Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Robbed of my voice, I've been given a voice

In the spring I developed a sore throat that wouldn't go away. No cough, or other symptoms, just a sore throat. I'd been singing in the church choir and I noticed I couldn't hit the high notes. OK, I'm an alto to start with, but my already low range seemed to be getting lower. Finally I went to my GP who sent me to an ENT, indicating that it might be acid reflux. The ENT confirmed (after sending an optical scope down my throat) that I had "classic acid reflux" (GERD). This was causing the chronic laryngitis.

He put me on Zegerid, which I've been taking for ~6 months. He also declared my septum "severely deviated" and recommended surgery. This had nothing to do with the acid reflux, but it a problem he could correct. I had that surgery in May. One major motivator was that I was waking up in the middle of the night with an extremely (I mean extraordinarily!!!) sore throat from breathing through my mouth. I don't regret the surgery, but on my last follow-up visit I commented that my throat was still sore and I was still having trouble swallowing. He sent me to radiology for a barium swallow. He called last week with the results. I have a hiatal hernia.

So...now I'm waiting to see the GI guy; I have an appointment for next week. And all of this is my way of explaining how I went from a yackety-yack talker to a blah-blah-blogger.

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