MY DIAGNOSIS: Out of Nowhere, My Voice Started Changing

Speaking in public was a big part of my life, so it was a shock when my words turned wobbly and weak.

- BY PENNY MUSCO

My voice has been my stock-in-trade nearly all my life. I performed in musicals throughout high school; in college, I earned a degree in theater that included extensive vocal work. My career path led me into radio and voice-over work, then to freelance writing. Even my writing involved my voice—I wrote two books about our country's national parks, and I present programs on the topic at libraries and senior communities. I always prided myself on having a pleasant and confident vocal tone.

Then two years ago, when I was 68, I began experiencing some vocal quivers during my talks.

Words caught in my throat, making my speech tight and jerky almost as if I were nervous, which I wasn't. When I sang in church, I had trouble maintaining pitch, and sustained notes occasionally stuttered to a stop.

At first I shrugged off these random episodes as odd little quirks, but as they became more frequent I started to worry.

I remembered that my mom’s singing voice had become shaky when she reached her 80s—could this be happening to me at a younger age? Was it due to stress? Or maybe it was all in my imagination—my husband never mentioned these changes, even when they crept into my everyday speech (later he told me he honestly hadn't noticed, which I attribute to 40-plus years of his listening—or not!—to me). Several months after the symptoms began, however, I casually mentioned my wobbly voice to my brother. “Yes, I've noticed,” he said immediately. That was when I knew something was definitely wrong.

TWO DIAGNOSES

I made an appointment with an ear, nose, and throat doctor, and he snaked a thin, flexible tube with a tiny light into my nose and down my throat to view my vocal cords and voice box.