Shhh !

Tuesday, January 19th, was the thoracentesis. By Thursday I was getting hoarse. All weekend I couldn't speak above a whisper. On Monday, January 25, Bill came home to take me for a chest x-ray to see if everything was okay with my lungs. Was I hoarse because I couldn't move enough air out of my lungs? I got some bloodwork and then went to the oncologist's office. The x-ray showed some fluid reaccumulating in the right lung cavity, but nothing else. My lungs looked good. After talking to the Physician's Assistant for a while, she decided I should see an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor to see if there was anything with the laryngeal nerve. Luckily he had an appointment open Monday afternoon. So we ran over there. He put a small camera down through my nose into my throat and could immediately see my left vocal chord was paralyzed. There are 2 main causes of paralyzed vocal chords in my case. It could be a virus. If it is a virus, it could last up to 6 months. It could also be a tumor on my laryngeal nerve. So next step is to get a CT Scan of the nerve to see if there is a tumor. This is scheduled for Monday, February 8th. One side effect of a paralyzed vocal chord is a greater chance to aspirate things into my lungs. Since my immune system is compromised, it would not be good to aspirate something into my lungs and it turns into pneumonia. So I will be going to speech/swallow therapy. Things are a little frustrating and pretty quiet since I can't speak above a whisper.

On Tuesday I had my 27th chemotherapy. It was uneventful. After all of the running around on Monday and chemo on Tuesday I was exhausted Tuesday night.

Our next prayer meeting is Monday, February 1 at our house. Please join us if you available.