VOICE GRATITUDE

November 22, 2021

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VOICE GRATITUDE.

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Heading into this week of THANKSGIVING (!!!), I feel the need to express my feelings of gratitude towards the importance of honoring the effectiveness and beauty of a multidisciplinary team approach to patient care, especially related to the VOICE.
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Before “they” are their diagnosis (vocal nodules, vocal fold paralysis, muscle tension dysphonia, cancer, etc.), “they” are actually a WHOLE PERSON. AND THEY ALWAYS ARE. Unrelated to their diagnosis, THEY are ALWAYS a WHOLE PERSON, a WHOLE VOICE. Their care should always be approached and provided as such.
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In this video, you can see that at baseline, the patient has a paralyzed left vocal fold (note: that’s the right side of the screen) and obvious incomplete vocal fold closure (her vocal folds did not touch no matter how hard she tried) because of this movement abnormality. AND you can also see her vocal fold function (and closure!) after intervention from both the otolaryngologist (surgically) and myself (as her treating voice therapist). Of note, the patient also received group and individual therapy related to reducing her reported anxiety as well.
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When we compared the initial videostroboscopy to the one that was done more recently after the aforementioned interventions, the patient was so thrilled in not only feeling and hearing the differences in herself (and her voice quality & vocal use patterns), but also (almost more so) in actually visualizing this improvement on the screen. She felt a true sense of understanding and verbalized a new confidence in her voice, and her SELF.
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I am so GRATEFUL for the amazing opportunity to positively impact people everyday in all the “jobs” I have— speech/voice pathologist, fitness instructor, & owner/creator of VOXFIT. I am very thankful for the opportunity to treat patients from a multi-disciplinary mindset & be able to collaborate with ENTs and laryngologists (& other providers and colleagues as well). I am also THANKFUL for the heart, mind, eyes, & ears to treat patients like the WHOLE person and WHOLE voice that they are.
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I love cases like this that make clear the BEAUTY of working as a TEAM!
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And I am SO grateful for ALL of you.

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