Laryngectomy and stoma

Hi, I hope you are bearing up yourself, and from one Lary (as some of those who have had the operation call themselves) to another ( soon to be) I wish you the very best and easiest transition possible. I had a complete Laryngectomy in December and most of the post-op period is still fresh in my mind so I will do my best to answer your husband's concerns.

The surgery does sound scary and it's quite understandable to be intimidated or frightened of it. Everyone's post-op period and recovery are different and there are few, if any, hard and fast rules. Personally, I do not have to blow my nose anymore as the air no longer travels that way. I do have to wipe it and get a runny nose through allergies or colds as before ( although it seems less).

Coughing up mucus may prove easier than currently as it only travels to the stoma and is caught in tissue as if coughed out of the mouth. This is the same for all of us regardless of other conditions. Your husband may do it more often and it's likely in the early stages as most of us produce more mucus for a while until everything settles down.

MIne decreased steadily over a few weeks after I was at home and now it's similar any regular person, with the occasional cough to clear my 'throat' and if my lungs get irritated by anything.

If it helps your husband I can state that I left the hospital less than 2 weeks after the operation, even over the Xmas period, and have improved steadily every since with very few issues.

Eating and drinking are checked before you leave and then improve even more as time moves on. I currently estimate that I can do 80-90% of what I did before going into hospital and the rest will come with time and patience.

Please feel free to ask anything that worries your hubby and in the meantime, I wish you both the very best.

Hi, thank you for explaining your journey.  And well done, you seem to be in control. My partner is due to have both larynx removed in the next 3 weeks. So im trying to prepare myself too in ways to assist him without taking away his independence.  Thank you again for sharing your journey.  

Hi, I had my Laryngectomy 2 years ago as DoubleH says the actual operation is a small part of the journey it's the after care and getting used to the change in your lifestyle that is the challenging part, you may find as I was, I left within 2 weeks as well, he won't move forward until he passes the swallow test which checks that there are no leaks in the wind/food pipes, once that's OK away he will go, he will be on tube feeding until that via drip in his nose, I am sure the Consultant and Team will have explained all this, the next stage will be him learning to apply the baseplates onto his stoma and breathing via that and HME's, this is where the Speech Therapists will come into full play and will be your Husbands support and hopefully like mine best friends.

So for the time in hospital he will communicate via a white board and pen or paper and pen, with me this went on for about 2 weeks after discharge and then the Speech Therapists will ask him to try-and hopefully like me the joy he will get realising he can communicate is unbelievable, and your voice sounds exactly the same as before, he will find he will need to use smaller paragraphs talking, there will be problems along the way but always reach to the ST team they have heard it all, and even though I am a pretty confident person early on even I broke down at one point as it sometimes becomes overpowering if there are daily problems

We are all here to help if you need support, there is also the Head and Neck Group that includes some of Laryngectomees as well, another website that is informative is the Larygectomy Support Association :

https://www.laryngectomy.org.uk/

You know where we are, come back anytime and hope everything goes well for your Husband

Tony