Hi All!
Time for the third installment of my history. After this we can get on to more current stuff! Won't that be fun?
Okay - in the last post I explained about how I learned to speak on the inhale. The doctor who gives me my Botox shots was very impressed with my "talent." He invited all of his interns and other doctors in to witness my inhalation voicing! What fun - to be the "stage show" in a doctor's office!
Oh Well! As I said, my therapist got tough with me and demanded that I only talk on the exhale. After a couple very frustrating weeks where my husband could hardly hear me (it did mean that he had to sit much closer to me while we watched TV though!), things with my voice started to click. Soon I could say entire sentences on the exhale One of my very first complete sentences on the exhale was - "I hate everybody and everything - except for you." The "you" is my husband who was listening to me talk at the time! As you can tell from that lovely comment - it was a rough road!
With MUCH continued practice, I am now able to speak totally on the exhale. Most of the time I sound pretty much normal with the exception of my soft volume - I still can not yell or scream. Once in a while my voice starts "breaking up" and I have problems voicing words beginning with w, h, and p. That is when my therapist tells me to get much softer and slower. I have a problem with the slow part - I mean, I LOVE to talk and after not being able to do it for so long, I have a LOT of time to make up!
If you would like to hear samples of my voice, check out my podcasts. The earlier posts are with me speaking on the inhale and the more current ones are on the exhale. Learning to Live With SD.
When I am speaking one-to-one I am good. When I need to talk in a small group or in a noisy environment I use my Spokeman microphone. It is a personal amplification system which is very small and portable (I wear the amplifier on my arm like a MP3 player even though it is a bit bigger than a player.) and allows me to be heard without "pushing" and stressing my voice. I also have a phone which amplifies the outgoing voice and it really cuts down on my stress about being loud enough to be heard by the other person. I love my Spokeman and my phone! Once I figure out the entire picture thing I will put a picture of my microphone system and my phone on this blog for you to see.
Have a great day!
Trisha
2 comments:
I listened to one of your podcasts last night! It was neat to hear you. Your voice has a sing song quality and is very soft and lilting.
I sound sick.
Okay - my voice sounded sick for a LONG time! It is only recently that my voice has regained some of its natural sound. I appreciate your positive description of it because when I listen to it all I can hear are the problems!
Remember, your voice doesn't define who you are!
Post a Comment