My friends and family, both on Facebook and in general, have been incredibly supportive in my quest to overcome much dysplasia and two cancers. I was very lucky. The cancers were in-situ — not invasive.

After over a dozen procedures on my vocal folds, I developed considerable stiffness in my right vocal fold due to scar tissue build-up. It needed to be replaced. Modern medical science is outstanding! Buccal graft was a new term from that science that I learned would apply to me. Buccal mucosa harvesting was performed in my cheek to provide material to create a replacement for my badly scarred vocal fold. Actually, it was attempted twice.

In February of 2018, I checked into Hahnemann Hospital for what was scheduled for an hour and a half procedure for a buccal graft on my right vocal fold. But something misfired! It turned into a five hour procedure, a trip to intensive care and a four day stay in the hospital. My tongue was so badly swollen that I couldn’t swallow. If you can’t swallow you can’t eat, drink or take medicine. I needed to do all three so they put me on I.V. and kept me under supervised care. When I could swallow, I campaigned to be released. Honestly, I could BARELY swallow. Forget trying to chew and swallow. I was forced to be on a liquid diet for a while. Poor Betty was so worried about me as I went through recovery. I had a suction device in my home, couldn’t lie down in bed for a while, couldn’t eat solid food. To top it off, the hospital and the medical supply weren’t on the same page. Had it not been for Betty raising hell on the Friday I was discharged, the suction device wouldn’t have been delivered until Monday. That would have been an untenable and very difficult situation. Thank God for Betty. She wouldn’t let that happen, staying on the phone until she conveyed the gravity of the current situation.

I needed suction both in the hospital and after I was released in order to clear the goo my body was developing as it tried to heal.

I don’t understand what caused it, but the graft failed. Hence the February 25, 2019 scheduling of another attempt, this time Dr. Sataloff used tracheal access to work on my vocal fold. My tongue wasn’t involved so it didn’t get beat up. And the procedure, which did run over scheduled time by 1/2 hour, was finished and I went home.

My follow-up on February 27, 2019 was instructive, both in good and bad ways. The good ways: I now had two vocal folds that were beautifully pink and TOUCHING. My vocal folds hadn’t touched in years, since the early days of surgeries to remove in-situ carcinoma and dysplasia. I was on the most strict vocal rest ever. That procedure took place on February 25, 2019. That’s when my total vocal rest started. It has only been slightly modified on May 23rd. I still not supposed to speak on the telephone, at least not for any length of time. I don’t know when that will change. I don’t think I’d call that a bad turn of events. What was unfortunate, although temporary, was growing a fat head. Apparently, trachael access allows leakage of air into tissue of the head. My face ballooned. My eyes were swollen shut and I looked like a real fat head.

So, I’m no longer an air-induced fathead. The swelling went down in a couple of weeks and the bandage was removed from my neck when the incision was healed enough to do so. They let some air out of my Adam’s Apple, so it got a bit more normal.

I’ve been working extensively with my speech pathologist Bridget Rose at Philly ENT. I’m regaining tonality. In other words, my speech has different tones in it. I’m learning to use my true (and new!) vocal folds. I may need another procedure to correct an intentional over-graft of tissue. Doctor Sataloff expected me to lose some of the graft material as that’s customary. So, he over-grafted tissue to account for the loss. If normal retraining of the vocal folds don’t bring the remainder down to normal levels, he may surgically remove the excess.

Maybe this trial is headed toward a conclusion. I certainly hope that’s the case. But, as always, I certainly couldn’t have done as well as I have without all the support of my friends and loved ones. It has truly been a trial and without your support, it would have been easy to lose hope. You saved me. I would say that you tossed me a life saver, but they have carbohydrates. I’ve gained so much from all of you and I am so deeply grateful. God bless you all.