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Holly Figueroa: Blog

In May, 2009, I lost my voice.

I am not speaking figuratively, metaphorically, or any other "ally". I mean...I lost my singing voice.

(Well, I guess you could say that I "literally" lost my voice, and that would be an "ally", but...you get the point.)

It left me at the Northwest Folklife Festival. While performing. I knew it was going during the first song, but I kept singing, thinking that it would warm up and get better.

But it wasn't warming up or getting better. It was deteriorating and falling apart, and I couldn't carry a tune by the end of the my set. I had to talk a lot and cover for the fact that I could not sing.

We left Folklife and came home. I fell asleep around 7pm, and slept until noon the next day. For days, weeks...my voice was gravelly and hoarse. I started getting scared.

For weeks before that, I had been having hand pain and stiffness in the mornings. It was worse if I played guitar or or did things like...make coffee. Do dishes. Basically, if I *used* my hands, [...]
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