Steven: Hey Ashley, what’s up?
Ashley: Hi Steven. Sorry, I kinda lost my voice the other night. I can barely talk.
Steven: Yea, I’ll say. You sound terrible.
Ashley: I had another performance to sing a couple nights ago with the band. The room we were in was terrible, I think my monitor wasn’t working, and I could really hear was the drums. I felt like I was just screaming all night.
Steven: A couple of days have passed and you still sound like that?! That’s really not good. You really strained yourself.
Ashley: I know. It happens just about every show now. It takes about a week to recover and, quite honestly, I don’t really ever feel like the raspiness has ever gone away any more.
Steven: Have you gone to see a doctor?
Ashley: No, why? You don’t think there’s something wrong, do you?
Steven: I definitely think you need to get yourself checked out. All that loud singing and strains that don’t heal are both common signs of vocal fold nodules. This is when your vocal folds get hard and colloused and develop bumps on them. If it gets worse and worse, your vocal cords could become paralyzed and you’ll have no more singing in your future! You know who Julie Andrews is, right?
Ashley: Yea, of course. The sound of music…?
Steven: Yes. Julie Andrews developed vocal fold nodules and it totally ruined her career in music. She had them surgically removed, but the scar tissue hardened her vocal folds and now she can barely sing five notes.
Ashley: Oh my God! I guess I should really see someone about this then.
Steven: Totally! I’ll find a specialist for you and get an appointment if you want.
