Advice on tracheostomy

Hi Blubear, welcome to the site, you probrably never wanted to come to, I am thinking that your Husband may be having a laryngectomy if not then have they discussed his speech after the operation, what you are describing would on its own probrably leave him voiceless as the air has to pass over the vocal cords, whereas a laryngectomy as I have had, they insert a valve in the windpipe and oesophagus and we are able to speak via that, if you let us know which then we can probrably help further, there are a few of us on this site and the Larynx site that have stomas

All the best

Tony

Hello Tony,

thank you for your reply.

they have said he will have a silicone valve put in and this will be how he talks after the surgery - 

kindest regards

charlie 

Hi, then he is having a Laryngectomy which will allow him speech, one of the best links that will fully explain everything is the Laryngectomee Club https://www.laryngectomy.org.uk/   they have lots of information and personal experience, I have had mine now for 2 years, it takes some getting used to but I am still working etc, his most helpful people will be his speech therapists usually from MacMillan and they will help both of you all the way through and beyond, I was having my valve changed about every 3 months but that's because I have to use my voice a lot at work but this varies person to person, the care of the stoma is the important part and again the speech therapists and whoever his medical supplies company are will always be on hand with help, I use Atos Care and anything I order is usually with me within a few days and they have trained nurses as well who will reagularly check up on him to see if he needs any support. But there are other suppliers and your speech Therapist will advise you on the best local support but all I am assuring you and your Husband is that there is so much support available

It is a shock and he will need support, mine was done so quickly I didn't have time to dwell on it and we were still in partial lockdown so was only allowed visitors once a week but I was discharged after just over 2 weeks with all the medical stuff ! The main thing both of you must do is write down any questions and it's best both of you go to any appointments as you are more likely to remember questions and answers than just one attending.

The other tip I would give both of you is if they offer Radiotherapy after the operation, question it very carefully as it does lots of damage and you have to add up the pro's and con's with it, I didn't take it but with my second cancer the beam hit the stoma and I was in a terrible mess even though they assured me it wouldn't go near it,

However at the moment I am cancer free just 3 monthly scans for the oesophagus cancer and 6 monthly consultations for the Larynx- all good fun !

Take care

Tony