{"id":8142,"date":"2011-04-05T12:49:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T12:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/blog\/?p=8142"},"modified":"2011-04-05T12:49:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T12:49:00","slug":"with-apologies-to-betty-boop-im-finding-my-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/marketing\/off-topic\/with-apologies-to-betty-boop-im-finding-my-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"With apologies to Betty Boop, I’m finding my voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One of the questions a professional speaker never wants to hear is, “What’s wrong with your voice?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

My friends in the Wisconsin chapter of the National Speakers Association <\/a>started asking that more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n

They could hear me straining, almost as though I was tightening my throat muscles. I felt it, too, and tried everything I could to make the words come out smooth, but to no avail.<\/p>\n

The voice coaches were beside themselves.<\/p>\n

“You talk lazy,” <\/strong>one coach kept chastising me. “Use your diaphragm when you talk.” <\/strong>So I signed up for a series of voice coaching lessons with her. They didn’t help.<\/p>\n

An ear, nose and throat specialist examined me and couldn’t find anything wrong. She concluded it was a mild case of acid reflux, even though I didn’t have any of the symptoms.<\/p>\n

She referred me to a physical therapist for voice. That coaching, which included a series of voice exercises three times a day, didn’t work either.<\/p>\n

I spent a small fortune on expensive throat sprays, Throat Coat teabags, CDs, tapes, books and other sources of information on how to improve my voice. Eventually, I gave up in frustration and got off the speaking circuit because my voice never improved and because I had become weary of all the travel hassles.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A Voice ‘Like a Little Old Lady’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the years, my voice slowly worsened, and my customers noticed. Several people who bought recordings of teleseminars I hosted said, “You sound like you’re nervous”<\/strong> or “You sound like a little old lady.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

On one of my YouTube videos, someone commented, “She sounds like she’s talking from the inside of a toilet.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe those stories in People magazine about Michael Douglas battling throat cancer were the push I needed.<\/p>\n

In February, my internist referred me to Dr. Joel Blumin, chief of Laryngology and Professional Voice at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He diagnosed spasmodic dysphonia,<\/a> a rare voice disorder that starts in the base of the brain and affects about 50,000 people in North America.<\/p>\n

When a person with SD tries to speak, the brain sends signals that cause involuntary spasms in the tiny muscles of the larynx, making the voice sound tight, strangled, breathy, whispery or—in my case—strained. The spasms often interrupt the sound, squeezing the voice so that words and sentences are broken up.<\/p>\n

Researchers don’t know what causes SD and there’s no cure for it. Voice coaching does little good. Surgery often isn’t effective.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Botox to the Rescue<\/strong><\/p>\n

But for most SD patients, botox injections, into one or both vocal chords, stop the spasms and improve the voice temporarily. Dr. Blumin injected one unit of botox into each vocal chord, through my neck, on March 16. The anticipation was 10 times worse than the treatment. It’s no more painful than a flu shot.<\/p>\n

The next day, my voice was perfect. The day after that, I sounded like Betty Boop or Minnie Mouse on helium. My voice improves little by little each day and, some days, sounds worse than the day before.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I’m in Elite Company<\/strong><\/p>\n

Turns out I’m in elite company.<\/p>\n

NPR talk show host Diane Rehm<\/strong> was diagnosed with SD in 1998. In this video, she discusses her four-month absence from her radio show, the diagnosis, the depression that followed, and how she has recovered:<\/p>\n