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I've lost my voice - help!


firaplays

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I need some suggestions here. I have, completely out of the blue, lost my voice. There's nothing left. Not a peep can come out of my mouth right now. Seeing as I'm a teacher by trade and a singer as a hobby, this is a REALLY BIG PROBLEM. I've tried a bunch of things, but nothing seems to be helping. I'm drinking tea, eating way more ice cream than I'd like to admit, and sucking on cough drops all day, and nothing. Does anybody have any other ideas? Preferably safe ones.

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You may just need to rest? Have you tried taking a nap or anything. If nothing seems to be working I'd go see a doctor and find out what's up. If could be a viral infection or something else. I know in my area there's a lot of junk going around.

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Yeah, I've been resting all day :/ My co-workers thought I was crazy for even going in to work yesterday, they basically told me to stay home today. I'm definitely going to see a doctor if it's not better by Monday. but I really don't want it to have to come to that^^' 

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Awww, I'm a teacher too, and I lost my voice on Tuesday.  Be grateful it's the weekend. First, and I'm sorry, but stop eating the ice cream, because the dairy actually will make it worse (same thing for eating dairy products before singing any time).  I've been drinking Lemon Zinger tea all week.  I had started to lose my voice on Monday afternoon, and a student went and brought me tea the next morning (which was awesome) and I had a bit of voice on Tuesday afternoon.  The cool thing is that when you whisper, the kids also whisper, which is really funny.  Also, your attempts to use your teacher voice with a crackly, noise-less sound really freaks them out and they will still get quiet.  Voice was poor all week, but usable by Wednesday. Dayquil helped too, even though I wasn't sick, just had lost the voice.

So, lots of lemon tea, with honey if you have it, stay healthy, and avoid dairy if possible.  It will come back!  Your voice needs a break, even if you feel you can't give it one. 

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Thanks for the advice, everyone. I've heard mixed things about dairy, ranging from don't eat it because it makes your throat worse to DO eat it because it makes you feel better and doesn't do any damage. Either way, I've switched from ice cream to frozen pineapple. It's been working pretty well. I've also been drinking decaf green tea. My co-workers actually told me I should drink rum to make my throat better XD I don't plan on doing that.

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Dairy is usually something to avoid when you have a bacterial infection because it can aid in the growth of the bacteria. When my girls are sick I usually cut back on their dairy intake.

Rum might do the trick lol, just a shot glass full and that's all you'd need. But I can understand not wanting to do that. :)

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I'm pretty sure I don't have any kind of bacterial infection. I don't seem to be sick at all, really. The only other symptoms I have are maybe ten coughs over the course of the past three days and a slightly runny nose for like five minutes. That's what makes this so weird, literally nothing else is wrong with me. I've started adding honey to the tea and gargling with salt water, hopefully it'll help. I'm in the minority though, I think honey is groooooss XD

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Sounds like you probably caught something viral. Hopefully it goes away soon so you get back to normal. :)

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Don't do ice cream when you want your throat to heal. The cold will actually irritate it instead of helping along with healing. Try ginger tea with honey and lemon, or even straight honey/lemon mix to soothe your throat and since they're both natural antiseptics, get rid of any bacteria hanging around there.

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Are you really stressed out right now? My music education major friend (vocal and instrumental) always looses her voice around finals because of stress and how much she is also working her voice with final voice lessons/tests/concerts. Not getting enough sleep, studying all the time. It is a combo of using her voice too much and just being stressed, it happens every semester.

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I haven't been too stressed, but I definitely had a couple of days where I didn't get much sleep before this started. I think I found the problem, though: I seem to have developed a rather nasty cold. I'm all congested and stuff. Weird that I'd start showing symptoms four days AFTER I lost my voice, but whatever. If the junk in my nose and chest wants to leave, who am I to stop it?

That honey is good stuff, btw. It's worked better than everything else. Even if it is icky XD

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