Otolaryngology

Since winter, I’ve had a sore throat on and off. It was so random and intermittent that I never knew what to do about it. One day I’d be ready to schedule a doctor’s appointment and the next day I’d feel totally fine. Some days I felt no pain, and others I felt like my throat was being sliced every time I swallowed. Eventually I did go to the doctor, who didn’t know what was going on. She thought I might have mono, but I tested negative. She also suggested it could be allergies, but I didn’t have any nasal symptoms. Finally she referred me to and Ears, Nose and Throat doctor, more specifically an Otolaryngologist. So, on senior ditch day, I legitimately went to the doctor in the morning.

I had no idea what they were going to do. First they gave me a questionnaire, where I had to answer questions about whether or not I smoked, drank coffee, drank alcohol, worked in hazardous conditions, or had “stress” in my life. There were also questions about how long my throat had been sore, and if my voice had ever returned to normal during the time period. After I filled this out, the doctor came in, asked me a few similar questions, and then told me that he was going to look at my vocal chords.  I was surprised to find out that this meant sticking a tiny camera on a bendy stick up my nose and down my throat. It didn’t hurt too bad, but I’m glad I only got a few seconds to process it before it happened, otherwise just thinking about the concept beforehand would make me too anxious to go through with it. It felt uncomfortable, and it felt like a nosebleed. While it was in my nose/throat (?) the doctor recorded a video of what he was seeing, while he asked me to sing “Eeeee” at different pitches. Afterwards, I watched a video of my vocal chords with him. This was really cool!

My vocal chords were “normal,” but the throat area around them was inflamed and swollen. Also, while my vocal chords themselves were fine, he pointed out that in my “relaxed” state (not phonating) my vocal chords don’t close all the way like they should. He said that this wasn’t necessarily inherent, but rather that my vocal chords were experiencing tension.

Tension could come from a lot of things. It could be bad breathing patterns (like breathing through my mouth when I sleep even), not hydrating enough, singing with poor technique, or a combination of all these things. I definitely think that this is due to a combination of things… I’ve never worked with anyone one on one about singing techniques, I sing a lot, I yell a decent amount, I breathe through my mouth and I clear my throat often.

The doctor suggested vocal rest for four weeks: no singing, no yelling, no whispering. I told him that I really wanted to be able to sing for my last choir concert ever in high school as well as my graduation, and he told me in that case go ahead. Because I’m young and the problem isn’t that severe, he told me to wait till June to do that regime. However, right now, my instructions are to drink water frequently throughout the day, take a break from singing if I feel pain, not to yell, and to stop clearing my throat. It is harder than I thought it would be.

All of this was really interesting to me, and for the first time ever I considered being a doctor in the future. I think it is probably important for any singer to think about how they treat their vocal chords, and maybe avoid the problem I’ve had by simply understanding a bit more about vocal chords.