Does anyone else suffer with this?
I am on symbicort smart and experience voice changes from time to time, however this bout has lasted almost 3 weeks so far! The consultant didn't really comment on in when I asked him. I'm fed up with people asking if my throat is sore.... I sound rough or squeak most of the time when talking and upper chest feels sore.
Any advice please?
Lisa x
I have that too! Mainly when I'm at work cos I have to talk a lot (teacher). Chest gets tight at same time too. I often get puffed out just reading a story to the kids - weird!
At least I'm not alone. I sound fine when I get up in the morning but as day goes on I sound more and more ridiculous. No amount of coughing or trying to clear throat helps.
My voice goes wierd when my asthma is playing up too, its as though my voice looses power so cones out all weak and feeble.
Asthma playing up and voice keeps going a little hoarse on symbicort so might be my increased dose.
I used to think I didn't but yes - I know what you mean. Definitely does change and while I am on a lot of Symbi, I rinse carefully and if well don't have any probs (on same dose all the time, I can't increase when struggling as baseline is so much so it's not related to an increase). I do wonder if it could be the gunk I get when having probs - lots of gunk atm that's stuck and also a hoarse voice, though I'd associate both with worse lungs so it may be a case of 'correlation does not imply causation'. But it's worse in the morning when I seem to have a lot of gunk to clear (sorry for TMI!)
I know when I was talking to the AUK nurse in the middle of a fairly bad flare she commented that my voice didn't sound good.
I did have a similar odd voice during last cons appt but lungs seemed fine so maybe it was some weird nervous thing (I have told him up front I am not usually anxious but I am round cons because I worry they will think I am anxious - vicious circle! Only seems to happen with the voice in cons appts.) On the other hand even though I felt ok my spiro wasn't great so it is possible it was lungs there as well.
Symbicort did this to me too, its well known for it apparently.
Try tilting your head up slightly when you inhale (tip from my chemist) as it stops the powder 'sticking' to your tounge/throat as much.
Hi, I just saw this and wanted to let you know I actually had quite a bit of trouble with this. This past year I have had quite a few sinus infections, so got sent to an ENT specialist. I would ask him about my hoarse voice, because everyone at work would tell me they hoped I felt better because I sounded acutely ill, but I wasn't! For a few months he insisted it was because of the multiple inhalers. But when I brought it up this one time, he stopped as he was about to walk out the door, and said ""Why don't I look at your vocal cords.""
Well it turns out I had vocal cord nodules from coughing so much!! The good news was that he sent me to see a speech therapist, who was excellent, and she taught me a bunch of ways to take care of my voice, and that helped this callus on my vocal cords to disappear over several months. Many people will say you need surgery for nodules, but speech therapy works for a lot of people.
Some basic things were my inhalers were making my mouth and throat super dry. So to help my cords heal I was told to constantly drink water to keep them moist, especially when i talked. Also, she had me not talk as much as possible. Which is actually O.K. I learned often I didn't need to talk as much, and then when I did talk I had a voice. Also sugarless candy or cough drops are good, because they keep saliva up and vocal cords moist. Another huge thing was I was supposed to avoid clearing my throat or coughing as much as possible. Of course this is NOT always possible, but often you can actually swallow or take a sip of water instead of clearing your throat, and this keeps your vocal chords from clashing together as much to let them heal.
I was also supposed to talk in certain ways, and they taught me relaxation exercises too.
Anyways, long story short, it worked and I no longer have vocal chord nodules. Also, I now know when I get sick that it's O.K. to pamper my throat a bit!
Bee
My ENT gave me similar advice. fortunately I haven't developed nodes from all my coughing, but I am being monitored for it.
Good to hear from you beethere. Hope all is well with you? ( if not with asthma then at least with the rest of life)?
Voice Problems
Changes in review regimes.
Asthma and Lost Voice!
