Hi i've just registered.

My mother (69) underwent surgery in Feb 2006 for removal of voice box and last week completed 20 sessions of radio.

Would love to hear from anyone, be it other laryngetomees or family and hear how they are coping and what to expect in the coming weeks and months.

Hi pussycat,

I am a laryngectomy and the 11th anniversary of my operation is on the 8th May, I am 58 in July.
The person that had most difficulty coming to terms with my new "me" was my wife, it probably took her abnout 18 months to accept what had happended and she still will say she would rather die than face the operation. However your Mum took the right decision, I have regained speech using my oesophagus not possible for all larymgectomees and although my voice sounds as if I have laryngitous people can tune in and understand what I say. For me as a contracts negoatiator the loss of my voice would have meant unemployment had I been unable to regain speech whatever teh quality, for you Mum the ability to communicate again will be her [prime motivator and there are many options oesophagal speech being perhaps the bestand most natural solution. I had the services of a Speech Therapist to help me but it does depend on how invasive the surgery has to be and the strength of the remaining muscle tissue in the neck. I have met a lady who is accomplished in oesophgal (food pipe) speech so much so that anyone who did not know would imagine she has a larynx. In my own case it is obvious that I have a speech "impairment" but I find colleagues, strangers and peers all go out of their way to accommodate me and I try to put them at ease by letting them know they may ask me to repeat my words as often as it takes for them to understand me.

The best advice as in any form of recuperation from illness if to give your mother space and to treat her as normally as possible. If it takes written messages the accept that will be the norm from now on, there are much more severe afflications than the loss of a larynx and she has her life and the family I ma sure are grateful for that.

Today apart from my voice I am just the same person as I was before the surgery, OK I am limited in the type of physical activities I can participate in and things like gardening or DIY now take me probably twice as long as they did before my operation but that is also a factor of age. My family now of course think nothing of it and I can in most cases communicate effectively on the phone.

I and thousands of other laryngectomees can offer your mother hope of a basically normal life save for voice communication. For example my own wife suffers from emphysema and by comparison to me is severely disabled in her motability requiring me to care for her and to operate her wheelchair. Her quality of life is far inferior to mine, and she is constantly frightened of what the future may hold. By comparison I am able bodied and enjoy a relatively superior quality of life.

Hi DWR,

Your posts are really inspiring - trust me. You have a positive outlook to life which is the essence for everyone who has undergone the trauma of having fought Cancer. It leaves behind a lot of scars- but the trick is to convert the scars into normalcy by accepting what has happened and I see in your case, you have more then done so. I am also so glad to see posts like yours which give out a lot of inspiration and hope to others who are about to embark on what you and I have been through.

Do keep in touch,
Ananth