Oy, a lot has happened since the new year. The story below is an update on my medical situation that I kinda kept to myself. It can be a little gross but if you're curious, read on.
Some of you know already, but back in November I discovered I had a cyst on my vocal folds, which was causing me to lose my voice daily and providing me with a constant raspy voice. Being an actor, this is not a good thing at all. Some can pull off a raspy voice on film; I, unfortunately, look like the boy next door on film- not the tough guy with a raspy voice. Sooooo, I scheduled a surgery to have the cyst removed at the lovely New York Ear and Eye Infirmary. Unfortunately for me, they book months in advance and, in November mind you, I scheduled a surgery for February.
Then the new year came. I worked 6-7 days a week for all of January and stopped working February 1st to rest my voice. On February 10th, they stuck a plethora of tools and cameras down my throat and got to work. About an hour later, I awoke to begin my month-long mandatory vow of silence. Awesome.
THE PROBLEM: Sooooo, it turns out what the 4 laryngoscopies* leading up to my surgery showed was not actually a cyst, but rather the tip of a band of scar tissue that went through an entire half of my vocal folds. The trusty surgeon removed the scar tissue in the same manner he would have removed the cyst. Unfortunately, as he was doing so, he noticed two irregularities. On each side of my vocal folds he saw a sulcus, which is basically a hole in my vocal folds. And I have 2! One for each side so they don't get lonely! yaaaaay (clap your hands).
Doc initially thought scar tissue and sulcii (that's plural for sulcus! Learning!) were a result of some Auto-Immune Disease but he was wrong. It can be considered good or bad news, I'm still on the fence, but my blood work came back negative for any Auto-Immune Disease. I mean it's good to not have anything wrong but now I have no answer as to why my voice is all effed up. The sulcii will never go away but we're hoping with vocal therapy and such, I won't get any more scar tissue in the future and that my vocal fold tissue around the sulcii will get strong enough to support my voice with the sulcii present.
Basically my voice was fucked up, we sorta fixed it but we'll never know why it got fucked up in the first place or how the sulcii came to be. I'm a little frightened, seeing as how I intend to make a living off of my voice, but I'm putting one foot forward and then another. So we'll see. For now, I have a few more weeks before I'll be able to speak fully. At this point, I'm allowed to speak each day for a brief period to start strengthening my voice after two weeks of not using it. So, if you wanna grab coffee and make jabs at me, I can't really fight back!!
PS: I'm on the FMLA from work and won't be back to work til april; so if anyone's free and wants to grab a beer, coffee, movie, whatever, please dear god drop me a message or call. I'm bored.
Aaaaand, that is all. Nothing all too exciting going on over here.
*If you've never had a laryngoscopy, I pray you never do. Basically, I walked into a room and the woman pulled out a long silver tube with a camera at the end. She turned to me, holding a bottle of lubricant, and said, "How's your gag reflex?" When you hear that, you know you're in trouble. They basically lube up this camera tube and shove it up your nose, through your sinuses and into the back of your throat. Yaaaaay! Lemme tell you about discomfort... So yes, I had 4 of those before I even landed on the operating table.
Some of you know already, but back in November I discovered I had a cyst on my vocal folds, which was causing me to lose my voice daily and providing me with a constant raspy voice. Being an actor, this is not a good thing at all. Some can pull off a raspy voice on film; I, unfortunately, look like the boy next door on film- not the tough guy with a raspy voice. Sooooo, I scheduled a surgery to have the cyst removed at the lovely New York Ear and Eye Infirmary. Unfortunately for me, they book months in advance and, in November mind you, I scheduled a surgery for February.
Then the new year came. I worked 6-7 days a week for all of January and stopped working February 1st to rest my voice. On February 10th, they stuck a plethora of tools and cameras down my throat and got to work. About an hour later, I awoke to begin my month-long mandatory vow of silence. Awesome.
THE PROBLEM: Sooooo, it turns out what the 4 laryngoscopies* leading up to my surgery showed was not actually a cyst, but rather the tip of a band of scar tissue that went through an entire half of my vocal folds. The trusty surgeon removed the scar tissue in the same manner he would have removed the cyst. Unfortunately, as he was doing so, he noticed two irregularities. On each side of my vocal folds he saw a sulcus, which is basically a hole in my vocal folds. And I have 2! One for each side so they don't get lonely! yaaaaay (clap your hands).
Doc initially thought scar tissue and sulcii (that's plural for sulcus! Learning!) were a result of some Auto-Immune Disease but he was wrong. It can be considered good or bad news, I'm still on the fence, but my blood work came back negative for any Auto-Immune Disease. I mean it's good to not have anything wrong but now I have no answer as to why my voice is all effed up. The sulcii will never go away but we're hoping with vocal therapy and such, I won't get any more scar tissue in the future and that my vocal fold tissue around the sulcii will get strong enough to support my voice with the sulcii present.
Basically my voice was fucked up, we sorta fixed it but we'll never know why it got fucked up in the first place or how the sulcii came to be. I'm a little frightened, seeing as how I intend to make a living off of my voice, but I'm putting one foot forward and then another. So we'll see. For now, I have a few more weeks before I'll be able to speak fully. At this point, I'm allowed to speak each day for a brief period to start strengthening my voice after two weeks of not using it. So, if you wanna grab coffee and make jabs at me, I can't really fight back!!
PS: I'm on the FMLA from work and won't be back to work til april; so if anyone's free and wants to grab a beer, coffee, movie, whatever, please dear god drop me a message or call. I'm bored.
Aaaaand, that is all. Nothing all too exciting going on over here.
*If you've never had a laryngoscopy, I pray you never do. Basically, I walked into a room and the woman pulled out a long silver tube with a camera at the end. She turned to me, holding a bottle of lubricant, and said, "How's your gag reflex?" When you hear that, you know you're in trouble. They basically lube up this camera tube and shove it up your nose, through your sinuses and into the back of your throat. Yaaaaay! Lemme tell you about discomfort... So yes, I had 4 of those before I even landed on the operating table.
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And how did you feel when you switched?
Over the Christmas holidays while I was visiting in NW-Ontario I realized that my dad's leg cramps, general disorientation/slow thinking, crankiness/inability to control his sugar levels, stomach upset, chronic and debilitating back pain were all caused by him taking synthetic insulin.
He was forced into taking the synthetic stuff after his family doctor told him that they weren't making the beef and pork stuff anymore. Turns out they still are because up to 1/4 people have mild, moderate, or even severe issues with the synthetic stuff. My dad had no problems with his diabetes for over 30 years until he switched.
It was five years I spent without my father. It took about six months for him to sink into chronic pain and necessary daily opiate use. It's so nice to have an upbeat conversation with him on the phone... one where he's all snappy again. I like that he can walk places and doesn't rely on pain medication to get through the day, you know?
Anyways, when I find out someone is taking insulin I like to ask them whether they're taking synthetic insulin or not (chances are that they do), and whether they're feeling worse than when they were taking the beef and pork stuff. If you can, too.. please pass this on. My dad has mentioned it to a number of people who have been using the other kind and many are feeling better already.