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Ung- I'm a vocalist so vocal injury, which is easy to do, is an ever looming foe. This semester I had a huge disaster when a cold whiped out my voice on the week of a performance... It's the worst thing that's ever happened to me in my career.
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This really resonates with me.
For most of my career as a vocalist, I lived in dread that I'd get a cold or my allergies would act up, because my vocal mechanism was so delicate that the slightest irritation or mucus buildup would render it useless.
About 2-1/2 years ago, I got what I thought was a cold that just never went away. I've had this nasty cough ever since that is unpredictable, originating from a single spot on the left side of my throat in the area of my larynx. It's unpredictable; I never know what will cause it to act up. It could be anything from a drop of water landing on it wrong to air to a vibration. I've been to three ENTs, none of whom quite knew what to make of the problem, though I was assured that it is not cancer and there was no eveidence of vocal abuse. The last guy discovered a chronic sinus infection, so I had sinus surgery a couple of months ago; but vocally nothing has changed.
So, it appears that after 25 years my singing career is at an end; I've quit almost everything. 46 is early to fall apart even for a tenor. Still, I had a pretty good run, I guess. Strangely, I'm almost relieved. It's nice not to worry in the background whether some virus or allergen will attack me and make it all but impossible to do the job people have hired me to do.