hello there,

Today i had most recently been diagnosed with MTD. I was diagnosed by a laryngologist with a flexible fiberoptic video stroboscopy. They video isn't the best quality, but I wanted to see what the next steps would be in this case? Would any SLPs in server be comfortable looking at the footage I took of my videostroboscopy? I'd love a second opinion.

Some prompts:

• How's your voice doing?
• What happened at your doctor's appointment?
• What advice did you get from your SLP/voice teacher?
• Got any thoughts you think other folks here would be interested in?

(F24) Ive been abusing my voice for years now. Smoking juul, pot in various forms, and I would go through cycles of smoking, singing, losing my voice, going bad to normal.. and it would go away longer and longer throughout the years but always return to normal. I recently had a terrible sinus infection and laryngitis and it hasn’t fully returned in months. I usually have a strong belt and large range … I am going to get it checked by an ENT in a few days. So scared , obviously blaming myself. Addiction got the best of me. Scared I lost my voice forever. I’ll never forgive myself. It doesn’t hurt, just loss of sound . Can’t sing upper register at all. I’m a server as well so it will be very difficult to go on complete vocal rest. Just praying and hoping I will wake up from this nightmare 😭 any advice?

I recorded last week on Monday and had a lot of events to go to and talk at the rest of the week. I had a sore throat/was coughing up bloody mucus but wanted to fulfill all my commitments. Today I coughed up what looked like the skin off a blister in blood. It pulled apart like skin. So gross. My throat hurts but I can still talk if I try although earlier in the day it was super croaky. Sang along to some music at home yesterday by accident and range is definitely not what it was. I’m going to an ENT tomorrow just worried. I’ve also been in physical pain for a while and it’s going away so I’m supposed to start exercising again but don’t know if I should now in case it hurts my throat/cords more. Any advice super appreciated

whenever i speak words with a 'r' sound(like reccursion,memory) it does not feel smooth as in it feels like there is a bump in between rest everything is clean also i have bit of a nasal voice if that is in any case related please help me rectify this

Hey everyone,

I’m a 30 year old man diagnosed with Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD) two years ago. I started developing some problems with speaking around 3-4 years ago. The problems are a persistently hoarse voice, and involuntary breaks when trying to pronounce words. It makes my speech sometimes difficult to understand.

I got my diagnosis at an university hospital after an otolaryngologist examination. The vocal cords looked healthy but during speech, muscle spasms consistent with SD were detected, so I believe the SD diagnosis is correct. It’s understood to be a neurological problem with unclear causes. I was recommended Botox injections as a treatment and I took one two years ago. It helped and made my voice work much better for two or three months. But I didn’t like the side effect of losing my voice entirely for ~2 weeks after the injection. Botox paralyzes the vocal cords for this time, before the voice gets better. Therefore I haven’t taken any injections after that, and have just dealt with having the voice problems. Also, the doctor who diagnosed me said that regular Botox injections are the best known treatment, and that speech therapy is not believed to help in cases of SD.

However, I’ve noticed that my voice is quite different when I’m in any company vs. when I’m alone at home. I’ve done some (admittedly few) exercises at home, where I read newspaper articles and other text aloud, or verbally explain something I’m doing to nobody in particular. I find that I’m able to speak quite normally when I do this, and if I recorded my speech it would sound normal with none or very minor symptoms of SD. But when I’m talking to anyone else like a coworker, family member, anyone really, I have my full SD symptoms every time. It’s like a switch flips in my head and causes me to misuse my voice when I know someone’s listening. It happens both in-person and when using voice chat software or a phone.

I’ve read some studies on SD and haven’t encountered any mention of similar cases, where a person is able to speak normally when they are alone. The studies seem to suggest that SD should be a constant issue, and would be apparent even when the person is just recording their own voice alone.

Does anyone reading have similar experiences with any voice issues arising in company, but not when alone? It seems like in my case, this might not be a persistent neurological problem but rather a psychological one, which might be fixable with proper practice of speaking techniques. For the record I don’t have any major anxiety issues that might explain it. I used to dislike public speaking (e.g. in a classroom) a lot years ago, before I developed SD, but I don’t mind it too much anymore.

For now I think I’ll try practicing speaking more by myself and somehow transferring the correct speaking habits to everyday communication.

I got hired at a restaurant 3 months ago right as I was going into college. My job was to call out to the kitchen every person who came in through the doors, greet the customers, yell back what they wanted, and then call out their names when their food was ready. And I wanted to show I was committed - so I yelled like I meant it.

Before this, my vocal range was approximately C#2 - C7 without any professional training. As a male, I loved surprising people with my whistle register after speaking in my deep voice. It was so much fun to have so much freedom with my voice because I love talking to people, trying to make everyone's day better, and singing, but I just can't anymore.

After a month of long shifts there, (8 weeks ago), I came down with the worst case of laryngitis I have ever had and have not recovered since. Now it's been 2 months and the moment I wake up I feel burning pain on the left side of my throat. Even just doing nothing hurts, but talking is especially painful because I can feel my voice cracking when it shouldn't.

I don't know what to do. I've seen two doctors and both of them have basically told me to go away and wait to see if it gets better on its own all while charging me hundreds of dollars. One of them even gave me strep throat medication after my strep test came back negative. (WTF) I've had to leave my job because I can't work in this condition.

I feel like I am losing a part of myself and I am scared. I'll take any advice. Thank you.

My 12 year old son had chronic laryngitis. It’s awful. His nodules are stage 3. We have an appointment with a voice therapist in a few weeks (the earliest). What realistically can we do before our appointment to help this poor boy. He has to push and strain just to say a few words. It sounds awful and it must be so frustrating.

Hey everyone,

I wondered if anyone has ever had a similar story to mine. I’m 32F and around the beginning of August, I lost my voice out of the blue. I assumed I had a virus or something but saw my GP after it didn’t clear up in 2-3 weeks. They said it was probably a virus and asked me to return if it hadn’t resolved within another 4 weeks.

After 4 weeks, it had gotten intermittently better but not cleared up fully, so I returned. I was told it might be oral thrush related since I use a steroid inhaler and was given some treatment. This did seem to help but only for a week or two.

Yesterday, I saw an ENT doctor privately as my voice has gotten a lot worse over the past week. My symptoms are: weak/hoarse voice (I can talk but it feels really strained and it’s an effort, like I’m having to use my voice in an unnatural way that’s difficult to keep up), a feeling of being ‘strangled’ in my throat and occasionally a sore throat.

The ENT doctor looked at my larynx with a scope and said that there appeared to be areas of inflammation on both vocal cords and also my lingual tonsils. White/red patches. He said it’s hard to tell what might have caused it, but that he didn’t think it’s a cancer although if it doesn’t resolve then I would need a biopsy under general anaesthetic to rule it out.

In summary, he said it might be related to my steroid inhaler, acid reflux or as a result of a previous virus. For context, I also had a baby via c section 3 weeks ago and had viruses throughout pregnancy with a sore throat and feeling run down etc. During the pregnancy, I was started on the steroid inhaler as I was breathless and the doctor thought it might be asthma, although it was never properly confirmed. For this reason, the ENT specialist suggested that I ask my doctor whether I can stop the inhaler to see if this resolves the issue. I also take meds for long term reflux issues and I’ve had previous gastroscopies which either showed mild gastritis or nothing.

Anyway, I could go on. Has anyone experienced anything similar? He said to go see him again in a month after hopefully stopping my inhaler and see from there. Thanks

ENT NOTES

Voice:
G- 1
R- 1
B- 0
A- 0
S- 0
 
MPT: 24 seconds
 
PROCEDURE NOTE:
PROCEDURE PERFORMED: Flexible laryngoscopy with stroboscopy
INDICATION: Dysphonia

Velopharynx: Complete closure without weakness
Vocal Fold Color/Quality: Thick tacky mucus on the vocal cords
Vocal Fold Mobility/Position:  Normal
Atrophy of Vocal Folds: None
Vocal Fold Lesions: None 
Supraglottic Hyperfunctional Contraction: BOT recruitment with speech. AP hyperfunctioning with speech. Minimal with prolonged vowel 
Tremor: None 
Subglottis: Clear
Piriforms: No pooling
Other Findings:  Normal 
 
Vibratory Parameters: 
Symmetry: Symmetric
Amplitude: Mildly decreased
Mucosal Wave: Decreased on the right
Periodicity: 100% periodic
Closure: At modal pitch, complete 
 
Summary:  Thick mucus, mildly stiffness (decreased mucosal wave on the left) 

SLP NOTES

Perceptual Analysis: 
The GRBAS is a perceptual rating of voice change. 0 indicated no impairment, 3 indicates a severe impairment. This is a rating based on clinical judgement of disordered voice quality.
G ( 1 ) General Dysphonia   
R ( 0 ) Roughness   
B ( 0 ) Breathiness   
A ( 0 ) Asthenia   
S ( 1 ) Strain
Additional observations: Resonance WFL

Laryngoscopy: Laryngoscopy was reviewed this date. This revealed AP hyperfunction and BOT recruitment on connected speech, viscous white mucous aggregating on the TVFs, mildly decreased amplitude of vibration, mildly decreased mucosal wave on the TVF, complete glottic closure, and phase symmetry.
 
Acoustic Analysis
Acoustic measures are objective measures of vocal function related to vocal loudness, pitch, and quality (Patel et al., 2018) and are considered a standard part of a comprehensive voice evaluation/treatment plan. These measures were obtained this date to quantify the degree and parameters of the patient's dysphonia and to provide objective pre and post-treatment measures.
 
Acoustic Measure  (my values are first here, the second value is the norm)
Value
Norm
Maximum Phonation Time
26.5s
>15s
Mean Fo- Male
119Hz
85-150Hz
Mean SPL
53dB
69-75dB
Pitch Range (Hz) (Semitones)
14-543Hz, G#2-E5
>12 semitones
RAP/Jitter
0.389
<0.680
Shimmer
3.95%
<3.86%
Noise to Harmonic Ratio
0.148
<0.194
Voice Turbulence Index
0.043
<0.04
CPP (sustained /a/)
13.34
M: -6.79 to 13.96
CSID (all voiced)
-16.03
M: -12.4 to 3.2

Symptoms and findings consistent with:
Dysphonia secondary to impaired vibratory parameters of the TVFs, supraglottic hyperfunction

Anything i should be concerned with here? my voice still has a roughness quality to it, like a secondary buzzing that sounds very bad to me. Dont see my SLP for like two more weeks so im anxious. Any idea what all this means? I find that my voice sounds the worst when holding out a sound like "aaaah". so much extra gross noise in there. ENT said i was chronic throat clearing so im making an effort to stop but its been a week and i don't think ive seen really any improvement. My voice still functionally feels and sounds considerably worse then before my overuse. Its like a rattling sound.

My ENT's notes really confuse me. is it possible that it's muscle tension dysphonia and the lidocane i was given lessened my symptoms during the scope?

The SLP mentions something around TVF dysfunction, and i think thats consistent with most of my symptoms, atleast the buzzing sound which is really my primary concern at the moment because thats whats really bothering me. Does this seem like the correct assessment? how would i go about dealing with this?

Some prompts:

• How's your voice doing?
• What happened at your doctor's appointment?
• What advice did you get from your SLP/voice teacher?
• Got any thoughts you think other folks here would be interested in?

Hey. So I am now having to get a partial cordectomy of both vocal cords because of damage from so many intubations. I have had two surgeries to remove subglottic stenosis and more of that has come back has well. My chords are just too damaged and can’t open well, this restricting my airflow and causing shortness of breath. This sucks and I’m really anxious about recovery and how my voice is going to sound. Has anyone gone through this?

Hey! I‘m desperately looking for some help in identifying what I could have!!

For several months now I have the problem of my voice cutting off when I‘m talking. It also feels like I don’t have enough air sometimes. I went to an ent physician and she said that she doesn’t see anything wrong with my vocal cords but that it could be tension.

It went away from alone several times but it came back everytime. It just feels like my voice isn’t as strong if that makes sense?

I feel very helpless and hate the feeling of not being able to convey what I‘m trying to say especially since I‘ve been dealing with anxiety disorders all my life and this voice problem has made that 10x worse. Now I‘m afraid everytime I have to speak to somebody because I think my voice will cut off!!

Some prompts:

• How's your voice doing?
• What happened at your doctor's appointment?
• What advice did you get from your SLP/voice teacher?
• Got any thoughts you think other folks here would be interested in?

My vocal cords became partially paralyzed about 5 years ago. I have paresis in both my RLN and SLN. I’ve tried thyroplasty surgery and medialization injections to no avail. Voice therapy hasn’t really helped either.

Does anyone have any advice? Are there any voice exercises/techniques that help fellow singers with this issue?

Edit: see my comment… I think I might be entirely wrong.

I just saw a laryngology specialist ENT however I left feeling unsure of where I stand

For some reason she didn’t do a video strobsocopy and just did a laryngoscopy but she said she didn’t see anything bad and there’s just excess mucus on my vocal cords and maybe MTD which is worse when I’m talking …

I’m fairly sure there’s no polyp or nodule or anything because she would’ve seen it and I didn’t see anything on the screen that looked like that

However she did say to me my issues could also be being caused by a sulcus… but the way she was implying seemed like that wasn’t likely. She said no scarring and that mucousal wave was mostly good

She referred from to an SLP which I’ll be doing until she sees me again in 3 months

Can I trust this result without video stroboscopy? I’m really stressed because waiting 2 weeks for this was already long and now I have to wait 6x as long just to be really sure nothing is wrong. She is the doctor here but from what I was hearing on here i thought it wasn’t possible to tell these things from a regular laryngoscopy

Regardless of all this I have seen a general improvment in my condition. I’d say I’m 70% back to where I was before but I don’t know how much more improvement I can see after 4 weeks and 70% really isn’t enough

Hey guys,

I'm going through a tough time and I could really use some positive support. I've been having voice problems for many years now, but they've gotten worse lately. Every time I talk, my throat closes up, I feel like I can't breathe and I get a really bad tension in my head. An endoscopy revealed a complete dislocation of an arytenoid cartilage (it seems like it might be congenital but there's no certainty; during phonation, the arytenoid touches the base of the epiglottis). I started speech therapy a month ago but so far I haven't seen any significant improvements. They've suggested laser surgery on the arytenoid as the next step. I don't know if anyone has a similar experience or any suggestions to offer, but even a word of encouragement would be appreciated. Thank you all!

hi everyone! i got a vocal injection about 2 months ago to close a gap in my vocal cords that my ENT thought was the cause of my voice problems. it hasn't helped so she's looking into other options, and mentioned that it could be a kind of unique presentation of a functional neurological disorder that's triggered by stress and anxiety. has anyone else had a similar diagnosis or experience with this possibility before? my ENT was going to speak to a neurologist colleague and a speech therapist i've been seeing to discuss the possibility, but this isn't something i've ever heard of before so i'm curious if anyone here has

I recently lost my voice last night despite not being too rough with it. I’ve been coughing a bit and honestly should’ve drank more water. I’m a voice major in college and I’ve always wondered when should you get worried for this kinda stuff? Are there any ways to know voice loss from hemorrhage, etc.

My 2 month old baby had tracheal surgery last week and was diagnosed with left vocal cord paralysis today. He occasionally gets out faint noises but is mostly silent.

I'm looking for advice on taking care of a child who can't vocalize he needs us. How can we sleep if he can't wake us up when he's hungry? Will one of us always need to be awake? Is baby sign language the fastest way to be able to communicate with him? Are there devices or tech that would be helpful? I'm sure there are 1000 implications I haven't considered yet. What else do I need to know?

Hi! I love Reddit and wanted to share my experience with anyone who is where I was or has already been where I am at.

I am a professional vocalist, freelancer, and recording artist (M 25). My work involves high effort singing most days, and I’ll admit certain lifestyle choices I made weren’t the most conducive to vocal health as a night life performer in NYC.

After 3 months of on and off fatigue and eventually a full week of total voice loss (still singing through these gigs somehow, just kinda felt like I had no head voice and my voice would break after singing for more than an hour), I caved and got a scope. Turns out i had a pretty large hemorrhaging polyp! I did a week of rest and steroids which allowed the bleeding and inflammation to subside, but a laser surgery was still in order to remove it and get me back to normal functioning.

Today was the day! Honestly terrible experience. I can’t even really tolerate scoping without coughing up the probe. Once I zoned into my breathing and got numbed it all went by fast. I could taste/smell burning flesh which was kinda gross. Took like 10 minutes to get the numbing done and another 10 for the laser. Tons of mucus buildup afterward so i felt the need to clear my throat and cough very badly. Anxiety inducing.

A few hours later I feel pretty normal. They advised me to go on full rest for 48 hours, and introduce a light inside voice for no more than 5-10 minutes per hour on day 3. Projecting two weeks until I sustain normal conversation, 3 weeks to begin singing at all, and 4 to begin retraining my voice.

I’ll be doing weekly vocal therapy for a month beginning in two weeks . I opted to set up work with a vocal coach that has experience working through injury to help me get back to sustainable work and strength ASAP.

Was told 6-8 weeks till I can comfortably gig again! Gonna provide updates right on here. Happy to talk or answer any questions!

...

Day 5 Post: It has literally never been easier to speak. I'm not supposed to talk for more than 10 minutes on the hour, and not push at all this first week, but I'll say I've done quite a bit more simply because it feels good rather than high effort as it has for so many months. I think there's just no way the healing tissue from the laser is inhibtitng me more than this polyp was. I am physically unable to be Ioud and I'm cautious around any feelings of strain, but week 1 has me optimistic about future recovery. I've even caught myself accidentally humming a few times. Wasn't supposed to do that till week 2, oops. It just feels so good!

I have seen so many posts that detail up to 6-12 months of recover but I am feeling extremely comfortable already, so hopefully I'm not speaking too soon but to anyone worried about recovery being that long it's clearly different for every voice and condition.

Some prompts:

• How's your voice doing?
• What happened at your doctor's appointment?
• What advice did you get from your SLP/voice teacher?
• Got any thoughts you think other folks here would be interested in?

Hi, I’ve had vocal cord paresis of my right vocal cord my entire life (I’m now 24). Literally since I started talking. I have no idea what caused it. I wasn’t a preemie, I was born a week after my due date.

I didn’t even know what vocal cord paresis was until I researched it in 2020 and got my official diagnosis. In 2020 and 2021 respectively, I had the temporary botox injection procedure (0 change or improvement to my voice), and I also had a surgery where they took a small piece of fat from my stomach and injected it in, which was supposed to be more effective (also 0 change or improvement to my voice).

Has anyone else experienced this and know why the normal remedies don’t help me? Even my otolaryngologist didn’t know, which is why I’m asking reddit lol. And for those for whom surgery didn’t help, is there anything that did help you? My VCP case seems a lot more stubborn than some of the later onset cases I’ve been reading about on here so far.

Hi all

A few months prior I noticed that I wasn't able to project my voice at certain pitches. It didn't really concern me at the time.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, and my voice became very hoarse, at times a bit broken. Possibly due to the change of season to spring and the onset of seasonal allergies.

I went to an ENT, who said that I've got two very small growths on the vocal cords. He indicated a surgical removal is necessary and that it needs to be sent for a biopsy.

I went for a second opinion and the the second ENT said the same except that he said that there was only one instead of two.

However, both said: surgical removal and biopsy. Both also said that it's hard to tell if it's a nodule, polyp, papilloma, or something else. (both put the camera through my nose)

I'm in education (a principal) so my voice is a big part of what I do.

In terms of treatment, I've been on a medical aid scheme (a monthly payment in my country that allows me to go to a private facility if I require treatment) however, I cancelled it last year as it cost quite a bit and I hadn't really used it for myself nor my family. I tried to enable it again, however, the medical aid scheme did not wish to cover my treatment (even though the cost of the procedure is less than half of the premiums I paid so far). That being said, the rules of the medical aid are clear and I was conscious of it when I decided to cancel.

Nevertheless, public healthcare it is. The public healthcare system doesn't have glowing reviews, but there are those that swear that it is very viable. The public healthcare system has world class doctors and equipment/machines (in fact, the hospital that I'll be going to is the third largest in the world) however, it is everything else that is, apparently, the stuff of nightmares.

I'm ready to brave it through public healthcare. I don't have much of an option. And yet, I'm resolute that there's goodness in all things. For better or for worse, this is the best that is meant for me.

For treatment, I've started somewhere homeopathic treatment (phosphorus, thuja, licorice root) I'm also trying to hydrate as much as possible.

Tomorrow I'll be going for my first visit to the hospital. It's just to open a patient file.

If there's anyone interested, I'll keep this thread updated. My hope is to chronicle this experience and hopefully benefit someone else in their journey.

It turns out that I have some chronic sinus issues that have been causing me to clear my throat excessively for months, and as a result of that plus over singing I have some really small nodules that have developed on my cords. the ENT told me that I'm going to need speech therapy and will need to take a break from singing, under the discretion of a speech therapist. i spoke to my speech therapist for the first time today and she seems lovely. the hardest part of all of this is the mental aspect of having to take a break from singing and performing, as it’s my biggest passion and love in life. if anyone has any advice to work through this or if you want to share your experiences i’d love to hear them!

Some prompts:

• How's your voice doing?
• What happened at your doctor's appointment?
• What advice did you get from your SLP/voice teacher?
• Got any thoughts you think other folks here would be interested in?

My 3 year old has had a hoarse voice for as long as I can remember. Her allergy doctor and her regular pediatrician agreed that we should bring her into the ENT to get it checked out. We went today and they looked at her vocal cords with a camera and the ENT said it looks like she has swollen vocal cords and either nodules or a web in her vocal cords. He didn't feel like he had the proper camera to diagnose properly so he referred us to a pediatric specific ENT who he said would have the right camera to get a proper look at it (she was also completely freaking out the whole time which I'm sure didn't help).

He said that nodules weren't super common in kids her age and he wasn't sure what the swelling might be from since she doesn't have a history of any reflux. According to the internet the laryngeal web is also pretty rare and seems to maybe be associated with some other health issues, my daughter is otherwise healthy.

Since we have to wait a month until we can see the other doctor I just wanted to ask in case maybe someone had some experience or guidance here? It's a bit scary to consider she might need surgery but the doctor said that the speech therapy they do for nodules isn't very effective in kids her age.

So I've had essentially vocal fatigue when speaking my entire life. Sometimes I'll have days where it feels like speaking sucks the air away and I wind up winded. I haven't gone to a doctor before because honestly my health is a mess and this has usually had to take a backseat. I scheduled an ENT appointment FINALLY because last Sunday, it was a 5-7 in pain to speak and it felt like there was resistance in my throat when trying to speak (and I don't mean in a cold sort of way). It's been getting better, still a bit weird today though. Just some mild resistance and a bit more discomfort when speaking than usual.

I have no idea what to expect. I have an hEDS diagnosis and I know that vocal hyperfunction is a potential (though rarer) comorbidity but beyond that, I mean what will they even do? Just take a peek down the throat, send me to an SLP? Or is there anything beyond that? Should I bring any information along? My voice typically sounds normal, so I'm not even sure what an SLP would target with the primary issue being the fatigue. I searched for similar folks online and the general consensus seemed to be to just talk less, which isn't particularly helpful 😭

I got an appt with an larygology specialist ENT now coming up in 2 weeks. I'm 99% sure I have either polyps or scarring (praying for the polyps). It also could potentially be MTD but I seriously doubt it as all my tension issues resolved after the first week.

These formed due to me abusing my voice for basically a year, not from any particular technique just using it wayyyy too much with very few breaks, like 3 hours a day most days and only stopping when it hurt me to use it. Obviously now I realized that I was being really stupid, and I've massively scaled back my voice use to only when necessary but theres really no much improvement after week 1 and my speaking is just okay and singing is terrible. My main issue is breathiness.

I'm worried that i'll go to the ENT, and they'll recommend me SLP therapy, which is all good, but I need the polyps removed. I'm down to do therapy after, but I know the recovery timelines for the surgery aren't insignificant, so I'd like to get that on the way. As far as i'm aware you can not get rid of large polyps through therapy.

Ive heard that it takes months and multiple visits to get recommended for microlaryngoscopy, I simply cannot afford to wait that long. With my insurance it will be way way cheaper if I get it done this year, and i've already been out of being able to do music for a year and half due to some other circumstances that are related.

My life is literally on pause until I get this fixed basically, so every day is really painful to wait.

I absolutely CAN NOT wait a year or any longer than ASAP to get this done, are ENTs typically hesitant to recommend surgery? its actually killing me with anxiety, this shit has already potentially seriously fucked up my life and I just want to be done with it.

Is there any way to let them know that I really really need the polyps removed asap? or is it just a pipe dream to be able to have this surgery within the next month or so?

I have vocal cord paralysis, right side, currently have Botox filler.

Just looking for some encouragement and tips. Best ways to protect vocal cords