Vocal cord granuloma diagnosis
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Hello -- I just wanted to share my story and see if anyone has had a similar experience. I'm especially interested in hearing from those who have had a vocal cord granuloma surgically removed, as that is an option I'm facing.
I'm a 39yo male. About 1.5 years ago I started having discomfort in my throat. It was vague and didn't exactly feel like a lump or injury but it was unusual, so I saw a primary care doctor. I explained my symptoms and she felt my neck, looked at my throat and didn't see anything strange. She suspected acid reflux and gave me Prilosec which I took for a few weeks. The discomfort pretty much went away. But next summer, the discomfort came back and was more prominent. I was having strange throat spasms, kind of like a hiccup but more forceful. They didn't happen very often, maybe one spasm every few weeks. But when they did, I could distinctly feel a thing in my throat that I had never felt before. That obviously freaked me out. I'm an ex-smoker, who smoked for most of my 20s but stopped at age 29, so the potential for throat cancer was very worrying. I saw the doctor again, who referred to an ENT.
The ENT did an endoscopy and showed me on the monitor: "You see that? That shouldn't be there." He pointed to a round 1 cm white thing on my throat, and my heart sunk. The good news, he said, is this is a granuloma which is non-cancerous. (Whew!) I asked him how sure he was about that, to which he responded emphatically, "100%, I see these all the time. I've seen thousands of them." To be safe they did a CT scan of the neck and didn't find anything other than the granuloma. The ENT recommended an acid reflux study, which involved wearing a probe through the nose into my throat overnight. Along with this they first did another endoscopy all the way down to my stomach which showed no other lesions. The ENT commented at that point that the granuloma looked "a little better". It had been a few weeks since the initial diagnosis and I had cut down on acidic food. Anyway, I did the acid reflux study which came up negative. (Which seemed fairly meaningless to me; it only indicated I didn't have reflux that particular night) The ENT said the options were to just keep an eye on it, or to have it removed since it sometimes bothered me. He warned that they tend to come back. He said that although he was certain it was nothing serious, they also would do a biopsy if it was removed just to be safe. He said nothing about this was urgent and if I wanted to have it removed, to schedule that whenever worked best.
At that point I opted not to have it removed. Even with "good" insurance it had already cost me over $1000 up to this point, and I figured the surgery would be another big chunk of cash. Now that I knew what it was and had adjusted eating habits, I wasn't worried and I basically didn't feel it anymore, and if it was optional why go through with it?
Fast forward another 6 months or so. I mostly have not noticed the granuloma, no throat spasms or feelings of an object in the throat. Sometimes I'm vaguely aware that it's there -- the wintertime seems to aggravate it, with the dry air and nasal drainage -- but certainly not to the extent it bothered me before. I have occasionally noticed what seem like GERD symptoms though; sometimes my throat is generally sore, occasionally my left tonsil (same side as the granuloma) will be slightly enlarged. I've even noticed what seems like a mild acid burn on the back left side of my tongue. These things have only happened a few times and go away on their own, which is why I haven't sought treatment, although maybe I should have.
Anyway, due to a temporary situation I'm in -- helping a relative recover from medical issues, so my income is reduced -- I am now on state Medicaid insurance, which is amazing. It covers almost anything and treatments range from very affordable to almost zero cost. But this is temporary, I suspect I'll be off this insurance within the next 6 months. So I'm going to see an ENT to check out the granuloma, and tell them about the occasional GERD symptoms. And if they present the option again, I figure I might as well have the granuloma removed. It will be affordable and I'll have the ultimate peace of mind of the biopsy, although I'm not too worried about it -- and while I tolerate it alright, I certainly would enjoy having this thing out of my throat.
Has anyone had a vocal cord granuloma? similar symptoms? Anyone have it removed? The first ENT told me it wasn't too bad, that people have a sore throat for a few days and that's about it.
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Marina_Dee john86559
Posted
You will have a sore throat for a week or so and you should not talk at all for at least 3 days not even a whisper so make sure you have a pad and pencil,and a phone for text and emails, etc to communicate. You should then only talk at a level that is a whisper and easy for you. You should be given Speech therapy to teach you how to cope with using your vocal chords . Do not try to shout or sing.Lots of drinking water,no smoking.
You should begin to feel a lot better after 4-6 weeks and your normal voice usually is re established after about 5-6 months, without much effort.
If your job includes talking a lot, or singing ,then you may need to give your voice more rest than 3 days after the procedure.
Keep away from the foods which give you GERD ,but always have a ready supply of GERD medication if you need it.
No I havent had it done but I have a teacher friend who had this done several years ago and her recovery was fine. You just have to be patient and positive with the exercises.