Jodie Foster

The resemblance of our voices was "uncanny" to my doctor this afternoon.

Funny, huh?! I guess you needed to know the sound of my voice before hand, but what is coming out now is different. Very different. Like Jodie Foster's? That makes me almost want to keep it this way. My b/f says he likes it, he thinks it's a smokey, d-j sort of sound. I like the reference to the effort it represents. My doctor says it's reflux-pharyngitis, or "singer's voice".

At Christmas time I caught a simple little cold and it resulted in laryngitis. No big deal, I've had it before. When the cold went away, the voice stayed. It seemed to get better, then would flair up again. Mostly it was just low and raspy. The high notes went away. A month later still the same. Two months later. Three months. Four? Ok, maybe something more sinister is at work here, and only a real check up will calm the growing fears. So today I had what could only be described as a worming tube that is fed down a horses nose, throat and stomach to do a fiberoptic laryngscopy. Ok, it didn't go down ALL the way, but it may as well have. The worst part was to have to make singing sounds while it was there.

So when it was all done he proclaimed that nothing sinister was at foot. No tumors. No cancer. Isn't that funny how your head begins to get away from you when something bad begins to happen? In fact, as far as I could tell he gave me a clean bill of health except for the voice. And this was caused by: Acid reflux. How can that be? I don't even get heartburn unless I force it upon myself with pizza and extra hot wings. He said most people don't know they have it either. So the combination of acid in my pharynx plus all the projected talking I do has caused nodules to form on my larynx. Over the counter Prilosec and Dr's prescribed voice rest and I will be good as new in…… THREE MONTHS. What? Take these pills, change your diet and DON’T TALK OUTLOUD for 3 months???? How on Earth can that be accomplished when my livelihood is working in a parking lot speaking over running motors and to people in helmets??
What I'm thinking is that Jodie Foster is pretty successful sounding just the way she does….