Seven years ago, I thought I was a goner, diagnosed with a large tumour in my throat-finding it difficult to swallow, breath or even talk. The doc said I had a virus and prescribed antibiotics but after insisting there was something very wrong (well it was the wife who insisted really after all being a man, I just went along with anything) I finally got to see a H&N specialist who tried to get a camera up my nose and couldn’t. So, with the fateful words ringing in my ears, he said he needed to talk to the head honcho who also tried and failed.
So very quickly I was admitted into day surgery for a scan while I was anesthetised. My wife had been told to come back in a couple of hours (and so she promptly went shopping knowing I would be unconscious and not able to stop her!) On her return she was told I was in intensive care and the drama begins to unfold.
On waking up I found loads of plumbing sticking out of my neck in a ward full of bleeping and whirring machines and my dear wife holding my hand. Pretty scary stuff (the plumbing and machines, not the wife…although…)
Doctor came round and we had a conflab as to what was wrong. It turns out they found a very large chondro-sarcoma in my larynx I was concerned in that I was unsure what that meant and asked the Doc the dreaded question “is this cancer?” the Doc nodded and from then on, I went deaf and thank goodness my good lady took over.
Apparently, it was a rare sarcoma not normally found in the throat. It would require surgery that may or may not require various things removing, pulling up? Or replacing that I don’t even want to think of or repeat. Because it was so rare it needed specialists from around the world (so they said, I just think my surgeon was working up a name for himself!) to discuss and formulate a plan of action. In the end and after 3 months in hospital came the day for removal and I can honestly say I never felt a thing! It was successfully removed, and a speech valve inserted. Bit sore for a couple of days, passed my swallow test and they sent me home.
So, 7 years later and Trev’s still here, life is a bit different but it’s all manageable. I can honestly say that it does get better over time and thank goodness for my missus to make it just that little bit easier. There is lots of help and advice out there with NALC being top of my list. All you have to do is ask (no pun intended).
Trevor Hutson
