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Singer Hoarse for 3 Months

Hoping some folks on here might have an idea or two for me. I'm an actor/singer in NYC - I was finishing the run of a show back in October, and towards the end got a bad upper respiratory infection. I had to muscle through it and finish the run (3 more shows) with the help of steroids and all those wonderful actor secrets. Needless to say, my voice was wiped by the time I got through it. But it got mostly better. I rested it and took it easy, and by a week later it was more or less back to normal. Then one evening while working a shift at my restaurant, my voice gradually started disappearing starting from my high register on down, and by the end of the night all I could do was talk in an abnormally deep voice (I'm a tenor). Late that night I got horribly sick and was vomiting more or less all night. I had a fever, the whole nine yards. I assumed it was laryngitis. Went to my ENT after the symptoms had gone away - except for my hoarse voice - that remained. He scoped me and said everything looked good. Cords moved properly and looked normal, but were a little swollen and there was a decent amount of mucus. Kept on Mucinex, started Prilosec, and he said I'd be good. Fast forward to now. It's been 3 months, the hoarseness STILL persists. My high range is still gone and my endurance is nonexistent. Went to another ENT who said the same things - cords are fine (check 'em out). "Just rest and drink a lot of water and take antacids". Come on. Really? It's not acid reflux. I've been taking acid reflux meds to no avail, tilted my bed up, etc etc etc. So my thought was that it had to be muscular in nature right? From a perfect storm of illness/pushing my voice too hard/not being able to rest it thoroughly. I now am going to a voice therapist who agrees with the muscular idea, and we've been playing around with body work and singing in different positions and I noticed that I can sing much better looking over my RIGHT shoulder than my left. Any significance?

Anyway, I unfortunately can't put my gigs on hold, as they're my source of income. I just finished one yesterday and today the front left muscles of my neck are sore (no singing on these gigs, just talking - but a lot of it) and next week I have to do 7 shows over the course of the week. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to manage it. Thought I'd throw all this out there and see if ANYONE has any ideas.

Again, I FEEL fine except for the loss of vocal range and endurance. Thanks for reading my novel. :P
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Avatar universal
You may also have "functional dysphonia".  Google it.  A special round of  massage often cures it.
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Avatar universal
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hello and hope you are doing well.

Your symptoms could be due to inflammatory changes in the throat. Try warm salt water gargles. Ensure to do this prior to meals. It can also happen due to iron deficiency anemia causing Plummer-Vinson syndrome, where there changes to the soft lining of the throat. This can be detected by a blood test. Please discuss this with your doctor am sure he will provide further assistance.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.
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