After 15 months of diagnosis (6 weeks of radiotherapy treatment & I dose of chemotherapy he couldn’t have anymore as his kidneys started to fail) 2 pet scans numerous biopsies removal of lymph nodes in the neck. My husband has been told the tumour is still there on the bottom of the larynx & on the edge of his trachea. The only option now is remove the larynx & the trachea with no guarantees 3-4 months in hospital with no voice not being able to eat etc my husband has decided that he doesn’t want the operation! If he doesn’t have it it’ll be palliative care. He’s struggling to swallow & eat the food has to be puréed now they’re going to fit a feeding peg in the next few weeks!
I just would like to know if anyone has or had this type of cancer or had the operation?
Hi Hip. So sorry to hear how things have gone. Thus group is fairly quiet so I’ve tagged two Champs from the head and neck cancer group who are both laryngectomees
Hopefully you’ll get an answer soon
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
I wrote a blog about my cancer. just click on the link below
https://todaymycoffeetasteslikechristmasincostarica.com
Sorry to read this Hip, it seems a step up from what I had, a salvage laryngectomy, which kept me in hospital for a month and unable to eat for a further five. Now, around eighteen months later I still have no voice, and never will have; but can eat relatively normally, albeit slowly.
So I had a similar, but lesser, operation. I went into it knowing the "aim" was for me to eat and drink again but with no guarantees. I was also on just food supplements ahead of the op as I was unable to eat.
Would I have had the op knowing eating and drinking was never coming back? I think I probably would, but this decision would have been influenced by the fact I have five kids and ten grandkids who'd just lost their mum/grandma, and to lose us both in such rapid succession would've been unbearable for them..
I was offered just palliative care, and it was something I thought about briefly and discussed with my son, but the estimated six months they thought it'd give me wasn't enough I felt. Today, I'm very happy with the choice I made, my quality of life is different but still good.
Can I ask what age your husband is? I was sixty at the time.
I hope you both come to a decision you're comfortable with, best wishes and love to you both, if I can help in any way at all just give me a shout.
Mike
Metastatic SCC diagnosed 8th October 2013. Modified radical neck dissection November, thirty-five radiotherapy fractions with 2xCisplatin chemo Jan/Feb 2014. Recurrence on larynx diagnosed July 2020 so salvage laryngectomy in September 2020.
