Losing my singing Voice...

This is hard for me to type because it makes it more real whenever I have to think about my singing voice. I used to sing when I was a teenager and I studied and practiced all the time to get into a music college to pursue music as a voice performer in opera. That all changed when I was 19/20 years old. At age 18, I went to the University of Arizona and ran into financial trouble and family emergencies and made the hardest decision to move with my mother to Phoenix so I can help support the family.  A few months later she moved back to Tucson with my other older sister and her kids but I couldn't leave because I enrolled in a different school and had to finish or else I'd be on Academic Probation with FAFSA so I lived with my oldest sister. However, I started getting more frequent asthma attacks because my oldest sister had dogs and cats and I ran out of my medicine for Advair. (I was diagnosed with asthma at age 7 and have used Advair since I was 9 and it was controlled) My doctor recommended a new medication called Dulera and assured me that Dulera worked the same way as Advair but as an inhaler form. I trusted my doctor and the new medication and took it once in the evening and once in the morning everyday. After two weeks, I started getting sick. I was throwing up everyday, I was severely dehydrated, I couldn't eat anything solid because I was so nauseous, my breathing was more difficult each day and I could not stop coughing. It got so bad when I took my breathing treatment when I was coughing and wheezing. However, this didn't work like it usually would and I would throw up my albuterol that's mixed in with mucus. My sister didn't want to take me to the hospital because she thought it was something else and didn't want to waste gas money and I had no money at the time to give to her. I took my breathing treatment everyday at least 3 times a day and suffered from not being able to breathe at night and crying everyday because I could not stop vomiting. The stomach acid was burning my throat and crying made my voice become rough and going to the ER became frequent because I needed an IV from dehydration because at this time my body rejected water and I vomited that too.(My other sister took me to the hospital) After, going to the hospital 4 times in a 3 month period a different ER doctor said I was having a negative reaction to the Dulera medicine and I need to stop taking it immediately. I asked him if I would get better he said yes if I stay inside and stay away from allergen irritants and to come back every 2 weeks for a check up. Between wheezes (Making a sentence was difficult for me) I asked him if my singing voice will be fine after some rest. The doctor had to think for a couple of minutes while staring at me. It felt like hours to me. He said the possibility of me singing professionally won't happen soon and possibly never be the same again because my voice and throat and lungs have so much damage from the Dulera and coughing that my voice is going to change. He said due to my lungs getting inflamed from the Dulera that singing is possibly going to ruin my lungs more because I can't take a deep breath (even today holding 2 whole notes is difficult) and while singing is possibly going to put me in a severe asthma attack. Then he went on saying my body has suffered so much from breathing that my hypoglycemia is worse (if you have asthma, you will have a small case of hypoglycemia no matter what) and getting asthma attacks emotionally and physically are going to be more frequent than before. He apologized because he knew he declared that my dreams of singing opera and years of training were gone. Even when I do sing my lungs feel like pins and needles being sucked in and my headaches start then I start to hear my voice and body shake because it hurts so badly. I felt my soul being crushed and went into a severe depression. (I now get asthma attacks when I'm too emotional or stressed so I had a lot of asthma attacks at this time). I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life because everything I worked for was gone because of a stupid medicine that I should have done more research on instead of foolishly trusting it worked on me like everyone else. I went back to the University of Arizona and auditioned to go into the Voice Performance program but I couldn't finish any songs because my lungs were on fire and I felt sharp pains every time I took a breath. The professors whom judged, thought I was extremely nervous but I was too proud and defeated to tell them the truth so I accepted myself as a failure because it was too hard to say it out loud. I tried again the next year and again my lungs refused to cooperate and my soprano voice was too hoarse. I am now back on Advair and doing better even though I use my inhaler 3-4 times a week. I still don't want to give up my dream of singing because I love music so much, but it is a bittersweet relationship with music and singing. It breaks my heart to hear beautiful voices singing when I want to do the same thing but I love hearing them so much I can not stop listening. I'm 23 years old now but I'm not sure where I'm going because I have to hold out some dream of singing because it's my passion or else finding beauty in this life is useless and I don't want to keep living my life in self hatred when music is everywhere and it's so beautiful and lovely. I'm moving forward and I accept I won't sing like I used to, but I've proven the impossible wrong and maybe this is another way of life challenging me of how much I'm willing to fight and heal from my love of music and singing.
Thought I would share my hardship because there is always a way in finding happiness again if you love something so much and not willing to leave your heart broken but fix it in its own time.

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