I began suffering from tonsilitis and lymph node swelling in 2002. My doctor told me to take Tylenol to get through it as I was too "old" to get my tonsils out at age 33. Since my children were young, I thought they were just bringing home all the germs they picked up from school. I went for months with mystery fevers, swelling and horrible sore throats. I had blood tests for thyroid problems and for lupus and leukemia. Thankfully my bloodwork was normal. I would take Tylenol and the inflammations would eventually die down to reappear a few weeks later. I was constantly tired and lethargic. During this time, I started to notice my voice breaking and chalked it up to laryngitis. My voice grew increasingly weak and breathy over the next few months and I was in and out of my General Practioner's office. He suggested I look into allergy testing. Eventually, I was diagnosed with severe allergies and was assured, with allergy shots, my voice would improve. After 2 diligent years of allergy shots and continuing sore throats and poor voice, I knew something else was going on. I saw a local ENT who immediately diagnosed me with GERD and put me on Nexium for 4 months, assuring me this time, my bad voice was due to the irritation from the reflux. By this time, I INSISTED my tonsils come out and had a tonsilectomy in Jan. 2004. After 4 months of relux medicine and no vocal improvement, I had a videostroboscopy performed. Surprise, surprise, my vocal cords weren't closing and there was a significant glottal gap. My local ENT doctor was honest that he had never seen this before and recommended I see a top voice specialist in San Francisco. I was diagnosed with Abductor Spasmodic Dysphonia by two prominent doctors at UCSF in March 2004. I was told it was incurable, extremely rare, and pretty much hopeless.

I researched this disorder on the internet and read that botox injections into the musculature every 3-4 months for life, helps about 50% of ABSD patients. I decided I would have to try it, to see if it would help me. I flew to UCLA in May 2004 and had my ABSD diagnosis re-confirmed by the Chief of the Dept. and had my first botox shot. I received 7 units in my left side. I returned home, hopeful but it didn't do anything for me. I flew back to UCLA in June 2004 to have 4 units injected in my other side. Again, I hoped it would relieve some of my symptoms. I waited, but the better voice never appeared. At this point, I became quite depressed and desperate. I began reading about alternative ways to deal with this disorder. Every site I visited described this as an unbeatable, neurological disease that had no cure. I stumbled across Dr. Cooper's website that stated he could use Direct Voice Rehabilitation treatment to help SD patients. I was very sceptical at first and knew I'd have to meet with him and find out more. I flew to LA once again and had a consultation with Dr. Cooper in July 2004. He spent three hours with me and told me I had an excellent prognosis of becoming cured, if I would do everything he said and stay committed to the voice program for one year. I told him I didn't necessarily agree with his stance that this disease isn't neurolgical. He reassured me that I didn't have to agree, but only had to do the exercises and follow his directions. I knew I had to try his treatment and take a leap of faith. I spent most of August 2004 with him (three weeks total). It was horribly boring work. I found it to be mind numbing and extremely repetitive. But, in two days I saw a marked improvement. Every day that went by my voice became stronger and clearer.

At the end of the three weeks of DVR my spasms are gone completely and my vocal cords are closing again. I would guess my voice is probably 80-90% absolutely normal. I still have problems with my un-voiced plosive sounds(h,p,t,c). My problem is partially that my musculature is still being re-worked and partially that I have a mental fear of these sounds due to 3 1/2 years of ABSD. I know I have to spend about an hour a day on exercises to get these sounds nailed and to reach 100%. But, the improvement is remarkable and I am thrilled. I will have to self-monitor my voice constantly until it becomes a habit and very natural for me or I could slip backwards. It does seem to get easier every day to have a "normal" voice. I want SD patients to know there are options out there. I don't want to get into a battle over genetics/neurological vs. misuse or injury. As a patient I just want to be well and live my life to the fullest. My main advice is to NOT give in to the "incurable" stance the medical community offers. Incurable only means "I don't know." If I can get my voice back, you can too.

Photo from my videostrobe showing the spasming causing the abductor glottal gap:

This is my ABSD voice before treatment:

This is my voice after three weeks of DVR: