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Friday, June 19, 2009

Cheeky still silent (well, almost)

I visited the ENT clinic this morning to get my vocal cords looked at, and had a surprise - to see the cords, they go through the NOSE. Yep, that was a thrilling experience. Anyway, they found nodules on the cords, which explains why my voice is so breathy and broken. I go back in next week for another scan that involves a strobe light in order to better see the actual activity of the cords. (If you are interested in more information regarding voice disorders, there is a great site at MedlinePlus: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/voicedisorders.html)

I am still on complete voice rest, but the doctor/professor that I saw says she doubts that I will be able to maintain that (gee, they DO know me at my university!). I am going to do my level best to remain silent. It doesn't do much good to open my mouth to speak anyway, since people generally ask me to repeat myself.

For me, not being able to answer any questions or offer information is quite painful - it is like I lost another sense. If I am supposed to be learning a big life lesson here, I hope it gets clear pretty quickly. (Yeah, who am I that I am asking the life lesson to be a fast one?!)

3 comments:

Molly Brawley said...

Hey Teresa--I am just catching up on my blog reading and am so sorry to hear about your vocal cords! Is this related to your ACC surgery? I am very familiar with the whole vocal cord thing--when I had a schwanomma removed from my carotid area back in 2001 they did a looksee at my cords to see how they were working--just in case they cut them in the surgery. They wanted a plan to repair them just in case. Luckily, that didn't happen but I remember the nose thing and having to sing like a bird to get those things to move with the scope down in there. My sis in law went with me and we cracked up about the hairs in my nose. Craziness!~

Take care--and as always, thanks for what you do. I will continue to check in now that I am on vacation. Also, it is storming here like crazy--had to drug our poor dog again. : (

Molly

Teresa Hartman said...

Hi Molly - not sure what this is. The professionals working on me admitted that they were keeping everything in mind, and you KNOW I will be squeaking/croaking out questions along those lines to them (ok, I will write them down, really). Hang in there with the storms - and enjoy that vacation! You have definitely earned it, from what I have read on your blog!

Dee said...

Hi Teri,
Oh lordy - nodules on the cords? Are they related to ACC? Or, is it something completely unrelated? You will tell us, right? I hope it clears up quickly because as someone who communicates a lot by talking (students, in committee meetings), not talking would be really hard to handle. I'll keep you in my thoughts, okay?

 
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