Life By Lindsey Rae

So, last week I had a very exciting day. I got to go to the Vanderbilt Voice Center! I have known about the center for a long time because I had read about a lot of untrained country singers who had to go there when they wreaked their voices from singing improperly for too long.

Anyway, I was super excited to go because this clinic is basically one-of-a-kind and one of the best in the country. My ear, nose and throat doctor (ENT) referred me there when I saw him a couple weeks ago for my allergy shot check-up. I told him that I was having tickles in my throat sometimes when I was singing higher notes and wondered if it was from all the junk in the air that I am allergic to. He said that since I am a singer, he wanted to send me to Vanderbilt because the equipment they have there is the best of the best. I usually like to get my ENT to check out my throat whenever I see him, just for my benefit to know everything looks ok, because obviously, it's a little more important to me than the average person and I think about it more. So I was glad that I could have the best equiptment in the best place check me out to let me know if everything was ok with me. If it's your career, it's better to just be safe and to watch for anything that could go wrong.

So, I went and I was there for almost 4 hours! I saw a total of 3 Doctors. They first checked me out and then numbed my nose in preparation for a scope (which isn't fun if you have allergies because you can't tell if your nose is running) and then I saw a speech-language pathologist P.H.D who did the scope down my throat. Not the most pleasant experience, but I have had it down the nose before and it is much worse that way. It pretty much just makes you gag...over and over....
Anyhow, while they have the scope in your throat they also have a microphone on you and a strobe light on your vocal chords so they can watch them vibrate. They do a video of it and you can watch yourself as you say and sing the vowels. Pretty wild! The Doctor told me that my vocal chords looked absolutely beautiful! I was so excited about that! She showed me the color and the shape, texture, etc., they should be and how mine are so perfect looking.
Then after, an Otolaragologist looked at my video and said that my vocal chords are some of the best looking they have seen in a long time. I was absolutely thrilled! Now, I know for the average person, this may not seem exciting, but for me, I am super sensitive to everything that happens in my throat, so having these doctors tell me that I was in excellent condition was SO great! Immediately the thought came to my mind that I was probably being blessed with healthy vocal chords because I was living the Word of Wisdom. Heavenly Father keeps his promises. Because really, with how bad my allergies are, I could be coughing a lot or something and that could be damaging....but I have beautiful vocal chords!

And another interesting thing is that all 3 Doctors I saw touched spots on the outside of my neck that hurt really badly. At first I panicked....thought, "Oh no! There's something wrong with my throat!" But, they all told me that it was just tense muscles. They could tell that I have had problems with high levels of tension and anxiety and that that was affecting the muscles in my neck, shoulders and throat. (I have had that tension since I was at least 10). My voice teacher and I always talk about the fact that my struggle is that I am just working too hard and that wears my body and my voice out faster than it should and to have the doctors confirm what I have always known that, yes, I am just too tense and working too hard, it very good to hear. So, for this, they are sending me to the Vanderbilt wellness center for physical therapy and then I will also go back to work with a speech-language pathologist who specializes in working with singers. So, I am looking forward to it. If they can do something to make me feel a little better with my tension and all that will definitely benefit my voice. Anyway, I was just so happy and impressed with the whole experience because they didn't find anything that looked bad, but they spent so much time with me and were really helpful and understanding. Great experience.

Oh, and they did give me some pictures of my vocal chords, from the video, to take come with me. I would post them...but somehow I don't think most people will appreciate how "beautiful" they apparently are.