Just a quick note on the voice procedure performed on 31st Jan, over an UNMH. The goal was to temporarily medialize the paralysed vocal cord by injection — the intent being to get a better/louder voice by giving the non-paralysed cord something to work against and to actually close the windpipe, rather than a large gap existing. The procedure was performed under general anesthesia, also giving the surgeon the chance to get a look look at my cords and see what is going on after the accident in November.
TL;DR — limited success. Voice is better, but far from great. Good enough to go back to work, but it’ll be a challenge.
The longer story:
The bad news — the cords are misaligned due to the trauma. This means that the temporary medialization was never going to be as succesful as it could, because they just aren’t going to work against each other as they should. My voice is still raspy, and pretty quiet but without the breathy escape that I had previously. Definitely an increase in volume, but I’m not shouting or talking in crowded rooms any time soon.
The decent – as above. There’s improvement. I can go back to work, and to talking. Definitely a step in the right direction, and it was always going to be the temporary fix.
The good — it appears that there are signs of motion on the paralysed cord, implying that the nerve is NOT in fact severed, and that I should get significant recovery of function over the next 6-12 months. The misaligned cords are another challenge, and I’ll be talking to Dr. Boyd about those when I have a follow up on March 5th.
Overall — not QUITE what I had hoped for in the voice department (and I didn’t have huge hopes), but the overall trend is good.