Speech therapy ???

[Ruth63]

So my gp has refferd me to a speech and language therapist.. really don't understand why. As the only reason my voice is bad is because of goiter sticking out my throat, surely if they just take it out my voice will return to normal.. don't see need in speech therapy ...

[cjrsquared]

It may be that they want to do a video fluoroscopy to see what happens when you speak and swallow. That procedure can be done by speech and language therapists as well as ent surgeons. If so and it shows impingement on your oesophagus a reason for surgical intervention.

Also be aware 1 in 50 thyroidectomys incurs damage to the laryngeal nerve and to the voice.

[Ruth63 in reply to cjrsquared]

Thank you for your reply, I just found this a strange way of going about things, and why not an ENT which is where I originally thought I was being referred too. X

[cjrsquared in reply to Ruth63]

In my local nhs trust all videofluroscopies are currently done by SALT as ent are coping with a back log of surgical referrals, this has been going on for 2 years. I see my ent surgeon annually post TT and in Feb he referred me to SALT for the procedure. I don’t know if this is just a local thing or national. It may be that if you have the procedure you will then see ent. Good luck.

[Hidden]

These GP's need to wake up to the obvious, there are not many GP's with any common sense just a training manual which they adhere to much too often.

Ask for an ultrasound explain that it would save the NHS money that might work.

[Ruth63 in reply to Hidden]

Hi thanks for your reply, I had an ultrasound in January to rule out cancer, all they could tell me was that my whole thyroid was big and bulky and I had a small odema on my vocal chord but nothing to worry about. They then lost interest untill I fought with gp to get endo appointment and she also said speech therapy for voice, but surely if they just took goiter out it would sort my voice out.

[Hidden in reply to Ruth63]

I had a similar experience in the UK in 2014 suddenly my trachea moved due to a large lump on my thyroid before that my thyroid was working and I wasn't on any medication. They did a FNA and an ultrasound but nothing was done and I was finding it difficult to breath. I moved to France in March 2015 and saw a surgeon straight away. I had the operation in October to remove my thyroid and the lump was 4cm (one fifth of it contained papillary cancer but no more treatment was needed only medication.

This cancer was not picked up at all during ultrasound or FNA in the UK.

I would recommend removal. Good Luck keeping annoying them it's the only way forward.

[Ros123]

I had a TT after a huge goiter, so large that I had all 25 students feeling my neck! My surgeon did all the tests including needle biopsy. A mass showed up and they could not say for certain it was not cancer.. I got the choice of removal of the mass, half removal or total. When I asked the question could he guarantee there was no cancer in the other parts he said no it is very difficult to predict this before surgery. I had difficulty breathing at night but nho interference in my voice. After TT I had damage to my voicebox which resulted in my speech being very low in tone and I also had to be on calcium for a short time. I would say explore all your options and think very carefully before opting for this surgery. Having said that I had little option because of the possibility that the mass was cancerous as the needle biopsy was inconclusive. Good luck