Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Nodules in the voice box

Mummy was diagnosed to have Nodules in her voice box.

As a 土风舞 dance instructor, she needs to teach not just with actions and also using her voice. She started teaching around 2 years ago, and when she taught at the badminton court downstairs, she would use a voice amplifier to protrude her voice to teach. She will do that twice a week.

Then as she start to get more invitations to teach, she will teach elsewhere. She teaches on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. So imagine how much she need to talk.

In her day job as a Customer Service Manager, she liaises with her counterparts over the phone - which means using her voice. Can u imagine doing customer service without using your voice? Can't imagine the scenario. It will be 鸡同鸭讲, and things will get nowhere.

From since last year, she had been having quite a bit of cough, and occasional hoarseness. But since this year, her hoarseness has never ceased, though she doesn't have phlegm-sy cough. Did scoping about 2 times. Then last week she went to China for holiday, dining with all the super-duper oily stuff. And when she came back, her hoarseness went up to another level where her voice cracks.

She saw the doctor on Monday, who automatically called the hospital and 'demand' them to shorten her wait for the ENT checkup (which i don't see the point for her to wait for her supposedly check up in May 08), which she went yesterday. Thank you Healthway for expediting the process for my mummy. :)


The specialist took scoping through the nose and then spotted the growths which block the entrance of her voicebox, which causes the hoarseness.

This is the closest to what i can find on the internet to explain.



The 2 circles are added by me to indicate the growth. This is the voice box. As u can see, in the middle is actually an opening. When we speak, the 'opening' will close. But when there are nodules, it jams the closing of it which cause hoarseness.


Mummy's going for surgery tomorrow and will be out-of-action for the next 2 days at the hospital. I think this is a rather minor surgery, as the surgery will last one hour, which the nodules are removed using the scoping method. It's an uncomfortable method but at least there isn't any major incisions. However, she won't be able to talk for about 2 weeks (MC from next week onwards).

As i was writing this, mummy walked in and said that she will wait until her birthday in October to do one of her favorite pastimes: Karaoke-ing. She couldn't last a song since last year, because her voice will become hoarse. Sigh. It's a technical issue as well as a vocal box issue. I have been suaning her since January about not karaoke-ing. So hope she can sing happily when she turns 51 in october.

Before i end off, if you are experiencing any throat issues, such as hoarseness for a long while, go see ur doctor and eventually specialist. It could be a nodule as what it happened to my mummy.

Or if u have been coughing non-stop for many months, and no medicine seems to be a remedy, go take a chest x-ray. It happened to a friend of mine, who was diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB).

In this cranky weather, take care of yourself and beware of symptoms. Stock up on vitamins when u need to. Sleep early, eat well.

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