Rachel Insel
Vocal Sport: Singing
Stage Name: Ramona Cash
For over a year I was in denial about the worsening sound and feeling in my throat when I'd try to sing, even just lullabies to our young daughters at night. It hurt to be honest with myself that it had become painful, physically and emotionally. My voice sounded like gravel rubbed with 40 grit sandpaper fed through a gnarly distortion pedal...you know, like sh*t. I finally summoned my courage and researched until found Dr. Gupta's office, easily one of the greatest things I've ever been lucky enough to discover. Our initial exam revealed that I had an IMMENSE (but thankfully benign) polyp on my left vocal cord, destroying my vocal cord function. It was so disrupted that I was only able to use a little more than half (half!) of my total vocal capacity. AKA Why I had lost nearly all of my range or ability to project pretty much anything anymore. The solution? Surgery. Shave it off with a "fricken laser beam," as Dr. Evil says in Austin Powers. Laryngoscopy! Outpatient procedure, sleep it off at home, superior rates of full recovery. Oh, and perfect silence for two weeks post-op to heal completely. I was petrified.
We booked it anyway, and despite the unparalleled intensity of 14 days of zero speaking, whispering, mouthing words, or whistling (yep) getting to hear my "new" voice half a month later was sheer magic. Dr. Gupta did such a magnificent job that several months later when I showed my post-op images to renowned vocal coach Mindy Pack she said, "I can't even tell which one she did; both your cords look perfect." When I had my annual check up with Dr. Gupta herself a year+ later, she said the same thing... My voice feels like how I remember if feeling when I was half my age: luscious, supple, juicy, rich. To say that I am now 100% feels almost like not enough, because the contrast from how I felt before the surgery is like the equivalent of being fast-tracked from hell straight to heaven.
About Reena Gupta MD: she's a superlative surgeon and doctor of course, but also you will not meet a cooler, warmer practitioner...Among many fields. She's candid, relaxed, funny, caring, kind, humble, relatable, and deeply reassuring. In other words, EXACTLY the kind of person you hope to work with and and whom you can trust wholeheartedly. Look, patients are inherently vulnerable with visits like this ["Hello, your vocal cords have been completely busted for a long time, but we don't worry; we can fix them."] and with Dr. Gupta I felt like I was processing a stark medical reality with a cool older cousin or sister, who just happens to be a badass SUPER STAR surgeon. It's as hard to not feel at ease around her as it is for me to not rave my head off about her to anyone who asks me about my experience. If you find yourself in need of vocal care, you are not going to do better than Dr. G.
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We ask vocal athletes to share their story to empower people like you to seek vocal care and to remove the stigma of vocal issues and injury. All words are their own and we have been given permission to include their words, names and photos when included. We thank our artists for the gift of their experience and their willingness to courageously share their story with us.