Aaaaargh.....Stupid Laryngitis

I've never had laryngitis before. It sucks. I woke up Sunday with no voice. It came from the tail end of a cold, where I was coughing alot. I'm in the middle of chemo, so my immune system is compromised, so I feel lucky that I came through a cold with no bacterial infection....at all....just this stupid cough and the stupid laryngitis.

I was working Fashion Week all week, dressing models, and it's good money, so I couldn't give it up. Try not talking while you're doing that. I've been steaming and gargling with salt water, and it's helping, but not by tonight.

The worst of it is, I had a paying singing gig tonight. I had two songs to myself, with a little jazz band and everything, then I was doing backup on 4 songs. It was for an annual Mardi Gras party we have at church....really fun and they were actually paying me for it! I had to cancel with the leader of our group. I've never had to bail on any performance....ever. I've gone on stage in plays with the flu, with colds, even with a broken shoulder in Scotland......never missed anything. But, if you have no voice, you have no voice. This breaks my heart. It's not like I can hold up cards...cripes.

I just had to vent. It's getting better, Mucinex is clearing up the cough, but I have about 4 notes in my voice, and they're all in basically the baritone range.

My homeopath tells me that "illness is our body's way of saying, 'enough---time to REST!' " You sound awfully busy so just take advantage of this unplanned break and be kind to yourself and your body.

Hope you're better soon!

Originally Posted by CatMom2Wires

My homeopath tells me that "illness is our body's way of saying, 'enough---time to REST!' " You sound awfully busy so just take advantage of this unplanned break and be kind to yourself and your body.

Hope you're better soon!

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This is true. I totally agree. I have three whole days to just take care of myself, and I'm going to take advantage of that.

Yuck, I hope you feel better soon. I used to get laryngitis every winter when I was off at school in New York. It would reach the point I almost couldn't speak at all, which would finally prompt me to go see a doctor the next morning, and without fail it had completely cleared up by the time I got to the doctor's office.

I don't sing much, so that particular aspect has never really bothered me, but I did come down with a really bad case when I was in Airborne training in the Army. I was an officer, so they had put me in charge of a group of ~ 16 men, which meant I had to yell out orders to them. I couldn't get anything above a whisper, so I ended up having to whisper stuff to one of the non-commissioned officers in the group so that he could do the yelling for me.

Originally Posted by Grogs

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I don't sing much, so that particular aspect has never really bothered me, but I did come down with a really bad case when I was in Airborne training in the Army. I was an officer, so they had put me in charge of a group of ~ 16 men, which meant I had to yell out orders to them. I couldn't get anything above a whisper, so I ended up having to whisper stuff to one of the non-commissioned officers in the group so that he could do the yelling for me.

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Ohmigosh! What a position to be in!!

My brother has a tae kwon do school, and he had laryngitis a couple of years ago, and he was in the same situation - having to stand up before the classes and yell out orders. He wrote signs.

nanner get well soon. I am sorry you have to miss your show tonight. Good for you for listening to your body and not being stubborn.

I enjoy singing but am not good enough to do anything where I would get paid. I do go out for karaoke regularly and am stubborn when I want to go out. A couple of months ago I went out on a Friday after feeling better from a nasty cold. I felt normal all day and figured I would be ok to go out. Of course I over did it. I ended up singing 6 songs because the bar was really slow that night. My hubby kept trying to get me to leave because we had plans to go out the next night with friends. I figured my voice would bounce back quickly because I had just sang too much or I would stick to easier songs the next night. I woke up the next day and could not even talk normally. I am stubborn when I want to go out so I still went out that night. I wanted to sing but finally gave up after three tries. I do not like to sound bad so I did give up. It took a week for my voice to go back to normal when talking. Then it took another week before I was comfortable with the way I sounded singing anything. It was almost two after that before I had my full range back singing.

I'm mostly feeling guilty now about letting people down, but one guy just wrote me and said they found someone to fill in - he said he had called a few friends and they all were sick, so I should stop feeling guilty.

There's no way I could have done it anyway, even if i dragged myself there, as I only have those 4 notes....and they're very low.....very, very low.

But, how ironic is this.....one of the songs I was going to sing was "Embraceable You". So I'm sitting here online, started up my iPod, put it on shuffle, and the first song that pops up is Ella Fitzgerald singing "Embraceable You"! I have over 500 songs on my iPod, and that's the one that comes on first?!?!? Weird!!!

I've almost been in your shoes! When I was in high school my friend and I were in a musical (outside the school) and we had a duet together. The week before the play; we both lost our voices. It was probably a bad idea; but at rehearsal we sang anyway...and turned a ballad into a comedy routine! My voice cracked a couple times the day before the play; but I made it through my parts just fine the next day.

I've lost my voice several times over the years. I like just sipping hot tea and using the vapor action cough drops.

Awwww, healing vibes coming your way...