Singing in the Car was My Downfall – Thoughts from August 17, 2024

The first thing I must talk about is my doctor’s appointment to look at my throat. I finally got the camera down my throat and saw an image of my vocal cords. They gave me a numbing agent in my nose that went down my throat. Before they gave it to me, they asked if I wanted it and said it doesn’t normally hurt. I was going to say no, but Patti nodded to me I should get it. Later, I regretted getting it. It numbed my nasal passage and throat for hours after the appointment. When they showed me the camera and explained how it was going to go down my nasal passage and into my throat, I got excited. I would finally get to see what I could feel.

The camera went in my nose and down my throat. Patti was more disturbed by this than I was. I wasn’t facing the screen, but she was looking right at it. She looked unhappily at what she saw. The doctor took a picture of it and took the camera out. Going in and coming out was a weird sensation. Now I could see what was so disturbing to Patti. Right on the left side of my vocal cords was a ball where it should have been flat. Seeing it explained all the pain I’ve been feeling and why swallowing rarely hurt.

The first thing the doctor said is it’s not cancerous or a tumor. He said the causes being straining my voice and said certain foods could make it worse. He mentioned spicy and citrus foods. I always say that I put way too much cayenne pepper on my meals. I said it as a joke just to explain why I sweat so much when I eat my meals, but that wasn’t the major reason it was too much. The other thing I’ve done recently has been adding lemon to my tea in the morning. I won’t be doing that anymore. He also mentioned carbonated drinks, alcohol, and other things that don’t apply to me regularly.

The change of diet was the first thing I’m going to try. I have another appointment in October to see how much it has improved. Actually, improving means reducing it in size. I want to demote it. It’s only been two days since the appointment, but my throat feels slightly improved. The change is going to be gradual. It took months to get as bad as it was, so it’s going to take time to heal. If it doesn’t take care of the ball on my vocal cord, they can remove it with surgery to laser it off. To Patti, this sounded like the way to go. I’ve never had surgery in my life. I’d rather heal it myself before I have my first surgery.

Comparing what I saw on the image of my vocal cord to images on the internet, I think what I have is a polyp. I’ve had nodules on my vocal cords before and this was worse. Nodules are bumps and polyps are more like balls. I’ve been in an abusive relationship with my vocal cords and didn’t even know it. I’m sure the doctor mentioned what is was, but unless Patti remembers what he said, I only remember what I can do to fix it. Labeling it isn’t as important as getting rid of it so I can get back to singing in the car. I used to sing in the car regularly, but I had to put a moratorium on it because of the pain. The hard part will be continuing to not sing when the pain goes down.