When Covid stole my voice
Its the start of January 2021 and weeks after testing positive for Covid 19, I still am not able to sit in my booth and record. Literally not even a sentence. Its infuriating, dull and tiring. The end of 2020 hit my family unit like a ton of bricks. Everything feels heavier at Christmas but this one was particularly weighty, full of grief at the loss of loved ones, stress of friends in hospital and illness, specifically the Corona virus that hit my mum, myself, my husband and my own mini germ spreader, Ace (4 years old) who has thankfully been asymptomatic and hasn’t suffered at all except for socially….poor boy hasn’t left the house in what feels like years, he named his hot water bottle cover Gubby and started referring to him as his little brother…..weird worrying times LOL!
In the early days (as in last March, which feels like 50yrs ago) when I considered what might happen if I contracted Covid, it never even crossed my mind that it would be anything more than a cold. I mean, if you’re young, fit and healthy, we haven’t been encouraged to think anything different BUT (and its a big ass BUT)…it was a little foolish and naive on my part not to have done more research. A few of my symptoms included:
Extreme fatigue
Nausea
Diarrhea
Shortness of breath
Blisters
Headaches
Eye Strain
Complete loss of appetite
Loss of smell and taste
Cough
Blocked Sinuses
Aaaaaaand to top it all off, a voice that had me sounding like I smoked 40 Silk Cut a day!
I am beyond fortunate that I have survived Covid. Actually that sounds dramatic, the survival rate for someone like me is way up near 98-100% but the illness itself made me at times wonder if this really could be JUST a virus!?
For 8 days I lay in my sick bed just eeking away the hours between sleep, runs to the bathroom, fever and awful dreams, you know the kind you only get when you have a temperature? Dark, evil, almost hallucinogenic. Interestingly enough, ‘the cough’ that we are all so warned about really wasn’t an issue for me. I mean, I WAS coughing, but no sore throat or tonsils and the cough was just a little dry. What has made speaking so tough is my breathing. It’s like Covid has temporarily stolen my voice because I can barely get through three sentences without taking one huge deep breath. Even now I still feel like a huge weight is sitting on my chest, especially when I’m out for a walk in London’s current bitter cold.
If anyone else’s voice has been left in a bit of a sorry state after Covid, here are a couple of things that have helped me:
*TEA- I know I know, I can hear you voice actors and coaches shouting at the screen right now, milk is generally NOT good for the voice but its helped me no end this week, I think its just the heat and the comfort it provides
*REST - Lots & LOTS of rest. Covid causes extreme fatigue and you have no choice but to listen to your body when its telling you to rest…so just do it
*WATER - gallons of it, gallons and gallons
*YOGA - this may come as a little bit of a shock to some but I am actually NOT a Yoga fan, I get incredibly bored and some of the poses trigger headaches for me HOWEVER, given that the practice is rooted in ‘the breath’, I would highly recommend just 15-20mins each day. It also helps you get your shit together….you know, emotionally….upon reflection, I probably should practice it a little more often than I do (*insert side eye)
I’m hoping that by giving myself another week out of the booth that by this time next week I’ll be ready to go and record my little socks off, but until then, you’ll find me at home either Home Schooling, jet spraying my home with Anti - Bac or eating copious amounts of Vegan Galaxy chocolate WHICH I still cannot taste….but thats for another blog!
PS: That photo was on day 3 of suffering with Covid, before it really ramped up! Imagine what I looked like on day 5 when the ambulance got called? It was the stuff that nightmares are made of!
Stay safe everyone x