Yet Another ENT Visit!

On Wednesday, I traveled downtown Denver with my mama to visit a new ENT. I'd been fearing that my vocal nodes had returned, but I wasn't positive and I wanted an expert's opinion. Since I've been unhappy and dissatisfied with the ENT I was seeing in Tacoma, I opted to visit this new doctor who was recommended to me once I returned home for break. Boy am I glad I did! This guy was a thousand times better than the Tacoma dude.

This time around, the doctor scoped me with all his high-tech equipment. He was much more thorough and had awesome technology that allowed me to see the whole video played back. It's so much more comforting to be able to see for myself what is going on inside of my body! 

The nodes are still gone, but now there's swelling that creates the perfect environment for the nodes to return. That being said, my life is now being altered (yet again) to help prevent that from happening. 

Those changes include:

* Raising the head of my bed (both at home and at school) so I sleep on a slant. Construction project, anyone?
* Taking a really expensive prescription acid reflux medicine on a daily basis.
* Not eating or drinking (including water) 2-3 hours before I go to bed.
* Not eating 2-3 hours before I sing.
* Steaming my sinuses with a facial steamer for 10 min. a day.
* Using a sinus rinse 2X a day.
* Cutting the following out of my diet:
 {this is the part that kills me}

~ chocolate

~ peppermint

~ onions

~ tomatoes

~ red wine (could care less about this one)
~ spicy food (while I usually can't handle heat, I do enjoy an occasional spicy dish)

So, now to rest my voice this break, get this swelling down, and figure out how to get these vocal troubles sorted out and DONE WITH!