Fix my hoarseness from coughing in 24 hours!

December 20, 2016 12:47 PM

My voice is shot from overuse and a bout of coughing/sinus problems. I will be leading a fairly important conference call in 24 hours. What can I do to sound less-croaky?

A series of meetings and presentations last week ended with me losing my voice on Friday afternoon, concurrently with coming down with a cough and blocked sinuses. I spent most of the weekend in bed and am feeling a little better (albeit still congested), but my voice is all croak-y.

I have a slight cough, which suppresses nicely with some of the usual cough syrups, but my problem is that I still sound sick. I can't maintain a higher pitch without my voice cracking.

I know time will fix this, but I'd really like to sound less-croaky tomorrow afternoon. I can probably take a hot steam-y shower shortly before I dial in. Is there anything else I can do?

posted by QuantumMeruit to Health & Fitness (22 answers total)

Stay hydrated (inside and out). Try some throat coat tea, which I find helps with both soreness and hoarseness. Consider take sudafed (the real stuff), which will help a ton with sinus congestion. Between now and your call, talk as little as possible. Really. Carry a notepad around to tell people you're trying to not talk!
posted by rtha at 12:56 PM on December 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

Warm milk with a ton of honey in it will coat and soothe your throat and make you sound less croaky and actually taste good. Throat coat tea is soothing but tastes like butts.
posted by phunniemee at 1:00 PM on December 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

Do your butts taste like licorice ;-) Okay, throat coat tea is not the most delicious thing, it is true. I usually get around this by putting a ginger or mint tea bag in with the throat coat one.
posted by rtha at 1:03 PM on December 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

Stay hydrated, use a humidifier and STOP TALKING. No talking. Definitely no whispering (whispering strains your throat more than talking). The humidifier and the vocal rest should give you enough voice to at least get through your call tomorrow.

Throat Coat tea is not the tastiest, but I've had luck putting a plain black tea bag in with it, steeping it for a long time, and then adding milk and sweetener. It wasn't the best cup of tea I'd ever had, but it wasn't the worst and it does soothe your throat.

Feel better!
posted by Aquifer at 1:04 PM on December 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

Silence. Carry a notepad and use it!
posted by Dashy at 1:11 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Nthing STOP TALKING. No talking.

Also, especially, NO WHISPERING. (OK apparently Aquifer and I had exactly the same things to say about this.) Whispering can feel better than talking when you're hoarse, but you're ultimately just extending the hoarseness/pain.

In my experience hot drinks can soothe the feeling of throat pain, and staying hydrated at all costs is 100% what you should be doing right now. But I'm not sure that Throat Coat tea will have any real benefit over whatever tea you actually enjoy the flavor of. Or any other beverage you might choose to drink in order to hydrate yourself.
posted by Sara C. at 1:12 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Be sure to keep enough hot drinks on hand throughout your call, too (personally I like to plunk a cough drop into whatever tea I'm drinking and then breathe the vapors ... with a honey lemon cough drop it even tastes kind of nice). And if possible, perhaps dial in from a smallish room where you can keep a (quiet) humidifier running while you're on the call?
posted by DingoMutt at 1:30 PM on December 20, 2016

My husband has to talk on the phone a lot, and he swears by Fisherman's Friend lozenges. They are quite strong in menthol, and odd looking, but they work. You can usually find them at any drugstore.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 1:33 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Seconding the Fisherman's Friend cough drops. I've had long bouts of illness (I'm talking several months here!), including sore throat and lots of coughing and it's one of the major things that helps me through it.

I do, however, cut/break them in half, as I find them a bit too big to feel comfortable in my mouth. Since I end up using them so much, I use an old pill container and fill it up with a mixture of several different flavours of FF, to give some variety. The menthol can be strong, but there is a milder mint, lemon, cherry, citrus and a newer honey flavour too.

And yes, keep hydrated -- I prefer sipping on hot tea out of my Contigo thermos, because it keeps it hot for a long time, is spill-proof and can be used one-handed. Very handy to keep beside the bed for middle-of-the-night coughing fits. I find lemon & honey type teas to be one of the most soothing for sore throats -- those throat coat teas taste horrible and I've never found them to be very helpful.

You might want to consider throat numbing sprays if your throat gets super painful or rough. It's not for constant use, but it's a nice backup.
posted by Jade Dragon at 1:45 PM on December 20, 2016

Shortly before the call, I'd have a hot toddy: hot water, honey, whiskey, drop of lemon, pat of butter. The whiskey is of course optional and probably not the best in the long run but will help you get through that call. And also maybe make you mind less if you're still a little croaky.

(also throat coat tea is delicious and I sometimes drink it just for the taste I don't know what's wrong with these people :)
posted by SaltySalticid at 1:48 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

A doctor could give you steroids which would help, but not talking (nor whispering -- whispering can actually be _worse_ for you) will help a lot.

Before you start talking again tomorow, warm your voice up gently. A warm shower is a good way to start, followed by gentle humming, then soft talking.

Make sure you are near the microphone at the call tomorrow, so that you don't have to strain your voice more than absolutely necessary. If there's a "better" phone, use that. If you can stand while doing the call (with your voice near the microphone), do that. Eliminate background noise.
posted by amtho at 1:53 PM on December 20, 2016

Try and find s store near you that has VocalZone lozenges. Here's a store locator.

These are fantastic for emergency vocal support.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 1:56 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Circulate an agenda in advance so that instead of lengthily introducing each piece and participant, you can say things like "Now, item three" and "You'll find Sally's impressive full bio in your agenda, so I'm just going to ask her to get started right away."
posted by Miko at 2:05 PM on December 20, 2016 [5 favorites]

Hot tea with honey and lemon got me through five vocal performances in three days with the flu.
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 2:11 PM on December 20, 2016

Use a headset microphone instead of an area mic if at all possible.
posted by ewok_academy at 2:19 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Hydration, rest and steam are the only things that will help.

Please, please, from this ex-voice therapist, don't use anything with menthol or eucalyptus - they are irritants that make you feel less congested because they irritate the cold receptors in your nose and throat, but they aren't good for your voice. You should also avoid anything that drys you out, which includes decongestants.

Anything you drink may make a sore throat feel better and it will make you more hydrated, but there's nothing specific that you can drink that will help your vocal cords - if drinks are touching your vocal cords then you have bigger problems than your voice.

If it's truly mission critical, some doctors may be persuaded to give you steroid injections, but I've only really experienced these used with professional singers who have important paid engagements and a short term vocal problem.
posted by kadia_a at 2:49 PM on December 20, 2016 [4 favorites]

Slippery Elm. In tea or Thayer's lozenges. Huge help when I lose my voice.
posted by gnutron at 5:05 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Warm/hot lemonade with lots of honey and maybe some ginger if you like that. Don't talk.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:37 PM on December 20, 2016

When I had this problem before performances when I did theatre, I would do a cup of hot water with the juice of one lemon I it, and a technique we called "steaming yr head," in which you turn on a sink to the hottest water, put your face down in the sink (not IN the water, mind you) and cover your face with a towel, breathing in the steam for a couple minutes. I would do this at the last possible moment before I had to go on, and it always worked.
posted by fairlynearlyready at 8:56 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Honey beforehand, and Mountain Dew during. Studies have shown honey to be as effective as any cough suppressant, and Mountain Dew was originally created as a mixer for moonshine. It has brominated vegetable oil (banned in europe) that coats the throat. I occasionally have to give talks at large scientific conferences, and I always make sure that I have a Mountain Dew to drink.
posted by 445supermag at 9:12 PM on December 20, 2016

Also came in with the Thayer's slippery elm lozenge suggestion. It sort of coats things in a nice soothing mucilaginous way. Health food stores pretty much always seem to have them if the drugstore doesn't.

I did not ever expect to use the phrase "nice soothing mucilaginous way" at any time in my life, but there you go.
posted by kmennie at 4:20 PM on December 21, 2016

That Mountain Dew thing about "brominated" oil may not be completely accurate.
posted by Miko at 9:07 PM on December 21, 2016