No Talking for Two Weeks

What, NO TALKING FOR TWO WEEKS per the surgeon’s orders! Whew, I’ve always said I love challenges but this was one that I didn’t know if I could make it to the end.

A little background…. on July 3, 2009 the left side of my face, chin and neck area became numb with pins and needles like when novocaine is wearing off at the dentist. My throat felt like it was closing up and I could hardly swallow, it was hard to even get water down. After tests and scans it was determined I had a TIA or mini stroke in my esphoghas and throat.

Since the left side of my throat has no feeling it’s easy for me to swallow wrong and start choking without warning. The more I cough, the worse the choking is as my throat closes up. It was quite embarrassing when this happened while with a client or at a restaurant. Trying to be helpful, they would ask if I wanted some water but I wasn’t even able to reply because my throat was closing.

Throughout the years I worked through this and when I started my healthy eating plan in July 2018 I learned to eat slower and space my eating out. That seemed to cut down with my throat closing as often but it’s always in the back of my mind as to when and where my next choking episode might be. For the next year, things seemed to be doing better with my throat but then about 4 months ago it started back to how it was in the beginning, uncontrollable coughing, my throat closing up and I would start choking.

Even though I have been to all types of specialists, I decided to call an ENT once again to see if there was anything new going on. As soon as I went into the exam room, the doctor sprayed numbing medicine in my nose and down my throat. Then the scope went down and since I’ve had this before with a camera, let me tell you it’s not fun at all. Immediately after looking around she found a polyp on my right vocal cord that was pressing on my left cord. Because of this, my vocal cords were not touching together like they should and the left side has muscle atrophy.

I went for surgery about three weeks ago, the surgeon removed the polyp and when I woke up my hubby was right by my side. It was then that I was given orders of light food and no talking for two weeks! I knew if I wanted this to work, I needed to follow the orders so my challenge began! My follow-up appointment went well, there is still some swelling and because of the muscle atrophy the doctor suggested some speech therapy to try to help with that. I may even be able to sing again!!

This is no way a medical conclusion, just my own but since the surgery I have not had any coughing or choking episodes so I’m thinking maybe this entire 10 years all that was from my vocal cord and not my throat. Even though the left side of my throat still has no feeling when I swallow, I haven’t choked in three weeks. For me that’s a major accomplishment!

I found this article and everything it mentions sounds just like what I’ve been going through…. hoarseness, vocal fatigue, changes in my speech volume, pain in the throat when speaking, and swallowing things down the wrong way and choking. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/188993

No talking for two weeks was definitely worth the challenge! The hardest part was not being able to talk with Lia when she visited but a few days before surgery I recorded a few things so Lia could still hear my voice. For everyone else I used Lia’s drawing board to send messages!

But I think Lia knew I was talking with her through smiles and a few days after surgery, she ran over to me, jumped on my lap to cuddle and fell asleep. It was our way of talking to each other without words.

I have another follow-up in two months, hoping I will go in singing Christmas carols! As for now Lia is happy I’m talking to her again and she has her drawing board back!