Vocal Chords...

sorry - didn't mean to post in a Stage IV thread

Nicole, one of my many symptoms leading up to my stage IV dx last fall is that I lost my voice. I got "laryngitis" , saw an ENT who did a painless scoping and found that my left vocal cord was paralyzed. This led to a CT scan of my throat, which showed enlarged lymph nodes pressing on my laryngeal nerve. These nodes included the left superclavical node which was the largest (maybe 1.2 cm?). They were not detected when doctors felt my neck "lymph nodes" when I was seen for my other symptoms.

Definitely call the ENT and you might want to call your oncologist as well. It could be a side effect of some of your treatment but in my case was a cancer recurrence.

Good news is that after 4 months of treatment, my voice slowly returned and when re-scoped is no longer paralyzed. As my vocal cord improved I went from completely hoarse to normal in the morning but hoarse by 3pm and slowly it was "normal" for a longer amount of time during the day into evening to pretty much normal. Now they are all "resolved" per pet scans (have another pet next month and am hoping that is still the case).

Hope you get some answers soon!

I got hoarse from “silent GERD”; that is, I did not realize I was having acid reflux. It was the ENT who knew what was going on.

I have a lymph node near my esophagus that at times has grown enough to cause my voice to be hoarse. The good news is that Faslodex has caused it to resolve. That is probably not what's going on with you because mine showed up on all my scans. Mediastinal lymph node is the one I have. 💞

Nicole,

I'm sorry that they found something (GERD isn't anything to sneeze at) but happy that it wasn't cancer-related.

But I also appreciate you posting that info about PPIs and immunotherapy. I have been on a PPI for 5 years, and just recently had an endoscopy to look at my esophagus and stomach. My GERD, even with the PPI, has gotten worse, and my esophageal cells look a bit wonky and are turning more to Barrett's esophagus, which can eventually lead to cancer. (Can't win here at all.) So my gastro doc upped my PPI dosage (which is not agreeing with me at all.)

Immunotherapy is on my list of possible things to try. I am going to have to negotiate with the gastro doc about this. I had also previously read that PPIs can interfere with Ibrance but when I queried them about this at Hopkins, they said just not to take Ibrance and omeprazole near each other. Hmmmmmm....

Nicole,

Yeah, quitting is not so easy. The PPI keeps my GERD at bay. And my esophagus has gotten worse -- that's why the GI doc wants me on an increased dose. I used to use stuff like Tums -- now that doesn't even touch it.

Also, I don't want to trade one type of cancer (esophageal) for another (BC) so it's going to be the lesser of the evils analysis, I'm afraid. But I am going to follow up with this.

Nicole, yay not cancer! I did not want to take meds for the GERD, so I got a wedge for my bed that raises me slightly from the waist up, and I started limiting GERD-promoting foods such as chocolate, citrus, hot peppers, mint. Also, I do not eat within two hours of lying down. My symptoms vary according to how much whatever is going on in my abdomen may crowd things and push on my digestive tract. I think my case is not as serious as Bev’s.

nicolerod I've been seeing ads on TV for a lawsuit against Zantac. Supposedly, long time users have gotten cancer from it. I'm kind of surprised it's still on the market. 💞