# Laryngitis - Persisting voice trouble after



## belcantofan (1 mo ago)

Hello, 1st post here,

don't know whetherany singers, or mostly music fans / listeners are around here.

I'm a hobbyist opera singer. Recently had a laryngitis, apparently bacterial, not connected to a cold or anyhting - only the throat was infected. ENT doc prescribed an antiseptic spray with a tube to spray deeply into the throat.
Well, day 1..2, I had somewhat elevated temperature, and I got mean coughing attacks esp. nights of week #1.
Week #1...#2, I, as close to as possible, didn't speak / worked from home.
*4 weeks now have passed*, while coughing is rare and I can speak, neither is the speaking voice totally clean, there's always some rasp around the corner. And singing doesn't work too well at all, no real clean tones like I used to have even in the lower octave, and getting up to the passagio, or doing falsetto excercises, doesn't work at all.
4 weeks seems pretty long.
Though, as this probably was really bacteria, I might have brought this upon myself by using a months old (in the fridge) nasal spray experiment that I had filled into a used spray bottle, wasn't too impressed with the result, forgot about it, and then one day I grabbed that instead of my go to isotonic saline spray and put some generous amounts in the nose, running down the throat - this usually calms things down a bit, well, not this time









Common ENT says, using a "stick camera" to look at the larynx, there's still "something" but it doesn't look too bad and to him, my speech sounds "normal" ... well, not according to before/after recordings I have, lol... And as said, singing is totally screwed up.
*Should I see a larynx / voice specialist?*
Is it common for something like this to take that long until you can sing again properly / *does this commonly resolve by itself even after this time?* (this is not quite my 2..3 day cold that I get every couple yearts, argh!)


----------



## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

I would see every doctor nearby for advice, even if ,,we have one on this site medical things should be looked in to,
Take my advice please and see a larynx / voice specialist. All the best .


----------



## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

belcantofan said:


> Hello, 1st post here,
> 
> don't know whetherany singers, or mostly music fans / listeners are around here.
> 
> ...


As a former practicing doctor, I have some 'non-medical' advice.

The body is a complex arrangement of systems (circulatory, respiratory, etc.). I've found that most folks have vices of one sort or another, whether it's cigarettes, alcohol, candy.

One of the easiest (and most difficult) things you can do without much effort (unless your brain has a mind of its own) is to alter the crap you put into your body. 

Eat and drink like a fitness expert or nutritionist would advise: 

Cut the sugar to almost zero.
No drugs or alcohol. No soda, cookies, candy, or products with added sugar.
Limit coffee intake to one cup/day.
Way less bread and pasta (carbs).
Way more fruits and veggies.
Cut back on "processed" foods.
Attempt to drink lots of water - stay hydrated.
Remove yourself from any toxic environment.
Deep breathing exercises. 
Stretches, like your pre-vocal warmup.
Gentler and longer vocal warmups.
Vitamin / mineral supplements.

You subconsciously know all this of course, but we all tend to ignore our best intentions.


----------



## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

ENT removed a small node and it made a huge difference I'm a teacher and need my voice and am always susceptible to enthusiasm overwhelming technique. When I feel I've gone to far and the throat gets tight and the sound of my voce is diminished I have to rest it and refocus, with literal vocal warm ups and concentration on connecting to my support palpably Is it possible that the " something" your ENT says is still there, needs to be more specifically tended to?


----------



## belcantofan (1 mo ago)

pianozach said:


> As a former practicing doctor, I have some 'non-medical' advice.
> 
> The body is a complex arrangement of systems (circulatory, respiratory, etc.). I've found that most folks have vices of one sort or another, whether it's cigarettes, alcohol, candy.
> 
> ...


Thanks,although you got the wrong one here, my vice is 100% cocoa chocolate and I recently cut back on that, seeing cocoa is all contaminated with cadmium. I eat grain/products a couple occasions a year, very little processed food, zero alcohol or smoking, no added sugar products for way over 10 years.
Excercises etc, that's something I could do more, for sure.

But this condition now seems rather specific. Now 5 weeks where the singing voice doesn't work, and speaking does have cracks here and there.

The lab meanwhile said they did find _Klebsiella Oxytoca_ on the swab sample. Seems to be a bacterium that's common in the GI tract of humans, "and nose", so I wonder, if that's actually what's bugging my voice, why they're being mean now.
The antibiotics they'd prescribe for those bugs are apparently ototoxic, sounds like the last thing I need.
And then, those also form biofilms that make them less reachable to the immune system _and_ antibiotics.

ScottK - the ENT said he saw no nodules. The "something there" was the fact that irritation was visible. But unlike at the beginning of week #2, there was no pus.
And he basically said it doesn'tlook that bad. Still, "something" persists and I can't use the voice like I could a bit over a month ago.


----------

