Hi I am a newbie and joined because my husband was diagnosed with throat cancer at the New Year.
He had a lesion on his vocal chord which was stage T1. He was given a 95% chance of success rate of surviving. He had radiotherapy in February and finished his course before we went into Lockdown. He did really well and came through his treatment relatively unscathed. Unfortunately, he was unable to go to follow appointments as these were cancelled for one thing and another due to Covid restrictions and eventually he was able to go at the end of September. He had a camera down his throat and everything was clear and looking good. However he had been experiencing a voice change even though his consultant said it was fine and he had earache. The consultant sent him for an ultrasound scan and he received a letter about 4 weeks ago say that there was nothing sinister going on and hoped that this alleviated any fears he had and would see him at his next appointment in January.
However not many days later he started to feel unwell and this went on for about 4 weeks. He was very fatigued sleeping for most of the day, not eating and drinking as he started to choke and developed a hacking cough. We went down the route of Covid but that was ruled out. I even thought he may be suffering from depression but that was not the case. In the end as he was not getting any better and eventually nearly chocking to death on his tea one night he made an urgent appointment with his ENT consultant. A camera was put down his throat and he was told that his throat was inflamed and thought that it might be a side affect of the radiotherapy he had in February! However, to make sure everything was ok he was taken into hospital a few days ago to have tests. He was sent out with just a discharge note that stated that he had two lesions, one on his vocal chord and one on his subglotti. He received no visit after his procedure from any of the medical team to explain this or was he given any information if he was in pain etc after his investigations.
As you can imagine our minds are running wild with "is it this" "or could it be that" so he did contact his ENT Department to try and put things into perspective. It was explained to him that until the results were back (which would not be until the New Year now) they were unable to comment. He was told to be positive and that a letter for a follow up appointment would follow.
I am at my wits end with worry for both of us as my husband is fearing the worst and thinks this is it especially if the cancer is in his subglotti as this cancer is perceived to be very rare.
I cannot understand how this has come about seeing that he was given the good news 5-6 weeks ago and then his health deteriorated so quickly that he chokes on everything now and coughs all night in such a short space of time.
Is there anyone else out there who has experienced similar and can give me some advice or hope?
Hope you didn't have too restless a night. Get through today and hopefully Monday should bring you some answers from your husbands support team. Just keep plugging on at them. I know we shouldn't have to be so proactive but some clinicians, excellent as they are, are not that good at understanding how deeply emotional cancer leaves us.
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
Ok I’m not going to be very popular here but it’s time he tried to pull himself together and realised you are trying to help.
When you get in touch with the hospital tomorrow explain what you’ve told us here and insist you get some help for your own safety if not his.
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
