So, did the author pursue surgical treatment, or do we have to buy the book to find out?
The day my voice broke
11–20 of 33 posts
Re: The day my voice broke
#12I've also had the displeasure of having a polyp on my vocal chords. I lost my voice for a few days during an otherwise "normal" cold … and it never really came back. The ability to talk came back, but the ability to sing didn't, not fully. (I could hear, in my voice, that something wasn't right, but beyond that it was hard to describe. Also, I think that was the first & only time I've ever lost my voice. I … didn't really believe people, when they said they'd "lost their voice". I always just sort of assumed they were whispering because their throat hurt, and talking was painful, and they didn't want pain. No! Turns out that losing your voice is a thing!)
I got referred to an ENT pretty quickly. From there … it got a bit bad-healthcare interesting. The first attempt at getting a look at my vocal chords, as I recall, was with a fiber optic scope up the nose. They numb your nose first, and it wasn't painful, but it was beyond uncomfortable, and apparently I nearly blacked out. (And apparently that's common.)
The second attempt was a camera down the throat, and while that was also not great, it got the image of the throat the ENT wanted, and showed the polyp. I wish I had the image; the doctor was not sure how to transfer that to me, so I never got it.
The bill though, was something else. It was like $4k, just to get a look a my throat. Thankfully insurance cut that back considerably, but I instantly paid my deductible for the year. But I can't fathom what actually cost that, unless the camera they stuck down my throat somehow couldn't just be wiped clean & reused.
The surgery to remove the polyp, AIUI at the time, had a prognosis of like a 50% chance of the polyp just coming back. The ENT prescribed some voice exercises, but they were hard to keep up with. So I ended up just taking it easy for a while, and the problem went away. (Though if the article is to be believed, I'd best never run into a vocal specialist in an elevator if I want to keep on thinking that…; but I'm also not a singer.)
Re: The day my voice broke
#13I could only find these two videos of him speaking, and they're from 4 and 6 years ago.
Re: The day my voice broke
#14People who liked this article might find Scott Adams vocal issues interesting (for a long time he couldn't speak in a normal tone in conversations but in other contexts like singing or public speaking he could). https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/16360/scott-adams-and-sp...
Sad, how far off the deep end he went.
very very deep end, all for clicks and publicity, which I think is the worst part
like, people loved Dilbert, why gild the lily?
Jim Davis, is great. He drew Garfield, collected his check, and went home
Re: The day my voice broke
#15Almost definitely unrelated, but I find myself much more fatigued than expected after Zoom/Teams calls. Besides the emotional weirdness of digital only, no eye contact, etc, I can't help but feel that my voice is unexpectedly tired after calls as well. I have started to think that I'm speaking too loudly to compensate for the lack of physical closeness and I'm "over modulating" my voice to "project" emotion into the…
What you're describing absolutely sounds plausible.
People who use their voice frequently and professionally tend to (over)compensate for perceived or real shortcomings in their environment or their own voice, which in turn can lead to self-consciousness and bad habits over time.
As for the specific setting of video conference calls you're probably right, too. We tend to speak louder than necessary during such calls and to overdo our "performance" because we feel we have to compensate for missing channels such as the full range of gestures, body posture, and facial expressions.
Here are a few general tips for speaking in (semi-)public settings (not just when on Zoom calls):
- Slow down.
- Lower your speaking voice. There are exercises for finding your natural speaking pitch.
- Smile (just a little, no creepy Joker grin ;-) ).
- Focus on your diaphragm rather than your throat for putting emphasis on words or syllables. This admittedly takes some getting used to.
Re: The day my voice broke
#16I got to the part where he says "The next day I arrived at the hospital" and I'm just thinking wow, next day appointment for a specialist in a field, that must be nice.
Re: The day my voice broke
#17now he's too old to rock 'n' roll,
but he's too young to die...
Re: The day my voice broke
#18Almost definitely unrelated, but I find myself much more fatigued than expected after Zoom/Teams calls. Besides the emotional weirdness of digital only, no eye contact, etc, I can't help but feel that my voice is unexpectedly tired after calls as well. I have started to think that I'm speaking too loudly to compensate for the lack of physical closeness and I'm "over modulating" my voice to "project" emotion into the…
Out of curiosity, do you use a headset (or airpods, or anything like that)? I've found that I tend to speak a lot louder when wearing some sort of headphones due to the fact that I can't hear my voice as well, so I tend to do calls using my webcam's microphone and an external speaker so that I can talk normally. This might not be an option for you if you don't live alone, but if you have some degree of privacy while writing, I'd highly recommend trying this out!
Re: The day my voice broke
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sad, how far off the deep end he went.
very very deep end, all for clicks and publicity, which I think is the worst part like, people loved Dilbert, why gild the lily? Jim Davis, is great. He drew Garfield, collected his check, and went home
Yea, I loved Dilbert too and bought many of his books. But then he went down the crazy route and I like, nope.
Re: The day my voice broke
#20A fine arcticle, articulated aptly. I do take issue with this one sentence though: > We are the only animal that can perform the miraculous feat of making the link between a specific vocal sound and an object that exists in the world. I assume the author intended a more specific meaning (perhaps the assumption was that other animals communicate via a discernable "expressed emotional state" as opposed to actual words)…
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