Vocal cord paralysis

My mother had her thyroid removed about 35 years ago due to cancer. During surgery they nicked one of her vocal cords and she has paralysis in that cord. She has had the injection treatment, many years ago with out success. My question is about her throat closing off. Whenever she gets a cold or sinus infection, her throat will sometimes close off and she cannot breathe. This causes great concern when it happens as she cannot breathe. What can we do to help her when this happens? Is there anything we can do to stop this from happening? She currently has covid and has been coughing quite a bit. The coughing is causing her throat to be very irritated and she has had this happen twice in the last two days. This has happened numerous times to her over the years. We appreciate any help we can get.

Hello again, and sorry for not answering before. I hope you are doing better with your voice.
After the fat implant in my vocal chord, my voice was not ok, I talked very low so I decided to go directly to a vocal chord/voice specialist. I ended up with Dr Milan R Amin in NYU Langone Health. He did and “ablation” in my esophagus that was paralized and did implant in my left vocal chord. That helped me a LOT. I can eat (still with difficulties but I have a normal life) and my voice is back. Not exactly as before, a bit hoarse but its really great.
I would highly recommend Dr Amin and his wonderful team.
Let me know how are you and if I can be of any help.

Hello @ensign60

As it has been a while since your last post, I was wondering how you are doing? When you posted in July you had met with ENT doctors who are otolaryngologists. That is the best type of ENT to see when you have paralysis of a vocal cord.

You mentioned swallowing problems. A lot of doctors do not think to refer patients with swallowing problems to speech therapy. If you have not been given a referral to a speech therapist to treat the swallowing problem, please ask for a referral.

Have you had any other treatments recently? Has surgery been suggested?

Hello @patriciagsr and thank you for your update. I'm so pleased to hear that you found a doctor and a treatment for your vocal cord problem. After my implant, I also had a deeper voice than I was used to, however, it was not so low that it was a problem for me. I also, of course, had speech therapy post-surgery and that was very helpful in getting my voice tuned-up. Have you had speech therapy as well?

An implant in the non-paralyzed vocal cord has also been discussed with me, however, at this time it is not necessary.

Have (or do you now have) any swallowing problems?

Hello, after my implant no speech therapy was needed, I simply woke up after the surgery ando had voice. After some weeks it got much better.
Regarding swallowing, as I told you the doctor did muscle ablation (cut the muscle vertically) so it can expand, it is paralized so it was rigid. It has helped a lot but I still can’t swallow normally, it has improved 70-80% and after not being able to swallow anything it’s like a miracle for me. I have had more swallow therapy after the surgery.
I would recommend the implant 100%.. it’s a procedure not a surgery and after some hours you are back home.
How is your swallowing?

I had a successful procedure at Mayo in early August. Dr Ekbom injected Restilyn(sp) in my left vocal cord and after about 10 days my voice was back at about *80% or better, my chocking was almost gone and I am pleased with the results so far. I will be back at Mayo on December 5 as a followup to determine if my body is absorbing the Restilyn and my vocal cord is getting smaller again. There is no apparent sign of that happening yet but I was told it does happen in some cases. Ensign 60.

I so appreciate the update. I'm so pleased to hear of your successful procedure, @ensign60! It must be a relief to have your voice back and to have the choking reduced.

I hope that your December follow-up goes well and that you find that the vocal cord is stable.

Thanks for your comments and encouragement. Ensign60

I have left vocal cord paralysis in the open position. The underlying cause is idiopathic. I have had one filler injection which worked, but it only lasted a month. I’m ready to try again and would like to know if anyone has tried Silk Voice by Sofregen which is being suggested by my laryngoglist. She has recently started using this newer filler and does not have enough patients to determine results,

Is anyone familiar with Silk Voice? Also any doctor recommendations for this procedure in Naples, FL?

Hello @crab and welcome to Mayo Connect. I can understand your wanting to find help for your vocal cord paralysis. I too, have a paralyzed left vocal cord (idiopathic) and I had surgery to put in a filler. Is Silk Voice, used as a surgical procedure or just as an injection?

How long ago was the vocal cord problem diagnosed? Does it just affect your voice, or do you also have swallowing problems?