Hi, Heather,

Take it from someone who has been there. Don't mess with this. See an otolaryngologist as soon as possible—if not sooner.

First, a small, nit-picky point:   you do have an "Adam's apple." This is simply your larynx, which houses the vocal folds, and both men and women have them. It's just that women's are smaller, with shorter vocal folds, which accounts for the average woman's voice being about an octave above the average man's.

But to the really important part. In 1961, I was singing regularly every Friday and Saturday night in a coffeehouse that paid well, and I was teaching folk guitar classes three evenings a week and giving private lessons in either folk or classic guitar during the afternoons. This was my livelihood. Also, in the mornings, I was taking music classes at the Cornish School of the Arts, a sort of music, dance, acting conservatory in Seattle.

My voice started bothering me. Singing, even talking, didn't feel comfortable, I was sounding a bit hoarse, and my pitch tended to be a bit "iffy." So I went to one of the voice teachers at Cornish (I had had lots of voice lessons before). This teacher ran me through a few vocal exercises, listened to me sing a couple of songs, then he asked me when this had all started.

I had a suspicion. About two months before, I'd come down with a bad cold. But with a regular coffeehouse job and classes to teach, I'd soldiered on. After all, this was how I made my living.

The teacher said he'd seen this sort of thing before, and he insisted that I go to a throat specialist (otolaryingologist—ear, nose, and throat doctor) that he recommended.

The doctor examined my vocal folds, said "Aha!" a couple of times, then he sprayed my throat with something. Suddenly, I couldn't talk at all!

He said that my vocal folds were badly inflamed, and if I kept using my voice in this condition, I would very quickly wind up sounding like Louis Armstrong—if, indeed, I could sing at all! He told me not to use my voice—not at all—until he told me I could. Do not talk!

I whispered, "How long?" He said, "Come back next week. But let me warn you. It might be several weeks."

"But . . . but. . . ." I tried to whisper. . . .

"Well," he said, "you have your choice. Do you want your voice back?"

I nodded.

"Then do as I tell you.   AND," he added, "don't even whisper. That, believe it or not, is harder on your vocal folds than speaking is."

I wrote a lot of notes, getting a friend to telephone my employer at the coffeehouse, explain the situation to him, and suggest someone I knew as a replacement singer; and call the University of Washington branch YM/YWCA and the Kirkland Creative Arts League where I was teaching guitar classes, explain things to them, and tell them I would have to discontinue the classes and pick them up again when my voice returned to normal. And call the music store where I rented a studio and have them notify my private pupils of the situation.

I made weekly visits to the doctor. Finally, after six weeks, he said, "Good. The inflammation and swelling are gone. What I want you to do now is to go back to your voice teacher at Cornish and have him 'restart' your voice. Don't try to talk until you see him, and do exactly what he says. Then come back and see me when he tells you to."

I did as I was told. And soon, I was back singing again, and actually sounding better than ever. With a much greater appreciation of using good vocal technique. Since then, I'm very careful about making sure I'm singing with good breath support and correct vocal placement, not overdoing it, never pushing my voice beyond what is comfortable, and resting my voice as much as possible if I get the sniffles or a chronic tickle in the throat.

The result is that I'm now 79 years old, I still have my singing voice, and some folks have told me that I sound as good as I ever did, if not better! The last time I went to an otolaryngologist (a couple of months ago), he said that my vocal folds were in good shape, but they seemed a bit dryer than they should be, so I should drink more water. So I do.

I don't want to have to go through that again! But if I do have problems, I know what to do.

So—don't mess with this! Get to a good otolaryngologist ASAP, and do what he or she tells you to do. Even if you don't like it, and especially if you have to take some time off from using your voice. Better that than winding up with no voice at all.

I don't want to scare you. But as the doctor told me back in 1961, "You have your choice."

Good luck! And take care!

And keep us posted as to what you're doing and how it's going.

Don Firth