Hi everyone--
I couldn't wait to tell you. I went to an Ear, Nose & Throat specialist yesterday morning. He was wonderful. He did a complete ENT exam on me and told me that during radiation in the summer of 2007, it damaged my recurrent laryngeal nerve, which runs from the brain stem, down the neck, down the chest and back up again. This paralyzed my left vocal cord. Since it's paralyzed, it cannot meet the right cord to vibrate and make sounds properly, and I'm also losing a lot of air because of it. The right cord is trying really hard to meet the left one, but it can't reach. There is a procedure where they can move my left cord over so that the right one can meet it and I will be able to sing and talk normally again! The doc was extremely knowledgeable (Dr. Michael Murphy), but he told me that since he's still young in his career (seven years), and I make my living singing and teaching singing, he is going to send me to Stanford to see one of the top two specialists in the country for the procedure. His name is Dr. Ed Damrose, and he specializes in working with singers. He's had many articles published, two of them being specifically on the recurrent laryngeal nerve, so I'm very excited to meet him and get this done!
I am just thanking God for this news, because of everything that I've gone through in the past three and a half years since my diagnosis, this has by far been the hardest for me. I can't thank you all enough for the love, support and prayers you've given. Please--keep them coming.
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2 comments:
JoAnn,
What great news about the opportunity to "fix your voice". The world will be a happy and better place when JoAnn can sing again!! Thanks for sharing the good news, Cindy
That is fan f-ing tastic!! Yay!!
Not just for you, personally... but a JoAnn without a voice is a loss for the rest of us. :-)
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