What is a Laryngectomy?

 

Me and my momma tring to be “gangster!”

So, my parents headed to Winston-Salem early this morning. My mom is going in for her surgery. She had a rough night and kept coughing up blood. So they are trying to get her in ASAP. I really don’t understand the entire procedure but I will try to explain what is going on to the best of my ability. I think I asked my dad questions for an entire hour this morning. For some reason, my nerves seem to settle a bit when I understand the surgery/procedure and feel like I know what is going on. 

During this surgery, they are going to remove my mom’s Larynx. I think this is called a Laryngectomy. They will surgically removal the complete larynx, in hopes to remove the tumors and cancerous tissue in her throat. Because the cancer has spread to other surrounding structures in the neck, they are going to remove the lymph nodes, and some muscle tissue in her throat. A Laryngectomy is done only after cancer of the larynx has been diagnosed by a series of tests that allow the otolaryngologist (a specialist often called an ear, nose, and throat doctor) to look into the throat and take tissue samples (biopsies) to confirm and stage the cancer. I believe my mom’s cancer is in the forth stage.  In order to undergo a laryngectomy, you have to be in good health. My mom has not been able to eat for almost a month but luckily they gave her a feeding tube for the past week so she has regained some of her strength.

A little over a week ago my mom had a tracheotomy which is a surgical procedure in which a cut or opening is made in the windpipe (trachea). The surgeon inserts a tube into the opening to bypass an obstruction, allow air to get to the lungs. It was difficult for my mom to breathe because of the tumor on her larynx so they performed the tracheotomy. You normally breathe air in through your mouth or nose. The air then goes down your trachea and into your lungs. This path is called your airway. You may need a trach if you have cancer of your windpipe or a blockage in your airway. An incision (cut) called a stoma is made in your neck and trachea. A plastic or metal tube (cannula) or “trach” (trayk) is put into the stoma. A machine may be hooked up to the trach to help you breathe. My mom had some sort of humidifier hooked up to help moisturize the area.

When I went to go see my mom after the procedure I was really weary of what the “trach” would look like. But it really wasn’t that bad. It was a small little tube that came out of her throat, about an inch. She had a hard time when she would cough because she had to cover the “trach” with a tissue as though it was her mouth. But it wasn’t as “scary” as I expected it to be. As a matter of fact, my mom still looked as radiant as ever. I guess I expected her to look sickly but she looked great. My mom is such a beautiful lady, its probably not possible for her to ever look bad but I guess when you hear someone had cancer, you expect them to look sick. She didn’t and she was still as hilarious as ever. She can’t speak anymore but she has already managed to figure out ways to make sound effects by smacking her lips together to communicate with us. It was actually really easy to read her lips! If we couldn’t figure out what she was trying to say, she would just write it down on a note pad. I think it was encouraging to see that it is still so easy to communicate with her and that she still has such a positive attitude about the whole thing. Now when I call my dad, he will put me on speakerphone and my mom hits the keys on the phone so I know that she can hear me. We are going to teach her how to text on her cell too, so that should really help!

Now that the tracheotomy has been performed, she had to take care of the tumor on her larynx. The larynx is located slightly below the point where the throat divides into the esophagus, which takes food to the stomach, and the trachea (windpipe), which takes air to the lungs. Because of its location, the larynx plays a critical role in normal breathing, swallowing, and speaking. Within the larynx, vocal folds (often called vocal cords) vibrate as air is exhaled past, thus creating speech. The epiglottis protects the trachea, making sure that only air gets into the lungs. When the larynx is removed, these functions are lost. The cancer was already causing the epiglottis to not close properly. So my mom had to get put on a feeding tube through her nose to ensure that water did not go into her lungs. I don’t think it was a very enjoyable experience for her by any means but I think it really helped her gain some of her strength back. She hadn’t been able to eat in weeks and lost about 20 pounds. Her body was working so hard to breathe before the tracheotomy that we were worried she was going to have a heart attack from overworking herself. Now she is strong and stable for the next operation.

Once the larynx is removed, air can no longer flow into the lungs. During this operation, the surgeon removes the larynx through an incision in the neck. Normally the surgeon would perform a tracheotomy but this has already been completed. The connection between the throat and the esophagus is not normally affected, so after healing, the person whose larynx has been removed (called a laryngectomee) can eat normally. However, normal speech is no longer possible. Several alternate means of vocal communication can be learned with the help of a speech pathologist. So hopefully after all of my mom’s treatment is complete, she can go ahead and start learning alternative ways to speak again!

Now I just have to wait for the surgery to be complete and pray for a fast recovery. I hate not being stuck in Nashville while my parents at the hospital in North Carolina but I think I am going to try to fly to Winston-Salem on Friday after work for the weekend. There is a part of me that is just freaking scared and upset right now but another part of me is so thankful that she my mom was able to get in with such an amazing doctor and that the whole process has been so timely. Within the last month, they diagnosed her cancer, ran all of her scans, and performed a tracheotomy and Laryngectomy. It is amazing! I truly believe she is going  to beat this thing!