Craig LeFevre Recovers from SD Using Acupuncture and Amplified HearingHello, I would like to share my success story, but first I want to thank Micki Nellis for this website. This website gave me the hope. I suffered with spasmodic dysphonia for 16 months. Currently, my voice has been almost normal for over two years. Like others, I did not want to treat my spasmodic dysphonia using botox or surgery. I went to every kind of doctor I could afford and talked to everyone who would listen. Not to mention all the time I’ve spent researching this issue. It’s been two years since I’ve visited this website. I’ve tried so many things to get my voice back, I’m really not sure which one worked. It could have been a combination of things that brought my voice back. However, I would like to share two things I have tried that I feel made a difference. First is acupuncture. I’ve suffered from a stiff neck for several years. My thought was that my neck stiffness was related to my voice problem. I tried 2 or 3 treatments a week for 90 days. Out of those 90 days, my voice was normal for three of those days. Now that may not sound like much to you, but I sure was excited about it. My 3 days with a voice occurred during the first month or so of treatments. Each time, my voice came back the same day or day after my appointment. As time went on, the acupuncture treatments didn’t appear to help my voice, but my chronic stiff neck disappeared. Eventually, I couldn’t afford acupuncture any longer. I had to try something different. Looking back at my acupuncture treatments, I feel it was a step in the right direction toward my recover. The man who treated me took my voice problem and made it his personal challenge to help me. Along the way, he suggested some really good ideas. One of them was to read a book called “somatics” by Thomas Hanna. It’s about reawakening the mind’s control of movement, flexibility, and health. To this day, I perform the exercises I learned in “somatics”. I don’t want to slide back into chronic neck stiffness. Back to acupuncture; if you haven’t tried this yet, I recommend giving it a chance, especially if you have stiffness in your neck. The second thing I would like to share is so “out there”, I have hesitated for two years to mention it to anyone other than my friends and doctors. Recently I discovered that my “out there” idea appeared to work for someone else. Let me explain by starting from the beginning. I was requested to talk to a group of 30 employees at a local manufacturing facility. I can’t remember why, but I agreed to do it, even with my spasmodic dysphonia voice. I was equipped with a cordless microphone clipped to my collar and a PA system. After 20 minutes, my voice started coming back. My co-worker looked at me and ran over to adjust the volume in the PA system. I continued to talk for another 20 minutes with a normal voice. When I unclipped the mic from my collar and started to talk again during our break, my spasmodic dysphonia voice returned. Hmm,,,,That was weird. I couldn’t stop thinking about this. There was something about hearing myself better that allowed me to speak clearly and normal. I came up with an idea and went to the University hearing clinic and told them my story. I borrowed hearing aids from the clinic. The digital hearing aids were tuned to amplify my own voice and tuned down so sound around me was not amplified that much. Within a day or so, my voice was back. I wore the hearing aids for 2 weeks. I had a choice at this time, give the hearing aids back or purchase them. I gave them back. Why. I remembered my speech therapist told me “your vocal folds have a high memory, just keep performing your vocal exercises”. I thought 2 weeks of wearing hearing aids and talking normal was enough vocal exercise to go with out them. I couldn’t afford the hearing aids anyway. I think they were $1500 each. I wore one in each ear. I’d have to put them on my credit card. I didn’t want to do that. My voice wasn’t completely back to normal after the 2 weeks, but every week that passed, my voice just kept getting better. Even when using the telephone. After 3 months, I had my voice back, at least 90% of it. To this day, I still loose my voice when I’m in a loud environment. For example, a friend of mine approached me last week while I was at the car wash. I was using a high pressure water spray and he approached me wanting to talk. It was just noisy enough for me to have to raise my voice to talk. My old spasmodic dysphonia voice flared up. I was excited about my hearing aid discovery. I wanted to post my story on this web site. But I remember reading during my spasmodic dysphonia research that a lot of people who think they have this problem licked find out later that it is only temporary. We’ll it’s been over two years now and I feel it’s OK to post this. If you are reading this, I’m sure you have come across the idea of putting your fingers in your ears and talking. “Try putting your fingers in your ears and talk”. Does it help? Ask a friend to listen to you talk for awhile. Is your voice coming out better? If the answer is yes, then try the hearing aids. It’s the same concept as putting your fingers in your ears. What happens is, you can hear yourself talk better and it triggers something in your voice that brings it back. The problem with fingers in your ears is,,,,you can’t hear anything. If you are having a hard time understanding this, maybe you need to listen to the Christian tape I describe in the next paragraph. A friend at work gave me a cassette to listen to; It was a Christian international radio series called “Focus on the Family”. This cassette was a recording of a radio show owned and operated by James Dobson. Mr. Dobson interviewed Rev. Duane Miller from Texas who had lost his voice as a pastor. During this 30 minute cassette recording called “Breaking the Silence”, Rev. Miller describes loosing his voice and how he got it back. Rev. Miller never said he was diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia, but if you ask me, that’s what his problem was. The best part about this tape is that he has a recording of getting his voice back. Rev. Miller was teaching a Sunday school class and he used a microphone with a PA system, and during the class his voice came back,,,and it’s all on tape. This recorded radio interview can be purchased on the internet. I googled it. It’s not hard to find. Now that I found someone else who got their voice back similar to mine, I feel better about sharing this bizarre story of mine. Over the 16 months I lived with my spasmodic dysphonia voice, I developed a habit of trying to speak as loud as I could so people could hear me. The microphone, the PA system, and the hearing aids help me break this habit. There are manufactures that make devices to amplify sound. These products are marketed for people who have a hard time hearing at the movies or hunters who want to hear better in the woods. I would give these products a try. I think you can buy them at Radio Shack. Again, thank you Micki Nellis for this web site. I hope my story helps someone. Craig Lefevre Back to http://www.spasmodicdysphonia.us
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