u/LazyRazzmatazz801

Long story short I had an operation as a 3 year old, unbeknownst to me, they damaged a nerve which indirectly feeds the vocal cords.

It left me with a weak voice & inability to project my voice or speak for long periods of time- sadly this went unnoticed by doctors & for whatever reason my parents just never seemed to acknowledge it.

Growing up it wasn’t spoken about & indirectly I was told it was just how my voice was. . .

Fast forward 30 years and I see an ENT for one of my own kids. Upon hearing my speaking voice when I’m speaking about my child, he starts asking questions about me, and within minutes he’s asking if he can put a camera down my throat because he’s sure I’ve got an issue.

Turns out I’ve a completely paralysed left vocal cord and tracing back my medical history he believes the operation I had in childhood is responsible because of the area involved & where it runs along that nerve pathway.

Looking online I know the statute of limitations is 2 years or when the child turns 18, they then have 2 years to make a complaint but there’s also a stipulation that you can also have 2 years from ‘the date of which you became aware of the issue and potential negligence’ - which in this case, was a few weeks ago.

I’m wondering if I have any recourse here? The ENT has recommended surgery to potentially help restore function but it’s not guaranteed and if it works it might only be temporary. In such a case I would either need multiple repeated follow ups, or a much more detailed surgery to put in a permanent implant- which I’m guessing my insurance won’t cover because once I claim for anything in regards to this issue, they will surely claim it’s therefore ‘pre-existing’ in any future claims.

I cannot believe that this was not noted at the time or corrected in any way, surely someone had a responsibility?

In short, I’ve been asked my whole life ‘do you have a cold?’ Or ‘have you got a sore throat?’ - I don’t, but my voice is low and quiet & even if I wanted to, I can’t shout or scream loudly.

My parents always just told me that it was like this after a tonsillectomy and alluded to it being something that was just acccepted/no follow up was necessary

I recently brought my own child to an ENT & immediately upon speaking he asked me if my voice is always like this. I says yes, since my own tonsillectomy- which he immediately dismissed and said that would be highly unlikely and asked me more about my own medical history. I had heart surgery as a toddler & apparently there’s a nerve which runs very close to the heart which also impacts the vocal cords

He thinks this is where the issue stems from. He did a nasal scope and my left vocal cord is indeed paralysed 😞

My parents deny this, saying no one ever mentioned it. I feel so disappointed and lost and let down and after all this time, could I even pursue the hospital?

As the title suggests we're booked in for tonsils out tomorrow, he's woken up with a runny nose and sounding a bit bunged up. No temperature and in good form otherwise. There's no info on the letter we received about what to do in the case of any illnesses etc.
Just wondering if it will still go ahead, or what others have ben told?

I'm on day 22 of 20mg of Lexapro and I pretty much had an awful first week, not so great second week, and then started to feel okay every other day on the third week. 

For context I've had 2 previous stints on Lexapro, and I don't remember ever feeling like this or waiting so long to feel 'better'. 

I had a great day yesterday, some of the more irritating side effects were gone for the first time in 3-4 weeks (awful muscle cramps and dihorrea) and I really thought I'd reached that magical point of the medicine being built up enough to bring stability. However today has been awful - partly because of an awful nights sleep I woke up sore and cramped, likely just due to a poor sleep, but of course I panicked that the muscle aches were back and it's been a downward spiral all day since. 

The reason for the Lexapro is GAD and this time, also health anxiety. In the past month I've had several doctor visits and a clean bill of health from extensive bloodwork and a scan (to rule out fibroids, as the only bloods to come back low were my iron and B12 levels) - so 'logically' I should be super reassured that all is okay, but I've gone from being functional again last week, almost cheerful some days this week to a complete 360 change today where I cannot even eat, sit still or stop my racing thoughts. 

I would be the first to tell someone else on here that it can absolutely take 4/8+ weeks to get a good build up of meds into your system, however I've never had such a mood swing in any of my previous experiences with this medication - so far as I can remember, once I got those 'good days' where it worked I never regressed as badly as I seem to have today. Sure, I would have good and bad days overall, but on a normal scale - like everyone does. Today though it feels like I've been set back 3 weeks and everything is fucking hopeless. 

Has anyone had this happen to them? I really REALLY need to hear that there's still a chance this medication will work for me again. Because if not my GP will only recommend moving to another medication, and after trying Sertraline (4 weeks ago for 8 days) I can 100% say it is NOT suited to me and I would not try it again. I've also heard her mention Bupropriol (not sure I'm spelling that right) but again, because of my experience with Sertraline I said no way I was trying anything else 'new' at this time. 

I also have Anxicalm to use 'as needed' up to 2x per day, and yesterday I actually didn't need it at all - today I had to take one at 8am and catnap on the couch while it kicked in enough to just calm my shaky breathing.

If anyone has had a similar good run, then seem to go backwards I'd really love to hear how it went for you. Should I expect another few days of this shitshow? Or is there a chance more good days will come back sooner? 

Added info: I've been more active this week, racking up 3-5km walks each day, my fitness feels better, I've been managing to sleep more, I've doubled down on an iron rich diet, and added vitamins and supplements as needed, I also track cardio fitness on my watch and I can see my VO2 max stats improving, so it seems like I'm addressing the iron deficiency at least, and at minimum that should all be helping??!