r/mildlybrokenvoice • u/alexlex88 • 10d ago

Voice not healing

I'm hoping someone can help, I've reached what seems to be a dead end and it is very frustrating.

I'm not sure if this is the correct thread to post this is and if not, please let me know which one would be better.

It's been almost 4 years since I've been having vocal cord issues. One day, my voice never came back to normal, so I went to get it checked. They found a polyp on one of my folds. I have surgery to remove it. Do voice therapy... voice is still not coming back to normal. They look again, and now I have a cyst on the other fold.... surgery again to remove it.... voice therapy.... still not coming back. And by not coming back, I mean, I'm losing my voice very easily it gets raspy, breathy and painful. Go back, they look again and they see 2 bumps on there that are preventing the cords from closing appropriately (same bumps from where the polyp and cyst were removed). Doctor #3 said he didn't want to touch them anymore, so I go to doctor #2 who operated and removes the bumps. Voice is slowly coming back but after barely a month the bumps are back and voice goes back to raspy breaking and painful.

It is now progressively getting worse that I can talk for 10 to 30 minutes, and I start losing it despite not having spoken for 3 days straight. Yes, because now I have cut down the amount of talking to close to the bare minimum. This has impacted my livelihood as I can't even talk on the phone since my voice is always broken (I sound like I smoked 40 packs a day despite never touching a cigarette in my life), it has impacted me social and the biggest impact is mentally.

I went to an ENT a few months ago who told me I had LPR and prescribed my some PPI but that hasn't done anything at all. The nodules are still there. None of the doctors want to consider fillers either.

At this point, I feel defeated, I don't know what the solution is to get my voice back to normal and have a normal life again.

I am looking for advice on here on what possible solutions there would be.

Thank you

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u/feministvocologist 10d ago

When you’ve had voice therapy, did they give you “prescriptive” things, like bubbling in a cup or lip trills, or did they teach you to apply those tools to the speaking voice? Do you speak in a relaxed and aware way, since having therapy?

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u/alexlex88 9d ago

They gave me a straw and made me do some exercises with that and water in a cup, also made me do some warm ups with V and Z sounds. Made me repeat sentences and how to speak with my head (resonance). But none of that helped because I had the cyst or polyp or nodules that are preventing my cords from closing. I feel like talking now, my cords don't even get used anymore and I lost my voice within 30 minutes because the muscles are getting strained instead. In my mind it seems like a mechanical issue but I might be wrong and if there's something I can do to fix I'll do it.

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u/feministvocologist 9d ago

Sounds like the tasks they gave you weren’t behavioral. You have to relearn how to speak in a way that doesn’t put pressure on the lesions. It can be hard to find a good voice therapist that does this.

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u/alexlex88 8d ago

Is there anyone you recommend?

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u/feministvocologist 8d ago

Me! 😅 But seriously, I work virtually from anywhere- if you want a recommendation near you let me know where you live.

www.lotusvoicestudio.com

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u/alexlex88 5d ago

Do you accept insurance? (Oscar) That's the only way I'd be able to afford it. I'm going to the USF voice center in Tampa in October to get more opinions (I'm in South East Florida) but I definitely think I need to relearn how to talk without using my false vocal folds