Cancer of throat
Tacheostomy process and complications. - NHS England: A Ca...
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Tacheostomy process and complications.
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Hello there. You haven't given us very much to go on, so I don't know if it applies to you, but I understand this procedure may sound very scary, whether you have to undergo it, or someone else does.
Tracheostomy creates an opening in the neck through which you can get air to your lungs, when it's not possible to breathe in the usual way any longer through your nose or mouth, as can happen with throat cancer. Occasionally it's done in emergency situations, but with cancer of the throat it will be a planned operation and probably done under general anaesthesia, so that you'd be asleep and feel no pain. The surgeon will create a hole in your windpipe through which you'll breathe in future.
When it's done a tube will be inserted into the hole that's been created, and you'd have help with learning to breathe through it, how to care for it, and how to talk in future, as the air you breathe will no longer pass through your voice box.
It's quite a life changing operation, of course, but it's done for quite a serious disease, and does, when it's completed and the person is accustomed to it, help life to go on, so try not to be too afraid of it.
Whoever is to have this operation should ask lots of questions about any aspect they don't understand. Doctors and surgeons understand how life altering a thing it is and will only do the procedure if it's going to make the patient's quality of life better afterwards.