It’s been rough few weeks as speaking has quickly become so painful that I’ve had to quit talking altogether. The weird thing is that I can still sing and connect completely through the registers. Jeffery Skouson, an associate in SLS (speech level singing) and a master level instructor who deals with a lot of different vocal damage issues was stumped too. My ENT deducted that the nissen fundoplication (surgery for acid reflux that was burning my vocal cords) had failed and I would need to start from scratch and still maybe lose my voice forever.
Those of you who know me or who have read these posts know the first surgery nearly killed me, led to several other surgeries and that I have still not recovered from where this all started when I got my first diagnosis over a year ago. So when I was told I would have to start all over and might possibly lose my voice anyway, I was devastated.
So I took the next flight out to LA and moved up my appointment for a second opinion from Dr. Shawn Nasseri, the guy who trains the voice doctors at Harvard and the Mayo Clinic. Have to say, he’s the only doctor I’ve met with who’s exam room walls are covered with autographed album covers from the artists he’s helped including greats like Whitney Houston and Stevie Wonder to contemporaries like every American Idol to have ever toured. But that’s not the reason I wanted to see him. I went to Dr. Nasseri because he’s the best at what he does. I also went because all of my work is voice related and I simply can’t imagine being without my voice or the joy of singing.
Now I finally have a real diagnosis; one that made such incredible sense given my symptoms and the unanswered questions posed to my other doctors. It appears what I have is a very uncommon condition called tension muscle dysphonia. As I understand it, during one or more of my surgeries, the muscles below my vocal cords were scraped by the breathing tubes causing some damage. The muscles reaction to that injury is to increasing seize up with use. It’s similar to a seizure that causes a persons head to pinch to the side, but instead part my throat seizes up causing great and lasting pain through the right side of my neck and head.
The great news is that Dr. Nasseri said I have a beautiful set of vocal cords, no nodes, no damage of any kind and that I will eventually get my speaking voice back. Unfortunately I’m told it will take at least six months working with a special speech pathologist to retrain the muscles to relax. Apparently the reason I can still sing is because my technique and training have trained these muscles what to do while singing, but speaking, not so much. Weird. So for awhile, I’m doing as little of either as possible and visiting my pharmacy often.
What I’ve learned from this experience is that I could’ve saved my self months of emotional distress if I had just bit the bullet and gone to a pro first. Athlete’s don’t see their family physician for a sports injury so why didn’t I do the equivalent for my voice? Money, primarily. But it was so worth the cost to get one right answer with a plan to fix it versus the months of pain, guesses and frustration I’ve gone through.
What kind of vocal issues have you had? Click the comments button at the top of this post and leave yours. I’ll be discussing other types of vocal damage and treatment in upcoming posts. You can help make a difference by sharing your story.
Kim, I’m so glad you finally got an answer and some real medical help. I have to say, I have not had “serious” vocal problems, but since I started regular vocal coaching (SLS) I lose my voice less.
I used to get “hoarse” from overusing my voice a LOT (I work in radio, which sometimes includes very noisy festivals and events), plus I sing every weekend in church. Now I can’t remember the last time I completely lost my voice, praise God!
By the way, I was debating going HMO instead of PPO with our health insurance in 2010, since the medical bills have been piling up with PPO. But after reading your story, I know what I want to do. Having the choice to go get the best medical help is, in every sense, priceless, no matter what medical needs you face.
I’m becoming a big proponent of internet research as a prerequisite to all of my doctors appts. Hard to weed out the good from the bad, but it gives me better questions to ask and always results in my being much more proactive about my health. I need to get the habit down even more – when your sick it’s hard to get motivated to do research!
my mother always loses her voice but she can still sing fine…her voice just *poof* goes away and shes left with a raw throat but yet she can still sing as though nothing had happened
If she’s losing her voice, there’s a reason. She may be manipulating her cords for singing differently to sing than she does for speech which could explain why she can sing and not speak, but if she’s losing her voice more than rarely that’s cause for concern. Ask her if she’s open to seeing a good ENT and getting a medical opinion and let me know what happens.