How do I get my voice back asap
Hi, this is my first time posting here but I’m desperate and am not sure what else to do. I (22 AFAB) got sick about 15 days ago (I think) with what a doctor I saw IRL thinks is probably a viral infection. I took an at home test which came back negative for Covid and the flu. My doctor also tested for strep throat and that came back negative as well. It started as a sore throat and some pressure/congestion in my face. It felt like a cold. Now my problem is EVERY time I get sick (with anything. Covid, flu, cold, etc) it turns into a cough and I lose my voice. The cough lasts forever every time. About 5 days in I mostly stopped feeling sick and the cough started. I believe I’m on day 10 of the cough. It has essentially ripped through my throat. I started losing my voice 10 ish days ago and I have had basically no voice for 9 days. I am still coughing but not as bad as it was a few days ago. Sometimes I cough up phlegm though it is hard to spit it out, the other half nothing comes up. It’s also a barking cough every time. I try not to cough to the best of my ability but most of the time that’s impossible.
Here’s the real issue: I’m a singer/actor. In 5 days I open my first professional show in the Toronto Fringe Festival. I have a solo song. I have a long monologue and several scenes to speak lines in. There are no microphones and no understudies. I am freaking out because even though my cough has lessened my voice has not improved at ALL. I have mostly not talked for the last ten days, a few days I whispered for a bit or talked VERY briefly out of absolute necessity. Yes I know whispering is terrible for your voice and I shouldn’t be making any noise but I’ve still been in rehearsal and tech for my show and didn’t have time to type out what I needed to say and had to verbalized it.
I feel like I’ve tried everything. I’ve been taking cough syrup (robitussin at first, then switched to benylin on the advice of a doctor filling in for my family doctor) and I’ve been switching back and forth fourth between the complete? Cough one (the one with antihistamines), and the dry cough one. I’ve been consuming a lot of Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa as most singers I know swear by it. I’ve taken a few drops of oregano oil in the past few days as well. The doctor also prescribed me antibiotics on the off chance that it’s not a viral infection. I forgot to take the second or third last pill last night and now I can’t find the antibiotics but I will keep looking. The doctor also said it doesn’t sound like I have an infection or fluid in my lungs. I have a vocal nebulizer that uses a saline solution that I used yesterday once and I will use again today and as much as I can for the next few days/weeks. For a week or more I was drinking very hot water with a lot of honey until the doctor told me not to drink anything too hot or too hold now I’ve just been drinking water that’s room temp or just the temperature that it comes out of the tap (no temp control on our drinking tap it’s a bit cool though).
The cough won’t stop and knowing how this always goes for me it probably won’t completely stop for a while, maybe a week at the very minimum. I feel like until the cough stops my voice won’t even start to heal but again I’m freaking out because this is exactly what happens every time I get sick. It’s ruined shows or rehearsal periods for me in the past but none of them were professional shows and I was in the ensemble for most of them or able to sing my song and then get off stage and stop talking. But I tried singing my song for this show and some of the notes won’t even come out. No sound just air. Not to mention that my entire monologue is an angry rant that I’m supposed to be basically yelling for. I am so desperate to heal but I feel like everyone’s giving me the same advice and none of it is working.
I will now provide all of the medical info I can think of (that’s even remotely relevant)
I am 22, AFAB, 5 foot 1 inches tall and roughly 175 pounds. I don’t smoke, drink alcohol, or take any non prescriptions or over the counter drugs.
I have exercise induced asthma that I developed as a teenager and I take a zenhale puffer with an aero chamber two puffs in the morning and two at night.
I take Teva Buprorpion 150mg every day when I wake up.
I take 5 mg of DAYVIGO lemborexant tablets every night before I go to sleep.
I take 200mg of Magnesium Bisglycinate twice a day.
I cough all year round, sometimes a barking cough, and I have since September of 2024 when I got sick a few times in quick succession. My doctor was convinced it was due to post nasal drip and made me take a nasal spray for 3 months and it did nothing for my cough so I’ve given up on that because it doesn’t affect my voice or anything during the rest of the year.
I think I should mention I regularly take a lot of Tylenol and sometimes Advil. I have a lot of chronic pain. I get headaches a lot and dull pains in my limbs that doesn’t go away without pain killers very often, sometimes daily. (I’m about to get bloodwork done that my doctor recommended so we can fix that issue)
I also have chronic foot pain but I don’t know if that’s relevant, I don’t take anything for that because no painkillers have even made a dent in that pain.
I also have a problem where sometimes when I sing (even in a very comfortable range for me) and it makes my throat sore, I had that checked out by an ENT specialist who works with singers and she said my vocal cords look great and healthy.
Ok that’s everything I could think of. I know it’s a very long post but the community guidelines said to be as detailed as possible and again I am so desperate to get my voice back. Thanks in advance for your help!!