I've written on my other blog, musicandradiomusings.blogspot.com, about my battle with dysphonia. Dysphonia is a central nervous system disorder that affects my ability to speak. If you heard me speak at this moment, though, you'd never guess that I have it. Thanks to regular botox injections in my vocal cords, I'm able to sound the way I did when I was a radio announcer.
One of my speech therapy exercises, designed to open up my throat and unlock my voice when it hadn't come back fully, involved pushing my voice as low as it could go and saying, "HMMMMMMMMMM, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!" One morning, as I practiced this several times between calls at work, someone came in to restock the vending machines. For some reason, he left the room rather abruptly. I wonder if he thought I was trying to prevent myself from exploding in a fit of rage--or auditioning for "Sesame Street," even though all the parts had been filled. I guess I'll never know.
