[McLovin]

I had surgery for both Trigeminal Neuralgia and Glossopharyngeal Neu ralgia 4 weeks ago. Since the surgery my voice has not returned to normal. It sounds better, though still hoarse, in the mornings, but gets worse as the day goes on. Also I have trouble swallowing food. If I am eating something, I cannot usually swallow it completely without drinking a liquid to help it go down. I can't help but be more than a little concerned about this. I don't know if it comes from the tube that was inserted when I was put under, or the fact that two nerves - especially the glossopharyngeal - was operated on. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and for this amount of time. Any advice?

[Bobbi]

I don't remember exactly what my neurosurgeon had told me, yet will do my best to paraphrase: When (former) California governor Pete Wilson had some type of surgery on his throat, he also experienced similar to you. His voice was affected. My doc had stated, too, that it's not uncommon for some people to also lose their voice (temporarily) following surgery on the C-Spine, such as ACDF.

I Googled about P. Wilson and his surgery, and found this:

http://articles.latimes.com/1996-05-...hroat-problems

[roadracer]

the issues your haveing with swallowing (if your still having them) is called "dysphagia". I have the exact same issues with swallowing, needing to take a drink.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysphagia
If you havent already, I would talk to another doctor and get a swallow study done at least, as dysphagia can cause very serious complications, like aspiration pneumonia, in some people.

[lola white]

thanks for your post. i had tn surgery 8 weeks ago. upon going home i too noticed i was hoarse at times. i ignored it for a couple of weeks while i was recouperating. then when i went back to church and tried to sing i really had trouble singing. i was a soprano and each time the notes went up nothing came out. saw ent after several more weeks while the voice problems continued. the dr quickly did a procedure where he ran a small tube down through my nose to view my vocal cords and had me do a few notes. the procedure was not unpleasant.he showed me on a monitor afterwards and said i had a varicose on my cord and said some other stuff too. said the surgery was long and the tube did damage. dr said to rest my voice (no talking) for a week and set me up with speech therapy.he said i could sing again but that my soprano was gone and to move to the alto section. he wrote in the chart my voice had a raspiness quality. also thought i may have a nodule farther then he could see. time will tell. if your voice problems continue see an ent. and don't wait too long.