Laryngitis

   Of all the ailments that seem to occur mostly in the winter, laryngitis is the one I dislike the most. There are all kinds of remedies for stuffed sinuses, coughs and fevers. All of these symptoms are the body's way of removing  foreign invaders so they can't do any more mischief. They will eventually go away on their own even though it doesn't feel like it.
   Laryngitis is a whole different thing. It can't be treated. You can suck on all the cough drops in the world, gargle with a sea of salt water, peroxide and other things and in the end maybe be able to speak barely above a whisper. The only thing that truly helps when you lose your voice is to not use it. Unless you are a hermit, it isn't real practical. The only real choice you have is to use your voice as little as possible and hope that eventually it resolves.
  If I'm going to lose my voice, it's never on my day off. That would be too easy. My last bout of laryngitis happened on Friday. Friday also just happened to be the day that I work the twelve hour shift.
  My voice was starting to sound a bit rough at the end of my Thursday shift. I hoped that a good nights rest would help. When I woke up on Friday all that would come of was a jumble of dissonant tones that didn't even sound human. Great.
  I thought maybe a lot of steam would help so I took a very hot shower with the fan turned off. The bathroom was like a sauna. It felt good,but didn't help much. I made a bowl of oatmeal and packed some other soft food for my meals for the rest of the day. I knew there were some herbal teas that might be helpful. I would buy some when I got to work.
   Fortunately for me, I have a good staff. I knew they would try to help me as best they could. The problem is that there are a lot of things that the techs just can't do. The other problems is that we have a high percentage of elderly customers. Most of them have some hearing loss. Speaking softly was not going to help. I did the best I could, but it became clear that I was going to have to try to speak at a bit louder volume.
   The first person I spoke to that morning was a nurse who was calling in a prescription. She told me I must have caught the bug that was going around. I told her that I felt fine, I had just lost my voice. She replied that if she was my supervisor, she would have sent me home. A nice thought. I would have liked to send me home too, but that wasn't an option open to me.
   A few calls later I spoke with an elderly woman who told me I sounded like I had a frog in my throat. I told her that I really had several frogs. She didn't get the joke, but it made me smile. I found that I could speak louder, but it sounded like several out of tune notes playing at once. It was also a struggle. It felt like there was something trying to keep those vocal cords from moving.
  I was doing better than I expected. At least I was able to get some sound out and most people could understand me. It wasn't like the first time I had to work with a throat ailment. I working on a weekend. That time I could barely talk. Some times I would open my mouth and all that would come out was a shrill squeak. One time I answered the phone and no sound came out. The person on the other end thought I was choking. I finally was able to summon some sound and assure the person that there was a human on the other end.
   There was some lemon echinacea tea that was supposed to be good for throats. I made myself a cup to see if I could maybe smooth my voice out a bit. I took a sip and forced myself to swallow it. It didn't taste like lemon at all. It tasted like licorice. Yuck. Licorice is my least favourite flavor. Licorice is also supposed to be soothing to irritated throat tissues. It was at least worth a try. Drinking warm liquids seemed to help more than the cherry throat drops I had brought with me.
   The rest of the day went by. Sometimes my voice would sound almost normal. Sometimes it would sound like sandpaper. I just felt lucky that I had what voice I had. I was hoping for a quiet evening, but my hopes were crushed by a rush of peole that came in shortly after my tech went to get some take out food for supper. Most of the customers were understanding.
   Finally my shift came to an end. The last customer of the day told me that I sounded terrible. "You really should take a cough drop ", he said as I rang him up. I didn't want to tell him that I'd gone that route and it had not worked. Before he left he left, he pulled a lozenge out of his pocket and put it on the counter in front of me. "Here", he said,"Take this." I smiled at him in thanks and picked it up.
   I carried it back to the counter and put it the bag with the rest of the drops I had. I had survived the day. Hopefully my voice would be back tomorrow.