What to do when you lose your voice

and you're a singer

(written a few weeks ago)

I lost my voice recently for about 2 weeks and as a singer you'd think I'd be gutted..In fact I quite actually enjoyed it!!

Who knows what actually happened.. I’d been run down and had a bit of a cold but literally my voice would not work at all. I could just about manage a whisper for about a whole week. And then I just surrendered and decided to shut the f. up and not speak at all!!

I did wonder if I’d caught some terrible, voice crushing, throat maiming bug from my filthy swimming pool. I’d forgotten to add the chlorine after the last clean and had ended up swimming (well that’s a bit far - it’s more of a cold water dip) in cold green sludge.

So yeah, for a few days I’d diagnosed self with a horrible mould/bacteria induced illness.

Anyway, today has been the first day with just about a normal speaking voice. I dare not attempt to sing yet though.

I actually really enjoyed being quiet and still. My teenagers were quite glad of the peace they told me (I didn’t realise that I gab so much) and my 3 year old, who himself is non-verbal - he babbles a lot - did not seem to mind a jot. We don’t need words anyway on a normal day (Oh!!!!!! that reminds me… the Telepathy Tapes anyone??)¹ I honestly think a mothers intuition knows what a baby/child wants without words anyway.

So all week I was annoyed at no voice, at times it felt very frustrating and not being able to call the dog back during walks was an unanticipated problem. Fortunately I can whistle loudly. I ended up using this at home if I needed the kids. We have our family WhatsApp group chat anyway - as lazy as that is!

REMEDIES

These are the things I tried over the past week….

Standard thing I always have at the sign of a cold is honey, lemon and ginger in hot water. This did not seem to do anything at all.

I then added fresh thyme out the garden along with lemon balm (just because it was there)….

THEN I was really happy to find this on one of my walks:

Ground Ivy - perfect for throat issues/colds

More ground ivy as well as oregano that i found in the woods along with the stones I always find in the fields.

I usually do collect a load of Ground Ivy every year and dry it out for a throat remedy.

Again, it did not seem to work but maybe the cumulative effect of these things all week got my voice back in the end.

Rest was the main factor. On Tuesday, about 4 days in, I felt thoroughly fed up and even quite sick so I had to give in and just lie in bed. Yawn. But I couldn’t sleep!! I usually have NO problem dropping off but this was rubbish!!! My mind was too active.

I looked in my book (along the lines of Louise Hay’s Your Can Heal Your Life) for the emotional/spiritual reason for losing one’s voice:

A FEELING OF POWERLESSNESS - that is indeed how i was feeling.

I must remember to take some of the elderberry cough elixir I made last year while I still have some left. The elder is just in flower now and it’s about champagne making time. (***NOTE I wrote the bulk of this article about a month ago, at the end of May).

I much prefer waiting for the berries. All that homegrown goodness on my literal doorstep (I am surrounded by elder trees - I think it grows on all four corners of my house²).

Yesterday I went to a gorgeous castle in Lincolnshire - Harlaxton Manor.

There was a networking event for local small businesses and I just felt I had to go. Now normally I’d be singing my head off randomly at such an event because there are usually some lush looking places to be found with good acoustics.

I had gone with the purpose of connecting with local heritage sites to see if they wanted a folk singer. I did indeed make some good contacts - various councils and people in the heritage sector etc. I even found out about a secret library within a local church that we used to go to as kids that I never even knew existed!! mind blown!!

Our Dad used to take my sister and I for trips to Grantham on a Saturday and we’d take a picnic and sit in the churchyard reading all the morbid epitaphs on the graves. Yeah, the typical childhood things that you do!

My dad was an eccentric too. The huge church in Grantham is St Wulfrum’s. The spire, at 274 feet (84 m), is the sixth highest in the country. (My dad would reel off this information every single time we pulled in to Grantham railway station).

Speaking of my Dad, he also was a small business owner - a pyrotechnic - and every year the University of Evansville (who own Harlaxton Manor) hired him to put on a big firework display for the students. So it was nice to come back here… When I say “back” - I had come with my Pa before, when helping with the fireworks but also during my clog dancing days I did a bit of that here too, also for the students’ entertainment (to show the Americans a bit of English culture etc!)

Greenwood Clog

Best part of the day by far was taking a 50k Tesla for a test drive. NO, honestly I have zero interest in flashy cars or anything. But I have not driven in months, having sold my van in the winter.

Tesla were there for some reason showing off their wares. My middle son, who is 15 and home educated, came with me to the business event (think along the lines of “take your kid to work day”) and the lure of the Tesla swayed it for him. It was also a good learning opportunity for him to see about how businesses market themselves.

We attended a couple of talks as well but it was just great to be in that environment - Entrepreneurs and self-employed folks. People who live different lives and think outside the box

A lovely day rounded off by a good old train trip home

Finally I will just say what got my voice back - this onion/sugar cough syrup was the cure!!!

At the time of publishing (June 25th) my voice is about back to normal and I can sing now - latest song is below.

You can also support my work by buying me a coffee/herbal tea!

1. Keep meaning to mention this

2. I went to count them after writing his and there are 13! (though none on the Eastern side of the house.)