Open Wide and Say "EEEE"

Laryngitis sucks. Seriously. I've had laryngitis now for over seven weeks. My family doctor prescribed antibiotics first, then put me on a round of prednisone for two weeks, and finally turned me over to the ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doctor, who I saw last Friday.

The ENT stuck a tube down my nose to look at my larynx, but he didn't see any nodes or polyps or burst blood vessels or anything. He had me say "eeee" so he could see my vocal cords vibrate, and he determined that I have something called "right true vocal cord palsy," which basically means the right side of my vocal cord is kind of paralyzed. So now we get to try to figure out why.

The thyroid gland surrounds the larynx, and so that's a suspect. But this can also be caused by certain neurological events. So I had some blood work done on Friday, and this morning I had a CT scan of my neck. If the CT scan doesn't show anything, then I'll have an MRI on Wednesday. And I go back to the ENT on Friday to discuss any results.

I don't really know what to hope for here. Well, beyond a definitive answer. I don't want to end up with an undetermined cause. What I do know is that I'll probably hit my medical insurance deductible for 2006 this week! And Ron and I should have put more money into our 2006 health care Flexible Spending Account. Oh, well, it's only money. (You know I had to use the smilie again!)