Voiceless
The young woman took my arm and said, "When you learn what you are supposed to write on the tablet, you will get your voice back." Shocked I whispered, "What did you say?" She repeated, "When you learn what you are supposed to write on the tablet or say, you will get your voice back."
She spoke those words to me at a critical time on my life journey. I was serving as the CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, an organization formed by combining the Houston Chamber of Commerce, the Houston World Trade Association and the Houston Economic Development Corporation.
We were leaving a lunch meeting after the announcement of the 100 Fastest Growing Companies in the Houston Region. I had been asked to give opening comments, but because of being voiceless, I was barely able to croak out that I had tried but the best voice docs in the Texas Medical Center had told me that I might not talk again, ever.
Being the leader of any Chamber organization requires that you make numerous public speeches, appearances as well as meet and talk with politicians, business leaders, visitors and heads of state from all over the world. That is especially true in the 4th largest city in the country. As you might surmise, my situation was serious.
I had been voiceless for 11 months and my chairman, a CEO of one of the Fortune 500 companies, had told me privately that unless I got my voice back within the next month, the Board would have to find my replacement. I was concerned.
My voice had slowly gone away after a major rebuild of my heart in 1998. At first I thought that it was the result of being intubated for almost 14 hours for the surgery since it came on slowly and acted at first like a sore throat and chronic laryngitis. It got progressively worse until I had no voice at all.
What happened is that the heart surgery was a success, but in the process one of my vocal chords was killed and it died a slow death leaving me with a non functioning voice box and no voice, at least for almost a year.
That experience was a true "learning journey" that taught me a number of valuable lessons. Listening was one of them. Being perceived as handicapped was another. When folks found out that I could not talk, many of them assumed that was also hard of hearing and either ignored me or hollered at me. Needless to say that it was irritating. I used up tons of index cards and felt tip markers "talking with " everyone from my family to my colleagues and to visitors.
My colleagues and family supported me through it all, but my future was looking a bit limited until I got the message from that young woman or angel who delivered a very important message to me. "When you learn what you are supposed to write on the tablet or say, you will get your voice back."
Three weeks later, on the day that I was to meet with a set of surgeons who were going to tell me whether they could do anything to rebuild the dead vocal chord or whether I would never talk again, I discovered what I was supposed to say in a dream and woke up at 3 am talking to myself and laughing.
We went to the surgeons that morning and told them what had happened. They scoped my throat. In the doc's words, "I don't know who you pray to or what church you go to, but don't stop because it doesn't work this way." He went on to say that in his 45 years of practice, he had never seen anything like it. Apparently my good chord had learned how to work off of the side of my voice box and I suddenly had a voice.
JK
Special Thanks to Susan Berkley, a great voice coach and author. She helped me learn how to talk again. Once I regained my voice, said what I needed to say and wrote what I needed to write, I got my voice back and can get the attention of a room of 500 folks without a mike.
She spoke those words to me at a critical time on my life journey. I was serving as the CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, an organization formed by combining the Houston Chamber of Commerce, the Houston World Trade Association and the Houston Economic Development Corporation.
We were leaving a lunch meeting after the announcement of the 100 Fastest Growing Companies in the Houston Region. I had been asked to give opening comments, but because of being voiceless, I was barely able to croak out that I had tried but the best voice docs in the Texas Medical Center had told me that I might not talk again, ever.
Being the leader of any Chamber organization requires that you make numerous public speeches, appearances as well as meet and talk with politicians, business leaders, visitors and heads of state from all over the world. That is especially true in the 4th largest city in the country. As you might surmise, my situation was serious.
I had been voiceless for 11 months and my chairman, a CEO of one of the Fortune 500 companies, had told me privately that unless I got my voice back within the next month, the Board would have to find my replacement. I was concerned.
My voice had slowly gone away after a major rebuild of my heart in 1998. At first I thought that it was the result of being intubated for almost 14 hours for the surgery since it came on slowly and acted at first like a sore throat and chronic laryngitis. It got progressively worse until I had no voice at all.
What happened is that the heart surgery was a success, but in the process one of my vocal chords was killed and it died a slow death leaving me with a non functioning voice box and no voice, at least for almost a year.
That experience was a true "learning journey" that taught me a number of valuable lessons. Listening was one of them. Being perceived as handicapped was another. When folks found out that I could not talk, many of them assumed that was also hard of hearing and either ignored me or hollered at me. Needless to say that it was irritating. I used up tons of index cards and felt tip markers "talking with " everyone from my family to my colleagues and to visitors.
My colleagues and family supported me through it all, but my future was looking a bit limited until I got the message from that young woman or angel who delivered a very important message to me. "When you learn what you are supposed to write on the tablet or say, you will get your voice back."
Three weeks later, on the day that I was to meet with a set of surgeons who were going to tell me whether they could do anything to rebuild the dead vocal chord or whether I would never talk again, I discovered what I was supposed to say in a dream and woke up at 3 am talking to myself and laughing.
We went to the surgeons that morning and told them what had happened. They scoped my throat. In the doc's words, "I don't know who you pray to or what church you go to, but don't stop because it doesn't work this way." He went on to say that in his 45 years of practice, he had never seen anything like it. Apparently my good chord had learned how to work off of the side of my voice box and I suddenly had a voice.
JK
Special Thanks to Susan Berkley, a great voice coach and author. She helped me learn how to talk again. Once I regained my voice, said what I needed to say and wrote what I needed to write, I got my voice back and can get the attention of a room of 500 folks without a mike.