...I have hard time believing it even though the doctor has a great reputation in Nepal. BTW, my sister's surgery was done in Kathmandu, Nepal. The hosptial is the first such medical facility in Nepal even though the doctor has been in business for quite some time.

I will keep you updated about the progress.

Again, thank you very much for sharing your experiences with me.

Pradeep

[marg]

Hi.  I have heard of someone else who had their vocal cords damaged by the tube they put down your throat during surgery....   I hope speech therapy helps  her.  There is enough to deal with just having the AN surgery for heaven's sake  .
Margaret

[linnilue]

I really feel the need to respond quickly to this.  First of all having a intubation for surgery does not EVER necessitate the need post-op for speech therapy.  That is utter rubbish.  I am a nurse and I used to work for an anesthesia dept. in a very busy hospital and I have never heard of the need for speech therapy.   I'm sorry, but I find it hard to beleive that a whisper necessitates speech therapy.  She probably needs speech therapy because she had some type of  trauma as a result of the surgery.  I don't understand why the doctor doesn't come to this same conclusion but i'm not here to see her.  But his response to her "whisper" is bizaare.

[trhoads]

Actually, I work in a hospital, and spoke to the speech therapist on the side, who was the person that told me to see the local ENT.  She stated that if the loss of voice was from inflammation (from the ventilator tube---- which turned out to be the case for me), then the exercises could actually cause more harm than good.  If the whisper is from one or both of the vocal cords having partial and/or total paralysis, then some of the exercises may be useful.  I am very happy that my voice came back--and my case was very unusual.  Most people do not have that much trouble after surgery

[Static]

My throat was very very sore from the intubation from surgery.  Ice cream made it feel so much better, and also something called cepacol throat lozenges.  One of the night nurses got them for me and it helped me so much!  Nothing helped my throat feel better until she gave me those lozenges.  I have such a hard time swallowing and eating anything until I had those darn lozenges but it was only a few days for me, nothing like weeks.  I hope you get some help and things work out for you.  Like someone else said, the AN surgery was enough in itself.  Hang in there!

[NF-2er]

Dear Pradeep;

   Having read several similar situations, I'm very confident for your sister's recovery from this in it's time, w/o outside intervention. The largynx must be bruised.

   NF-2er

[poptartme]

Thank you again everybody for your kind response. It has been almost eight weeks since she had her surgery. My sister can neither speak well nor eat any solid food. Her doctor is still recommending a speech therapist and attributes her speech problems with inserting oxygen tube during her surgery. Since the doctors are not very forthcoming with such matters in Nepal, it's really hard to tell what the real problem is.

I will keep you updated as her treatment progresses....

Again, thank you very much for all your support.

Pradeep

[linnilue]

Honestly, this just isn't right.  I think that your sister should go to a speech therapist for sure but that being said, the rest of the story remains to be seen.  I am concerned about her dietary intake because soon she will suffer issues form lack of basic nutritional needs and why isn't the doctor addressing that?  Is she able to go somewhere else or a second opinion or go to a neurologist?  One other thing she could do is to call and speak with her anesthesiologist, since he is being blamed for his intubation skills and her speaking and eating issues.  He definitely should be made aware of this.  I then think that they may get the ball rolling.  My very best to you and to her.  I hope she gets some quick treatment.  Holly

[leapyrtwins]

I didn't lose my voice postop, but my voice did change and at times I had laringytis (or however you spell it !)  This lasted for about 10 days.  At times I could only speak in a whisper.  At other times I sounded exactly like Mickey Mouse.  Some days the pitch of my voice changed - from high to low.  My neurotologist was unsure why, but he thought it might be due to intubation.  He told me that if it continued, he could put a scope down my throat and check my vocal cords to see if they were damaged.  I never had the scope, as my normal voice came back.  I just assume my vocal cords were irritated by the intubation.

I also had difficulty swallowing food, but it was attributed to being intubated for a 7 1/2 hour surgery.

If your sister is 8 weeks postop and still experiencing these problems, in my opinion, something definitely needs to be done.  Please take nikynu's advice and find some help for your sister.

Good luck.

[poptartme]

It has been almost six months since my sister had her surgery. Her voice is audible now but nowhere close to being normal.  If she were to call her friends on the phone who are unaware of her surgery, they would definitely not recognize her voice....

The doctor who operated on her told my sister that her voice will be restored in six months but I am seriously starting to doubt his claim. He originally told her she will gain her voice fully in a month after the surgery. She really struggles while talking to me on the phone. The doctor or his team have not performed any additional tests on her post surgery. This has been extremely difficult on my sister...since there are not many neurosurgeons in Nepal, her choices for second opinion are very limited.

Again, thanks for all your responses.

Pradeep

[chelsmom]

Helo Pardeep,

I'm sorry to hear about your sister but I agree, things just don't sound right.  Here's what I know but I don't know if it will help you out being in Nepal.  My 18 year old daughter had a 6cm tumor.  Two days after surgery they found that she had no swallow reflex and then checked her vocal cords only to find that her right cord was paralysed.  She had many difficulties which kept her in the hospital for 3 months.  One month into her stay they did a surgery where the muscle on the right cord was cut and then the cord was moved to the midline so the left cord would meet it when she spoke.  We were told this could also improve her swallowing.  Her voice quality was terrible for another 6 months.  At that point the head and neck surgeon said that a nerve reinnervation, which had to be done within 1 year of the first brain surgery in order to be benificial, would be a possiblity to restore her voice but felt sure her voice would get stonger with time.  At about the 8 month mark it was back and now 15 months since the vocal cord surgery I have to tell her to lower her voice at times.  We can't tell that there was ever anything wrong.  She was able to swallow real food 99 days after the first brain surgery but the docs had her keep her feeding tube in place until she completed radiation treatments  just in case it would be needed again.  There are times that she still chokes and has coughing fits when she eats or drinks certain things, but all in all she is doing very well.  Your sister should demand that they check her vocal cords and see if thay are working right.  If there's a problem there, they need to address this ASAP.  She doesn't need to spend the rest of her life frustrated with her voice quality. 

I wish you the best............Michelle