Comments from Readers

Comments for Any Treatment if Stroke Happened Years Ago

VOICE ISSUES

This is the first time I've done this, but I'll try to explain how to totally recover half of your voice.

I love to sing, I’m 71 years old and I sing at karaoke every Friday night. I also sing in Las Vegas and face all comers. I’ve always come out on top, even with other entertainers joining in. I’ve even pulled people right out of the casino to see Tom Jones. They thought he was there making a personal appearance. I have a knack for doing many singers voices. After my stroke, I could still talk, but I later found I had completely lost my ability to sing. What that meant was I could not put words into music. My mind wasn't letting me do that.

For months and months, speech and hearing therapists were coming for an hour every day, but the only thing we were doing was waiting to see what kind of sounds would come out of me that day. I couldn't even sing happy birthday. It was just sounds. When I got out of the nursing homes, I got rid of all the therapists that were coming to my home. It had been obvious they were out of their league. I decided to do it "my way".

I love the rock and roll of the 50's to 70's. I got out my karaoke machine and my karaoke CD’s, tossed some heavy hitting songs of Elvis, Tom Jones, Louie Armstrong, Bobby Rydall. Bobby Vinton, Paul Anka, Neil Diamond, Johnny Horton Ricky nelson, the Everly brothers, and a lot of others. Obviously, everybody but Ricky had very heavy hard-hitting songs. I started to try singing them the way I used to. It was quite disappointing what I was doing to them, but I would sing them three or four times, pushing my voice to do better each time. My wife stayed in other parts of the house and let me go. By the second day she even came in and remarked how much I was changing. You've really got to put your heart into it and push as hard then harder than the original singers did. By the end of the fourth day I had completely regained my singing voice. I have over 200 songs on my singing list and had full control of every part of them. I even make changes that the crowds really like.

As for the stroke, it's still tearing me down after 3 years. My speaking voice changes every day, but that's not the one that matters to me as much. I suppose someday, I’ll whip it back into shape but the formula for doing it, is right here. Out of all the things I lost to my stroke, this is the one thing I was super good at, and I’m still just as good at it today. A karaoke machine can be bought new in any Walmart for $50/$60.

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