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Any voice change in a professional user,
whether you're a speaker or a singer,
is remarkable by a week to two weeks,
and that doesn't necessarily just mean hoarseness--it might--
but it also might mean unusual fatigue, strain,
delayed warm-up time, breathiness.
If you warm up every day and you mark that warm-up,
you'll notice very early when there are changes.
And everyone has fluctuations from day to day,
but when it's persistent and it lasts one or two weeks,
that's a big deal,
and you should get that checked out right away.
And certainly if you have had a history
of other voice problems, I would come in
sooner rather than later as well.
The other thing is when you have an acute,
abrupt, significant change,
you should actually go on complete voice rest
and then follow up with your voice team
within hopefully the next day.
As a professional performer, you may find yourself
in another city anywhere around the world,
and unfortunately, you may run into vocal difficulty.
We're very comfortable finding you resources
wherever you might be to take care of your problem
as soon as possible.
And an annual checkup.
You're an athlete.
Just like a professional basketball player
or a football player, they're always making sure
that their body is in tune,
and you should be making sure that your voice is in tune
because that's your instrument.
And it's just a wellness visit, if nothing else.
And so that way, you can mark
where your vocal folds are at, where your voice is at,
and it's good to have a baseline
so that we can always compare in the future.
If there is an injury or a change in the voice,
we know what things look like and what you look like
when you're healthy.