I should start this by saying that I’m not asking for a diagnosis here; I’m just curious what might be happening.
For the last two weeks or so, my little brother appeared to have the worst sore throat I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s painful to listen to. But after a couple of days (and the simple stuff, like drinking tea and being quiet) did no good, it became obvious something else was wrong. His voice had a bizarre, metallic quality, like you might hear from someone using an electrolarynx. He was also having trouble producing certain sounds - although nobody seemed to notice this but me. That only increased the resemblance. I don’t think he’s in pain, which is good.
But we also don’t know what’s wrong yet. Yesterday, we were told that he has no growths or nodes (or tumors) on his vocal cords. However, one of them is paralyzed; hence the rattling overtones in his voice. A few of the nerves in that area, including at least one that connects to his tongue, are also paralyzed. I know the word “neuropathy” came up in conversations with one doctor. Bro will have a CAT scan soon and is getting all the proper treatment, so again, I’m not asking anything in lieu of real-life consultation with a doctor. But since this may take some time, I’m wondering if one of our medical dopers can tell me what might be happening here.
I am not a doctor, and I don’t really have all that much information on the subject, but in general neuropathy is MD slang for “something wrong with the peripheral nervous system”.
That does match the little bit I’ve read about it. Apparently a virus can cause the symptoms he’s having, but I don’t know what kind of virus does that.
Well, again, not a doctor, and I’m willing to bet this is probably not really applicable in this category, but the Herpes I/II viruses sometimes cause symptoms like that.
Maybe other viruses in the family as well? Just a WAG but has he had chickenpox? Can it be mono?
*quietly awaits wrath of doper doctors beating him with a clue by 4" *
The 'net isn’t helping me much, but I do get the impression that zoster can cause these symptoms, so I guess that’s on the table. He’s had chicken pox. I recently had mono (from, I guess, late August to early October), and I thought it wasn’t infectious after the symptoms developed - if it’s mono or Epstein-Barr, which the symptoms do match, would it be weird that he’s developed them four months later?
My Mom just got the same diagnosis regarding one of her vocal cords, but she had had two throat surgeries in a 30 day period about a month prior and has been having severe trouble swallowing since then. She had a plate and some screws removed from her neck removed from a previous surgery since one of the screws had sheared off and was causing problems. Well, she’s had nothing but problems since. When my Mom had the original surgery to have the plate put in, she also had the problem with her voice but it did recover after about 3 months. Whether that will happen here this time I don’t know. But the paralysis has just been confirmed by her ENT Wednesday. Good luck for your brother…
I had a patient once with malaria (easily treated) who developed unilateral vocal cord paralysis and weakness of some shoulder muscles that had been injured years earlier in a sports accident. I referred him to a neurologist but he got better before the neurologist saw him and he never did get a diagnosis. I think his hoarseness lasted betweeen 2 and 6 weeks. Good luck.
i was diagnosed this week with a viral infection that has settled nicely into my throat and chest, along with a sub-normal temperature that lasted almost four consecutive days before it went away. i can’t really talk very well and haven’t been able to - unless you want to count squeaking as talking.