I am a musician and vocalist. I play the guitar (acoustic). I have sang since I was small and was on the worship team at my church from the time I was 14 years old. I took 7 years of vocal lessons and have been in several bands.
I went to church for the first time since my diagnosis. I have not gone just because I don't go out much because I am never sure when it will strike. I have been feeling better since adding the Trileptal. I am for the most part pain free, though I feel twinges.
As the worship started at church, I began to sing. Something that brings me joy. As the air started vibrating through the nasal passages, pain came out of nowhere. I had to stop. Since then, I have attempted to sing and the same thing happens.....
Yes, Yes, Yes. Lisa that is so not funny. My second episode was at church. We were singing and I could feel the vibration in my nose. We finished briefly for childrens church and I turned to the right and BAMB.
I jumped up and ran out holding my head. That was Dec.11. I have had a hard time singing until yesterday but I was so aware of the vibration. I had twinges last night 2 hours before I took meds which is unusual. Yep, Yep. But I am still going to worship if possible!
This was SO HARD for me. You have no idea. I broke down crying because this has always been my go to for stress relief in the past. My mom was crying as well and holding me as we weeped that one more thing is being taken from me (at least for now). Sigh.....
I am sorry that it is the same for you kimburlee. As you know, there are more ways to worship.... I sat back and just let the words wash over me as I closed my eyes...... But it is painful emotionally to add that to everything else right now.
That was one of my triggers also. Talking even caused pain. The wind, hot and cold foods, stress, pillows, the list goes on and on. I wish I could say it gets easier. It doesn't.
Play Lisa! Play! With a song in your heart! I have an Uncle that has been def and blind 90% of his life and he worships just fine. I know it is hard but if we can focus on what we have instead of have nots.
I got some bad news today from my doctor and I have been refered to a surgeon today. I cried but I Know what I cant loose! Isa 46v4
I can relate. I don't have the drop you to your knees pain that many of you here describe. Most days my pain ranges from 1-6 in severity. But even the low level constant pain makes it hard to sing in church. Many weeks I just have to stand there and hum along. It stinks 'cause I love to sing and worship. But God knows my heart and knows my pain!!
Oh, my goodness ladies…I'm in tears for you right now. And, Lisa, this has just been bad news after bad news for you. In the beginning it felt like that for me as well (bad news after bad news). I could not talk (I love to talk, can you tell??), I could not eat and I could not sing. I could not pour into my kids by reading to them BUT I could play with them and play the quiet game as we played with toys. I could hold them while my hubby read to them. I could get tapes of the books so they could hear other stories when my hubby was not at home. We could memorize the Veggit Tale songs and enjoy our time together. I found what I COULD do and laid the other things at His feet.
It felt so much like the trial of Job. And, if goober was allowed to do this to Job, perhaps it's the same for us? Goober can only go as far as the LORD allows. When I studied Job I noticed that his heart stance was the same. So, if I could not sing, I could whisper, I could play worship music and NOT allow goober to bring me down any more than necessary. To loose our hearts desire is profound…and walking through profound circumstances takes time, support, and an open mind.
For me, this pain has been gone for longer windows of time, but is still there to manage and mend. Sometimes I feel so sorry for this little nerve that hurts so much. I like what blder1 said about humming…and kimburlee said to play with a song in your heart. Perhaps there will be songs of redemption that will come forth, Lisa. First on the guitar and then in lyrics. Play, Lisa, play…your gifting is still within your reach.
Exactly bldr1 and lyndaS - I think of Job often..........yet, will I trust in Him! Lynda, I think you have a misspelled word. I think it is booger. lol
absolutely. The more and louder and longer I talk totally kicks off the pain. I stop talking and hold my face still for a minute and the attack goes away entirely.
To those of you that have had a pain attack in church (Satan at work, by the way) ; please continue to attend, just refrain from trying to sing.
If you'll casually look around during those singing/praise parts of your worship services, I'll bet you'll see many people standing--but just reading and "mouthing" the words. That also, is considered praiseworthy .
Please continue to attend. As you probably can tell from how Good it makes you feel; you are in a happy, blessed and sanctified place. Stay Blessed, Love, Rick
Not being able to sing has been one of the hardest outcomes of my gamma knife surgery. Like most of you, I loved to sing in church. My husband was a pastor before retiring, Val, so I understand how you must feel. I do keep singing in my heart!
As some of you mentioned, I think of Job often. We certainly don't understand suffering in this life, but we know the Lord has a purpose, and that one day all of our pain will be gone!
Hey Lisa, I have played guitar (modified open-tuning glass bottle-neck slide Blues and Bluegrass genres for decades) and piano as well. I also spent many years as a lead-singer/Blues harp (harmonica) player as well. The demands that I placed on my lips, mouth and cavity embrasure with those metal harmonicas, could have easily caused my facial nerve damage and ultimately; TN.
However, some of those much older than myself Mississippi-Delta Blues legends don't seem to have been slowed-down at all from blowing their lungs and brains out. May G+d please, Bless all the hungry, dedicated musicians (and other artists) that might be struggling.
No kidding Rick, you would think those that blew on harmonica's would show more damage --- Love bottleneck slide guitars... I don't play one myself, but they are so, so beautiful. My guitar is a Taylor from the 400 series... it is a smaller bodied guitar but with some beautiful and rich sounds...... I saved for it and it is definitely my baby. I believe the hearing problems I am having are directly related to the bands I played in for years! Since I sang lead and played, I was often standing directly in front of the drums (no shield there) and bass amps......
This trigger has taken the ability to sing out loud and that kills me... but I can still play beautiful music with my fingers. The problem is that I have always sang (except when writing songs) while playing so I find myself wanting to sing and hum, which then brings tremendous pain.
Hot shower overhead, cold breeze across face, speaking in louder tone, and singing even crying has triggered pain.
If your maxillary branch is affected than all those words containing “m” “n” in spelling cab bring on pain.
But r u not having natural remission from pain?
This illness comes and goes for varying period,
If not u should ask the neuro physician about it.
Like I have stated, I have been pain free for weeks but ever since sunday after church, I have felt teases of having an attack. It has gotten stronger every day. It starts abour two hours before my meds are due. I increased my meds this am by 1 pill in hopes I can do the WMU prayer calender tonight which requires me to talk. Talking is a trigger for me. I think anything that causes vibration in my nasal cavity and certain ways I chew, especially bannanas, muffins, burgers anything that is thick. I think it has something to do with my tounge.
Does anyone have loud ringing in ears???? I would like to know. Blessings
[Open-D Tuning] If you want to play around with slide and open tuning you can tune down your Taylor/or any 6-string, down 2 frets from normal EADGBE standard tuning and buy yourself a metal or glass (my fav) slide.
You'll love all the richness and new natural harmonics immediately. If you think you might want to check it out, let me know and I'll walk you through it string by string. It's a snap after you do it once. You actually only have to re-tune 3 of the 6 strings. Taylor guitars are very nice. For Open-D tuning, I use my trusty old 1972 Guild D-35 dreadnought-big body and sound.
I too, really sustained some hearing damage/tinnitus from the rock bands I used to play in. Today, I'm sad to say that between my TN and Peripheral neuropathy (hands)/Carpal Tunnel (both wrists) I rarely play music these days---And, trying to sing is out of the question...Rick
Lisa (iamrite) said:
No kidding Rick, you would think those that blew on harmonica's would show more damage --- Love bottleneck slide guitars... I don't play one myself, but they are so, so beautiful. My guitar is a Taylor from the 400 series... it is a smaller bodied guitar but with some beautiful and rich sounds...... I saved for it and it is definitely my baby. I believe the hearing problems I am having are directly related to the bands I played in for years! Since I sang lead and played, I was often standing directly in front of the drums (no shield there) and bass amps......
This trigger has taken the ability to sing out loud and that kills me... but I can still play beautiful music with my fingers. The problem is that I have always sang (except when writing songs) while playing so I find myself wanting to sing and hum, which then brings tremendous pain.