Voice affectations after thyroidectomy

I had a thyroidectomy done in late Sept. 08 with 12 lymph nodes removed also and still no improvement on my singing voice. I have gotten my speaking voice back somewhat, but can't speak loudly, and it gives out quickly.

I sing or did sing for a living with a band. Luckily everyone in the band sings, so they've been able to pull the slack left by me. Now I just play guitar and smile when I'm onstage. I'm heartbroken over not singing. I was hopeful at first, but as the months have passed with no improvement, I'm starting to get really depressed and sad. It was a big part of who I am and now it doesn't exist anymore.

Whenever I try to sing there's just a tightness in my throat and my range is no more. Whatever the pitch is of my speaking voice, is as high as my range is now. The only thing I can hope for is it just isn't healed yet, and it will come back...............please?

It has been 4 months since my total thyroidectomy and I still have no range in singing above an A above middle C. I am so frustrated becaus I love to sing. I seem to have no expression in my voice and cannot yell. My lower range is loud, but not the upper range. Being a school teacher, I cannot raise my voice in a gymnasium or large room. I thought it would be better by now, but it is not and I am MAD!. I hope someone can give me some hope!!

I'm now at 6 months with no improvement. Still no singing voice to speak of. Returned to my surgeon a few weeks ago to see if I could find out what's going on. He stuck a mirror down my throat and said everything seemed to be vibrating as it should and seemed to have no idea why my voice hadn't returned to normal.

He said to give it 6 more months and if still no improvement I would need to see a ENT. I don't think I'm gonna wait and trying to schedule something sooner to see if I can find out something.

I still have no range and very hoarse. Some mornings I wake up with no voice except for a whisper like sound. Still have a tightness/fullness feeling in my throat that the surgeon couldn't explain. Starting to get really depressed about all of this. Also found out that the cancer had spread to 2 other lymph nodes but the RIA treatment I went thru at the end of last year should have taken care of it. I go back for another round this spring. But the cancer part shouldn't have any impact on the vocal cords.

Still trying to stay hopeful.....altho it's waning a little at this point.

I had my left lobe removed on March 24, 2009, because of a fast growing tumor which thank goodness turned out to be benign, but ever since my surgery (3 days in hospital) I have had extreme hoarseness and at times cannot speak louder than a whisper. I have also had a choking sensation where my incision is. At my post op check (last week) my ENT surgeon looked down my throat with a scope and said that one of my vocal cords was not working but he thought it was probably only ticked off and was only temporarily paralyzed. I am a very vocal person and I lead two weight watchers meetings a week and it is extremely difficult to speak loud enough for a room full of people to hear me at this point. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to get my voice back? Also, the choking sensation really has me freaked out! At times I feel I can hardly breath. I called my ENT today and he wants to see me on Monday, but said the feeling like I could not breath issue is probably only anxiety and he prescribed Xanax. Anyone else going through the same thing? Help! I thought a thyroidectomy was supposed to be a piece of cake compared to other surgeries!

Horsecrazy wrote:

I had my left lobe removed on March 24, 2009, because of a fast growing tumor which thank goodness turned out to be benign, but ever since my surgery (3 days in hospital) I have had extreme hoarseness and at times cannot speak louder than a whisper. I have also had a choking sensation where my incision is. At my post op check (last week) my ENT surgeon looked down my throat with a scope and said that one of my vocal cords was not working but he thought it was probably only ticked off and was only temporarily paralyzed. I am a very vocal person and I lead two weight watchers meetings a week and it is extremely difficult to speak loud enough for a room full of people to hear me at this point. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to get my voice back? Also, the choking sensation really has me freaked out! At times I feel I can hardly breath. I called my ENT today and he wants to see me on Monday, but said the feeling like I could not breath issue is probably only anxiety and he prescribed Xanax. Anyone else going through the same thing? Help! I thought a thyroidectomy was supposed to be a piece of cake compared to other surgeries!

Hi
As I mentioned in the post before yours, I'm 6 months along and still not much of a voice, and I sing for a living. I'm not sure there's much you can do except to let time take it's course. I'm going to an ENT in a couple of weeks, to see if I can find out anything new about my situation.

I'm not exactly sure about the "choking sensation" you're referring to, but I have a fullness/tightness in the area of my incision and up thru the middle of my neck. It may be something similar to what you're describing. I have no clue what's causing it unless it's swelling of some sort. I had 12 lymph nodes removed from the middle part of my throat plus a total thyroidectomy because of a couple areas of cancer on it.

I did attempt to do some vocal warmups that I used to do before singing, thinking maybe it would help, but couldn't even hit the low notes, so I gave up because I was afraid of maybe doing damage to my vocal cords if there was indeed something wrong there.

My surgeon said it could take up to a year or more for it to come back, so hang in there. Your surgery is only a few weeks old, so you'll definitely need more time than that to recover. Since your surgery was only a partial thyroid removal, your recovery may not take as long as mine is seeming to.