Went to the ENT doctor today to test my hearing and check the old vocal cords. The hearing test was fun. they play all these very faint and brief tones for you to see if you can hear them. it was rather primitive from an objective perspective. But I heard every single one and the nurse just stood there speechless. The doctor relayed to me giddily that I had the hearing of a seven year old child who had never been subjected to any loud noises. He said he had not seen anyone ever come in with such perfect hearing. He was absolutely amazed because of the extreme loud music that I have been listening to over the last ten years. I can only imagine what your hearing would be like if you had not been subjecting yourself to such loud music for all these years…” he commented. I was very happy and we were high fiving.
Then we moved on to the vocal cords. He shoots this spray down your throat and then sticks this long thin fiber optic cord into your nose and then through the nose down into the throat and then past the throat in order to look at the vocal cords. It is not comfortable. I kept gagging. Then he had me sing some notes as he watched and I gagged… but to our astonishment my cords were in perfect order. No polyps, no nodes, no swelling.
Then we moved on to the vocal cords. He shoots this spray down your throat and then sticks this long thin fiber optic cord into your nose and then through the nose down into the throat and then past the throat in order to look at the vocal cords. It is not comfortable. I kept gagging. Then he had me sing some notes as he watched and I gagged… but to our astonishment my cords were in perfect order. No polyps, no nodes, no swelling.
“I hate to tell you this young man, but you have absolutely nothing wrong with your vocal cords. In fact for what you do they are in amazing condition. Just perfect.”
“well then how come they close up on me sometimes.”
“You probably scream too much. And you probably don’t warm up like you are supposed to.”
“Well that’s true.”
“Imagine a professional athlete going out to play a game without practicing all week and warming up that day, and stretching before the game. You just can’t do it. even though you want to. its not going to work. You need to warm up.”