My own State of the Union - still looking for voice answers

ajc.com

Credit: Jamie Dupree

Credit: Jamie Dupree

As we await tonight's State of the Union Address, it's a good time to address my own personal State of the Union - as I still get a lot of questions from listeners and readers about whether my voice is making any comeback - almost three years after it mysteriously went haywire, knocking me off the radio.

Looking back in my story files, three years ago today, I was on the campaign trail in New Hampshire covering an event for then-candidate Donald Trump, as he tried to bounce back from a second place finish in Iowa just a few days before.

At that time, there was nothing wrong with my voice, nothing amiss with my health. But about eight weeks later, that would all change, and to this day - my many doctors still aren't able to tell me what went wrong, or how it can be fixed.

In 2018, I flew down to Atlanta to visit Dr. Hyder Jinnah at the Emory Brain Health Center, where we looked at a variety of treatment options.

TV cameras went along with me over a number of months, and you can watch the report from Emory's Jaye Watson, on her program, 'Your Fantastic Mind,' which aired Monday night on Georgia Public Television.

I want to thank Dr. Jinnah for his help. We both knew going into this that finding a solution for what is known as 'lingual dystonia' was not going to be as simple as taking a few pills.

The injections of Botox into my tongue were painless, but they didn't help. The second round of shots - with more strength than the first - caused me swallowing problems for about a month, but they didn't help my voice.

Thanks to Jaye Watson for a great story, and to the folks at Emory's Brain Health Center for all their help.

If you are hearing me on the radio, that's because of help from my company, Cox Media Group, which found a voice company in Scotland - CereProc - which took years of my recorded archives, and produced a computer generated voice, which I can combine with a text-to-speech program, to get back on the air.

You can find some of my daily extended reviews - in my Jamie Dupree 2.0 voice - here.