A mum left unable to speak after a mystery illness stole her voice has learned to talk again.
Cassandra Henning, from Kirkwall in Orkney, had to quit her NHS job and rely on her family just to get by after her life was turned upside down in January.
She previously told the Record how doctors were left baffled by her condition, which first developed from a lump in her throat and left her barely able to muster a whisper.
However, a breakthrough finally came on September 13, when the 35-year-old’s voice returned, just a month after a specialist diagnosed her with a condition called false cord hypertrophy.
“I woke up that day after having six weeks of speech therapy and said to my partner, ‘I can speak!'” the mum-of-two said.
“It was so strange but very emotional. I cried, my therapist cried, my partner and children were in tears. It’s been a very hard time, but I feel like I’ve got my life back now.
“I was so isolated because it was so hard to communicate, and I genuinely thought I wasn’t going to speak again. It was just an amazing feeling when it came back.”
Cassie was working as a rehabilitation support worker when she discovered she could no longer speak to her colleagues at the end of a shift. Her GP initially suspected she had laryngitis, but several weeks went by and her voice didn’t return.
She was flown from her island home to Aberdeen, where she was tested for cancer. When the results came back clear, she referred herself, through her own research, to a private clinic in Glasgow. A fundraiser was set up to help her cover the costs of the treatment. Partway through the treatment, she was given the diagnosis.
There is no known cause of false cord hypertrophy. Experts believe it occurs when the brain tells the wrong part of the voice box to activate. Instead of the vocal cords moving, the muscles above them contract, trying to produce sounds instead.
Cassie explained: “I’ve basically had to retrain myself to talk. I started off with exercises making sounds, then moved on to a few sentences, and they’d throw random words at me to try and trick my brain into using the right muscles. Walking around or doing something else to take your mind off speaking—then suddenly, it clicked.
“It will also be a weak spot now, though, so last week I got a cold, and I couldn’t speak. I started to panic, and so did my partner at first. But now I have the tools to know what to do, and my voice came back after a week. It’s annoying, but I’m reassured that I will speak again now.”
Speaking of the emotional toll, Cassie added: “I don’t feel like a burden anymore now that I don’t have to rely on my family to be a voice for me.
“When something like this happens to you, you don’t realise how much you need or use your voice in everyday life. It’s made me more aware of how others can find it difficult to communicate and the struggles they must feel and face daily.”
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