Getting My Singing Voice Back

I finally went to the doctors yesterday for a problem I've been dealing with for a little over a year, and was told I have reactive airway disease.  From a little bit of research I just did apparently this is a type of placeholder term that can mean other things, too.  But I got medicine and an inhaler.

Last year I got hit with two major respiratory illnesses, but didn't go to the doctors for either one.  Last year in April I visited Tokyo and came back with a terrible cough, and it felt like someone was grabbing my vocal chords with needles.  I couldn't sing on pitch for over a month.  It wasn't until the end of Summer when I could sing through the bridge of my chest and head voice without going into coughing spasms.  My lungs always felt squeezed.

Then at the end of November, after visiting Disneyland, I came home with a mysterious illness: Lung pressure and squeezing, coughing, sore throat, fever of 104, lost sense of smell and taste for several days, no appetite, super exhausted, were the key symptoms.  Couldn't figure out if I had a cold or flu, and didn't go to the doctors to get tested.  (The symptoms seem similar to the "bug" now going around, but it's hard to say what it really was, as I caught this in CA just before Thanksgiving.)

With all this, and the fact my lungs are still having problems and I've been coughing on and off, I finally went to the doctor.  She said I most likely have inflammation and possible scarring.  So I have a whole new reason to completely go off sugary treats, as they're inflammatory.  Sugar really is just bad.  It's such a vicious cycle.  And sugar inhibits the immune system and our ability to heal.

I'm looking forward to singing without coughing, without my lungs feeling squeezed.  I have this vocal CD with voice exercises that are gentle, to help those who have been sick, so I'm starting on that.  And I'm going to start working on instrumental music for a couple projects I'm working on with my brothers.  I really need to have a goal to release music again this year.  It's been so long!  I'm working on getting all around healthy.

Maybe I should work on Christmas music.  Oh, I should probably do something sooner than that, but when I did Sing We Now of Christmas and Elvish Waltz, it was such a good confidence building experience, and they were nice songs that turned out well.  It would be good to do a small EP.  Get back into it.  Seems like a nice place to start.  The weather will finally be warming up, and I'll be thinking of Christmas.  But I'm going to work on other music as well, no worries. :0)