Vocal Paralysis

[Davecv67]

Hi everyone!

I have not been on here in a few YEARS...I know, I'm sorry..

Anyway I have Marfan & had an St. Jude's Aortic Heart Valve 2001 and just this year 2010 had my entire descending Aorta replacement 2010 by Dr. Coselli in Houston.

My left vocal nerve was damaged which they said was a 50/50 chance since that nerve loops down the aorta and then back up, well anyway my left vocal chord is paralyzed and I've had the thyroplasty mediation surgery twice to try and correct the speech. I'm 1 week post-op for the revised surgery.

My question is has anyone had this experience with this surgery for the voice loss and if so how did you attack the problem? I keep hearing Speech Therapy helps.

Dave

 

[Nancy]

Joe had vocal folds that didn't close properly, so perhaps his laryngeal nerve was damaged at some point along the way. His speech was breathy and high pitched and he did go to an ENT who thought she could absolutely help him, but it would require surgery. Unfortunately, he was too frail to undergo any kind of surgery that wasn't for something life threatening. So he went to a speech therapist and that helped some, but once again, his health started failing, and he never got to finish up with the speech therapist.

What they did was a series of vocal exercises, and he was given a CD so he could practice at home.

It's a very frustrating problem. I hope you have some improvement.

 

[Maryka]

My vocal cords were damaged by intubation during OHS and I had to have the scar tissue cut out, with excellent ruslts. THAT IS NOT YOUR PROBLEM! However, I have known two Marfan people who had experienced aortic dissection and rescue surgery and then total aorta replacments over a series of followup surgeries. One just lived with her squawky new voice. The other (a former non-professional choir singer) tried various solutions. Eventually she found a voice coach who had helped other Marfan people with damaged voices. Sadly, it seemed to not help her much. Good luck to you!

 

[Jeanie]

I am not a doctor, but I would prescribe tincture of time, if I were (nerve problems are slow to resolve, so it takes the time it takes). The speech therapy can be very helpful. My Mom lost the ability to swallow after a surgery, and regained some ability thanks to that type of therapy. The exercises/attempts at vocalization may seem odd but they help you identify and strengthen muscles of phonation. This may be really weird, but find out if your vocal cord problem is just nerve damage, or if you have a mechanical issue in which one of the flaps that are supposed to close over trachea during swallowing is stuck in an obstructing position? There is a condition in horses called laryngeal hemiplegia that does that, and the cure is a surgery to 'tie back' the part that is stuck. Perhaps that is what your surgery was?

 

[Davecv67]

Thanks much for the feedback! I think the Speech Therapy is going to help..The nerve is completely gone. It was severed when they replaced my Aorta.

Ive been on the Net trying to find these exercises but have come up short. If anyone has a good link to a site that has these I would really appreciate it!

Thanks again!

 

[hensylee]

well, hey, Dave. So nice to see you. Been awhile. We are all still here - just waitin for you.

Sorry you have a voice problem. I hope you are able to recover from it quickly without anything permanent.

Blessins..........

 

[Jeanie]

Some of the exercises I remember involve long drawn out vocalizations of vowels, with changing from one pitch to another. I am sorry that I don't know how having a totally severed nerve will affect the ability to regain control though, good luck and keep us posted! (What a bummer to have had that happen.)