For about the last four months my voice has been weak. It felt like I needed to clear my throat, but there was nothing to clear. If I had a runny nose or a cough during the last few months I would chalk it up to that and not think about it, but I have not had any kind of runny nose or cold.

When I did some researching on WebMD.com it said to have it looked at because it could be cancer, or a nodule that if left untreated could eventually cause me to lose my voice.

I mentioned it to my doctor at my last checkup and he gave me a referral to an ear-nose-throat doctor. My appointment was today.

The first thing he did was apply some numbing anesthetic to my throat so I wouldn’t gag on the scope. You would think they would spray throat numbing spray down your throat? Nope. He stuck a tube as far up my nose as he could and then turned on an electric pump and misted the anesthetic into the tube. He did that up each nostril three or four times until it was running down the back of my throat.

He left me in the room for a few minutes to give the anesthetic time to work. It became difficult to swallow because I couldn't make the swallowing muscles work. I didn't like that feeling. He came back in and walked me to the room that had the scope. It is a little fiber optic tube less than half the diameter of a drinking straw.

I assumed if you want to look at a person's throat you would stick the scope down the throat. Nope. It also went into my nose. He put it in my left nostril first and I discovered I have a deviated septum on that side, so he used my right nostril.

The scope was connected to a TV monitor on the counter that I could watch. As it went down he pointed out things like my uvula. Pretty cool. He got to my vocal cords and looked at them for a little bit. He looked at them up close, and then pulled it out a little bit and had me say some different sounds so he could see how they moved and how they met each other.

He said everything looks good. No signs of cancer, nodules, or anything that requires surgery. He said the most likely cause is something external in the environment causing it, even though I have not felt like I have suffered from allergies this year.

He gave me scrip for Nasonex for one month. He said if I am still having the problem after a month to give him a call back.

I have never been to an ENT before, or at least as an adult, and I really liked this guy, so on another positive note if I need an ENT in the future I now have one I like.