Voice not back yet

[ToFMom]

I have a concern that I'm hoping someone might have some experience with. My son had his PVR replaced a week ago Friday. His voice is still pretty hoarse from having the breathing tube in. They put it in on Friday and took it out on Saturday (about 24 hours later). Has anyone else experienced this? He doesn't go into his cardio appt. again until this Wednesday. I'm just worried his vocal chords may be damaged? He is taking Tramadol which he read has a side effect of hoarseness...but I'm not so sure that he is taking enough of it to have that effect. Other than some soreness, he is doing very well.

 

[catwoman]

My husband was already off the vent tube when he got to ICU late Thursday after his surgery. (He missed the "fun" I had of dealing with that thing for several hours!) His voice was "froggy" for a while and still is somewhat, but some is from congestion. He had the congestion pre-op -- was sinus drainage, he said, but I think it was cardiac-related.

Perhaps the surgeon or cardiologist will prescribe an anti-inflammatory.
This is a far-fetched analogy, but ...
My vet neuters/spays my kittens @ 3-4 months. A couple have experienced "barking" or "wheezing" coughs post-op. The first time, I rushed the kitten to the vet, who reassured me that nothing was really wrong & gave her an shot of dexamethasone. That took care of it pretty quickly.

I wouldn't be surprised if a human doctor wouldn't do the same. Many drugs used for veterinary care are drugs created for use in humans.

 

[WayneGM]

When I woke up the vent tube was gone so I don't remember it at all. I was hoarse and had a bit of a sore throat a couple of days. Ice chips helps immensely. Is he doing the breathing/coughing exercises? He has to do those to loosen things up. I hope this is nothing serious and passes soon.

Glad to hear he is doing well otherwise.

 

[hensylee]

we have had reports in the past of hoarseness for awhile after surgery - until the throat heals itself. Course you will keep a good ear out for any continuing hoarseness that does not fix itself.

 

[OrlandoTommy]

voice

voice

my voice was hoarse for about a month after the surgery, i thought it was from coughing and quitting smoking but maybe it was from the machine that was in my mouth now that i think about it.
my doc put me on advair and that seems to have helped..

 

[Susan BAV]

Hello to you; I'm glad I saw your post.

Several years ago when my son was 13, he was in a terrible accident and was in a severe coma and was put on a vent. They had to use an adult vent and got it in too far at first and then had to pull it back out of the main stem bronchus, if I recall the terminology correctly. One of the first things that I noticed when the vent was removed a few days later was that his voice was very hoarse.

A few weeks later, he was eventually referred to a specialist, an otolaryngologist which I'm probably misspelling but that's an ear and nose and throat specialist, and that doctor dropped a scope down his nose (which was miserable for my son) and said, "Yup, there's a small growth on his vocal chord." I asked the doctor if it was big enough to make my son's voice so terribly raspy and hoarse and he said that he was surprised that such a small growth could make such a big difference but it could happen.

Unfortunately, that dumb doctor didn't drop the scope down low enough to see the much larger growth on Levi's windpipe.

I'll spare you the details but this thing exacerbated and then manifested itself by almost completely cutting Levi's airway off three months later. It happened early in the morning and we rushed him to the nearest (ridiculous excuse for a) hospital.

They misdiagnosed him the entire day, first in the ER and then after emergent admittance, as being asthmatic until one smart doctor recognized the huge growth, which had flipped up like a flap cutting off my son's airway, where it had been hanging down previously. I don't know how they misdiagnosed him so badly. He could exhale fine but could barely inhale and the breathing tests they performed clearly showed this. Also, an x-ray they did in that pitiful excuse of an ER clearly showed the spot where the growth was. I'm digressing.

Anyway, he was sent by ambulance the next day to another (much better) hospital where a much better ear and nose and throat surgeon successfully removed it in emergent surgery. When my son awoke, his hoarseness was completely gone. That surgeon told us that the growth occurred on a nerve in the windpipe that is not uncommonly damaged by vents, something he was making a personal study of; and also he had not frequently seen such a growth occur from that nerve area like our son's experience.

I certainly hope this is not the situation for your son, but thought I should share our experience.

There is a retired doctor of that specialty who posts here, usually in the anti-coagulation forums, although I don't recall the name he goes by. Perhaps you could search him out and send a PM to him for information?

Best wishes to you. Please let us know what you find out? Take care.

 

[ToFMom]

Susan BAV

Susan BAV

Wow, what a story! I think his voice may be a bit stronger, so we shall see what the dr. thinks tomorrow. Thanks!

 

[volsfan]

It took me almost 3 weeks to get mine back!

 

[Nancy]

Give it a while, maybe a month or two. If it doesn't come back then see a specialist. My husband had a hoarse voice from too many "things" down his throat over the long course of his heart problems, surgeries and procedures. When I finally convinced him to go to a specialist because I could not hear his words, and he couldn't shout, the Oto. doc found out that his vocal cords were not coming together, and the gap was letting the breath just flow out instead of making the folds vibrate like they should.

They wanted to operate to bring them back together, but by then he couldn't have any more surgeries. So instead, they gave him some vocal exercises which helped, and probably would have worked out fine, but he became too sick to continue even those.

The scope was a non-issue for Joe, and I looked at the viewer. It was interesting, even I could see where the problem was clearly.

By the way--that gap reared its ugly head later on when they were trying to intubate Joe for a feeding tube. The people trying to do it just blew me off when I told them about the gap, and the tube kept getting stuck in the gap, instead of going down his throat. It was horrible. Finally a speech therapist told me that YES, I was correct, it would cause problems with intubations.

So for those with a hoarse throat, for MANY reasons--see a specialist and find out what's going on.

 

[tobagotwo]

There is more than a vent pipe down your throat during surgery. There is a transducer used for a TEE down there, too, being manipulated to get the best angles and readings. An unconscious or even locally numbed person can't advise that he or she is being damaged by the technician's manipulations. It would be easy to see how the technician would be more guided by the doctor's barked orders for a better view than concern for the inside of an uncomplaining, anonymous patient's throat. It's very easy for them to clip the vocal folds during their attempts to get a more pleasingly detailed echocardiological picture of the newly repaired heart.

My voice has never fully recovered, although it has good days. It's not too bad, but it always serves as a little reminder when I need to shout to someone. However, most people do fully recover their voices within days or weeks of the surgery.

Another thing to note is that a significant number of people wind up with heartburn/gastric-esophageal problems after open heart surgery. This gastric reflux, which is stomach acid, can burn and damage the larynx, weakening the voice. I theorize that during the surgery, the pyloric valve, relaxed from the anesthesia, and the exotic positions that many patients are draped in may allow acid to leak up into the base of the throat, burning both the throat and the pylorus, and setting the stage for more gastric reflux later on, due to the burned and weakened pyloric (stomach) valve.

Best wishes,

 

[doyo]

After the surgery where the surgeon replaced the aortic valve and most of thoratic aorta with the dacron graft, the surgeon warned us that her voice may not recover fully.
One of the nerves that controls the vocal cord is located right around the ascending aorta and with my wife's 6 cm aneurysm, the surgeon thought the nerve may have been rubbed against the expanded aorta.
And during surgery the surgeon said he tried to be careful but with 8+ hour OHS my wife had to endure, he said he could not make it the first priority.

Her voice was hoarse after the inital surgery. Then she had to get the pericardial window put in to drain the fluid from pericardial and pleural effusion 2 weeks later. This surgery also required the breathing tube and TEE.
Her voice was even more hoarse. But fortunately her voice recovered after about 6 - 7 month to 90% level and we are happy.

If you continue to have the problem with the voice, you will want to see an ENT (ear, nose, throat) specialist. I hear some ENT's are a bit too eager to correct the problem with surgery and could make it actually worse. So be sure to choose a competent ENT if you need to see one.


EJ

 

[LindaVA]

Very interesting because

Very interesting because

....I was just going to post about this. I'm 9 weeks post op and have had minor throat issues since I left the hospital. At first it felt mildly sore, than it felt like I had to clear my throat b/c something was in the back of it, now I'm persistently hoarse.

I went to my regular doc who thinks it may just be coinciding with seasonal allergies, which although I've never had them before, are rampant in NJ this time of year. I just find it really odd that I would have developed allergies after never having them in my life before and it just seems odd that it started right after the operation. I do have some stuffyiness, etc. but I can't imagine mild morning stuffyness would cause this hoarseness and my voice going in and out.

So, I can't determine if its the operation or really allergies. With the timing, its one or the other, thats for sure.

Could I have had permanent damage from the vent???

 

[csutherland]

My brother had a lung biopsy about 5 yrs ago. They were checking to see what kind of lung cancer he had and, fortunately, came back with no lung cancer but Sarcoidosis. Not good, but at least not lung cancer. All that beside the point: He's had a raspy voice ever since. In fact, I just spoke with him on the phone this AM and he had that high-pitched thin-voice sound. I haven't asked him about the voice for a while, but initially he was told the instruments stuffed down his throat wouldn't make his voice like that. That obviously is baloney. His seems worse when he's tired or otherwise not feeling well.

And, 2 yrs ago I had a vocal cord polyp removed. I know when I injured my voice. I was in a large noisy crowd trying to carry on a conversation with some folks, got hoarse, and it never went away. After a couple months I saw a dr and she scheduled surgery. I had already diagnosed myself and wasn't scared of cancer because I had no risk factors at all. Since then though my voice just feels weak; it doesn't sound weak, but I feel I have to be careful about talking loudly or yelling.