GOOD NEWS - It's a Cyst!
Over the past 4 or 5 months, my voice has been getting more and more raspy and it's been more of a challenge to talk - and all kinds of thoughts has been going through my head, including:
1. While sleeping, perhaps an amoeba from another planet flew into my throat and has been trying to strangle me to death from the inside out, or
2. Angie has, in her sleep, decided to karate chop my neck every night while I was sleeping in order to shut up my snoring, or
3. I've used up my human allotment of words that can be spoken in one lifetime and I'm getting close to the maximum limit, or
4. Smoking for 21 years (it's been 13 since I've touched one) did irreparable damage and laryngeal cancer is the result, or
5. I've gotten a simple polyp or cyst on my larynx or vocal chord.
Today, I had an appointment with an Otolaryngologist who has a natural ability to communicate with people and make people feel at ease, without any pretentiousness at all. Angie and I visited Dr. Taite Seals (MD) in Knoxville (he's with ENT Consultants) and he did something my mom always told me to never do. He stuck something in my nose! That lighted tube found it's way down into my throat (Angie said the light in my throat looked really neat - but my eyes were watering quite a bit and I couldn't see my throat anyway) and then he put the scope on the television screen and voila - a pesky white cyst revealed itself on my vocal chord when he would have me say "EEEEEEE".
This is good news as it wasn't the first 4 possibilities that I've been thinking about. So - when we get back to Texas, I'll call Dr. Toney in Tyler and schedule him to put me under general anesthesia and perform this surgery on me. The doctor today said it's minor surgery. By the way - the difference between minor surgery and major surgery is simple. Minor surgery is when it's on someone else and major is when it's on me. It's about a 10 minute rigid laryngoscopic procedure to remove the cyst and then I'll have to be quiet for 10 days or so and my voice should return.
I asked about keeping the cyst, since it makes me sound like Rod Stewart - but the doc told me to get it cut off within a month, so I'll have to do so when we get home.
Prayers were answered as a few people have been praying that it wasn't serious and it turns out that prayer works.
Don
1. While sleeping, perhaps an amoeba from another planet flew into my throat and has been trying to strangle me to death from the inside out, or
2. Angie has, in her sleep, decided to karate chop my neck every night while I was sleeping in order to shut up my snoring, or
3. I've used up my human allotment of words that can be spoken in one lifetime and I'm getting close to the maximum limit, or
4. Smoking for 21 years (it's been 13 since I've touched one) did irreparable damage and laryngeal cancer is the result, or
5. I've gotten a simple polyp or cyst on my larynx or vocal chord.
Today, I had an appointment with an Otolaryngologist who has a natural ability to communicate with people and make people feel at ease, without any pretentiousness at all. Angie and I visited Dr. Taite Seals (MD) in Knoxville (he's with ENT Consultants) and he did something my mom always told me to never do. He stuck something in my nose! That lighted tube found it's way down into my throat (Angie said the light in my throat looked really neat - but my eyes were watering quite a bit and I couldn't see my throat anyway) and then he put the scope on the television screen and voila - a pesky white cyst revealed itself on my vocal chord when he would have me say "EEEEEEE".
This is good news as it wasn't the first 4 possibilities that I've been thinking about. So - when we get back to Texas, I'll call Dr. Toney in Tyler and schedule him to put me under general anesthesia and perform this surgery on me. The doctor today said it's minor surgery. By the way - the difference between minor surgery and major surgery is simple. Minor surgery is when it's on someone else and major is when it's on me. It's about a 10 minute rigid laryngoscopic procedure to remove the cyst and then I'll have to be quiet for 10 days or so and my voice should return.
I asked about keeping the cyst, since it makes me sound like Rod Stewart - but the doc told me to get it cut off within a month, so I'll have to do so when we get home.
Prayers were answered as a few people have been praying that it wasn't serious and it turns out that prayer works.
Don
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