The Nodes

Towards the end of the school year, Justice performed at a whole bunch of events.  He did a lot of singing, and his voice became hoarse.  I was glad for school to end, and I figured that since he wasn't singing anymore, he'd heal.  First, he went to Washington DC, and he came back with less voice than he did before he left.  Then, he started to get a little better, finally.  He went to scout camp, and came back again with no voice.  I took him to the doctor, and she referred him to an ENT.  He scoped Justice's vocal chords with a camera, and diagnosed him with nodules on his vocal chords.  That wasn't much of a surprise to anyone.  Too much usage = nodules.  He was referred again to a speech pathologist and the poor little feller had to get scoped again.  Scoped = camera up the nose and down the throat.  This time it was even worse, because he had to sing and make all kinds of noises while he had the camera in his throat.  Not awesome.  Poor kid.  But thankfully, it turned out the nodules were already getting better, but the rest of his throat was really red and irritated.  Post nasal drip?  Maybe.  Acid reflux?  Maybe.  He's suffered from acid reflux before, so I wasn't really surprised, and the doctor saw some post nasal drip too.  AND, drum roll… puberty.  The reason the voice cracks during puberty is because the vocal chords and larynx grow first, then the rest of the body catches up later.  That leaves the vocal chords sort of loose in your body, so they respond differently which results in cracks, etc.  The poor kid has the perfect storm going on in his throat and nothing seems to make it any better.  

Here is a picture of his throat.  The redness around his vocal chords is not normal.  The nodules are already healing and not very big in this picture.

It's been four months, and he is still hoarse and is not getting any better.  We tried complete vocal rest, which should have healed it, but it did not.  Some days he sounds better than others, but there is absolutely no singing going on whatsoever.  One rendition of a song and he is back to square one.  The speech pathologist is working with him to fix some "breathing support" issues that could contribute to the nodules, but other than that there isn't really anything he can do.  Justice suffered from GERD when he was a baby, and there is some speculation that he may have permanent damage and scarring to his vocal chords.  There is really no way to tell other than time.  He may heal and his voice may improve, or it may not.  He may be predisposed to being hoarse.  If that's the case, he will not be singing anymore.  

So, with All West auditions in October, it's not looking good for Justice.  He's devastated.  I feel really bad for him, he is so sad.  

Say a little prayer for the sweet kid, he's struggling right now dealing with it all.  Bless his heart, I hate to see him like this.