A couple of weeks later I returned to Worthing hospital to see the surgeon. He told me that everything had gone well. He then informed me that the tumour in my thyroid gland had grown out and invaded my recurrent laryngeal nerve. He had therefore removed the nerve and this now meant that my right vocal cord was definitely paralysed and was likely to remain so.
This explained the further worsening of my voice. It would also result in further difficulties with breathing on exercise.
I asked if it would be OK for me to enter a triathlon the following weekend which I had already entered. Both the consultant and the nurse laughed and then apologised saying that I wasn’t typical of their cancer patients!
The radioiodine treatment was booked in as well as an opportunity to see a speech therapist.
In addition to these follow up appointments, I was told that I would be seen every 6 months for the next 5 years for “surveillance”.
In subsequent appointments I reported that I continued to experience significant breathing difficulties on exercise. One of the consultants at Worthing is also a keen cyclist and sympathised with my frustration. He kindly researched and wrote to a consultant at the Royal Brompton who specialises in exercise related breathing issues. The Brompton is the only centre in the UK, and just one of 3 centres worldwide that perform a continuous laryngoscopy (camera up the nose) during exercise (whilst running on a treadmill). His letter requested to “see this lady who is an elite athlete”! I literally fell off the arm of the sofa and collapsed laughing when I read that! Anyway, I was very fortunate that they did in fact agree to see “this lady”!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.