Six months after receiving three weeks
of intensive "direct voice rehabilitation" from Dr.
Morton Cooper, I was feeling fairly good about my voice. It was
obvious to me that I was not completely cured, but my voice had
improved incredibly. I decided to write the Professor Otolaryngology
at a prominent Midwest medical school. Dr. * had been treating
me for abductor spasmodic dyphonia for approximately two years,
and had administered seven injections during that period. Dr *
was extremely helpful in obtaining financial assistance for the
trip to California and in general seemed to be supportive of the
therapy. Despite the doctor's support, I knew he was extremely
skeptical that Dr. Cooper would be able to do anything positive
for my voice, which made me even more anxious to have him hear
my improvement with his own ears.
After writing Dr. * a brief letter he called me and said he was
very anxious to see me in person and asked if taping me would
be possible. I told him that I had no objections to the taping,
but reiterated what I had said in the letter, that my voice was
not perfect, but when I was able to apply the elemnts of good
voice (my diaphragm breathing along with lower pitch for tone
focus) my voice was free from spasm. Dr. * told me that he could
tell over the phone that my voice had improved and repeated that
he was anxious to see me in person.
The day of the meeting I was extremely nervouse and excited.
I desperately wanted to prove to Dr. * that "direct voice
rehabilitation" works for spasmodic dysphonia. Since Dr.
* comes in contact with more SD's than anyone, I know, I felt
that he would be able to present Dr. Cooper's methods as a viable
alternative to an injection of Botox to possibly hundreds of people
suffering from SD.
Upon entering Dr. *'s examination room he quickly thanked me
for coming, abruptly sat me down in a chair and put a microphone
in front of me. Then he asked me to recite the same paragraph
that I recited when he had diagnosed me with SD. Despite my nervousness
I felt my voice was fairly smooth and was almost free from spasm.
The times that I did spasm I noticed that my pitch came up and
I lost my tone focus so I continued to push my voice lower to
recover.
After completion of the audio recording, Dr. * asked if he could
make a video recording of me explaining a little bit about the
therapy in general. I started by explaining that Dr. Cooper's
"direct voice rehabilitation" does work for many people
and that I had seen and heard many of those people with my own
eyes and ears. I explained that it normally takes a lot of hard
work and commitment to be successful and explained a little bit
about tone focus and diaphragm breathing. During this taping I
would say that my voice was definitely a "good voice"
and free from spasm.
During and after these tapings sessions Dr. * had not said one
word regarding the improvement of my voice. My curiousity got
the best of me. "What do you think of my voice?" I asked.
Dr. * paused and said smugly, "I've seen this before."
"What do you mean you have seen this before?" I said
with extreme shock in my voice. Dr * then went on to explain that
he felt that my symptoms were in remission. He said that on occasion
an SD's symptoms will go into remission and for some unknown reason
their voice will clear up for an undetermined period of time.
I could not believe my ears! Trying to keep calm I asked, "You
mean to tell me that if I would have never gone to California
and done any speech therapy my voice would have probably cleared
up on its own?" The doctor replied with an emphatic, "Yes,
that's what I believe."
Unable to control myself any longer I said in a loud voice, "You're
wrong, doctor!" I told him that I thought that people tend
to put doctors up on a pedestal and believe what their doctor
tells them. I informed him that if he did not advise his patients
that speech pathology can be a viable alternative to Botox he
was doing his patients a great injustice. Then I concluded, "You
have not been with me for the last six months and you have not
experienced what I have experienced. You have not been with me
in the mornings when I forget to apply what I have learned and
my voice spasms the way it used to, only to have it clear up after
applying the proper tone focus and breathing. You cannot tell
me that my voice would have cleared up on its own whether I worked
on this therapy or not!"
Dr. * clearly was not ready for my response. Then he said, "Maybe
I need to reconsider?" I quickly replied, "Maybe you
do!"
Another thing that stands out in my mind about my conversation
with Dr. * is his stance on speech therapy in general. At one
point in the conversation I had stressed the point that I had
seen and heard with my own eyes and ears dozens of patients that
have been cured or dramatically improved with Dr. Cooper's "direct
voice rehabilitation." That I asked Dr. * why he did not
believe that Dr. Cooper's methods work. He said that he had read
some of Dr. Cooper's publications and that in his opinion it was
basic speech pathology 101, in other words, Morton Cooper's methods
are too simplistic to work. Dr. * continued saying something to
the effect that if the answer is so simple why couldn't speech
pathologists all over the country report the same positive results?
With that I laughed because I had remembered Dr. Cooper stressing
that most of his fellow pathologists used that as a reason for
their disbelief in his methods. My answer was direct and to the
point, "Why does it have to be complicated to work!"
I have experienced for myself the close minded attitudes that
exist among the medical community regarding spasmodic dysphonia.
I believe that SD patients that have experienced success with
speech pathology have some responsibility to their fellow SD's
to get the word out, that speech pathology can and does work.
If enough successful patients were to force the medical community
to sit up and take notice, far less people would need to suffer
from this disorder!
Thankfully yours,
George Beahan
