Q. I am a singer. I have sore throat and unable to sing or even speak normally. Please advice.

Hello doctor,

I am a 21 year old male and I have been suffering from sore throat for 2 and a half months now. It all started in late December. I am a singer, and I came down with a very light cold. Due to the weather, I had a light sore throat. During this time, I had to sing and speak loudly with friends, as it was the holidays. While the other symptoms shortly subsided, my throat has been raw ever since and it has left me unable to sing or even speak normally. 

During my initial medical visit, I was given a week's worth of Amoxicillin, which had no effect. A month or so later, I decided to visit my ENT specialist. He conducted a nasal/sinus and throat exam and noted my deviated nasal septum and "turbinate hypertrophy" in my nose. As for my throat, he noted no signs of nodules but "mild erythema of interarytenoid mucosa around the larynx". Basically, he told me to try Prilosec and steroid sprays. Well, I am pretty young, very thin, and have no real history of reflux but I took the Prilosec (Omeprazole) for a few days, I noticed no effect except for constipation. When I stopped the Prilosec, the constipation went away. I then resumed it for an additional two days and the constipation returned, so I quit altogether. The steroid sprays and Claritin did indeed helped clear my nose somewhat, but it had no effect on my throat. Next, in frustration, I returned to my family doctor and this time asked him if a steroid might do the trick. He prescribed 2.5mg of Prednisolone to be taken twice daily for 5 days. It is coming up on day 4 now, and sadly, I cannot say I have noticed any change. I am kind of at a loss for what to do. My family doctor says I probably just irritated my throat, but 3 months in, I am desperate to resume singing and speaking normally. My voice is a quiet, weak thing now and it hurts to carry on conversation for longer than a minute or so. Lower pitches are the most comfortable for me to speak in, anything else and I feel air hitting the back of my throat and a sandpapery feeling that is very uncomfortable. I am really frustrated here. I am going to request a throat culture this week, but apart from that, I really do not know what to do.

Please help.

Thank you for the quick response doctor.

Does the voice rest mean complete silence? Or am I allowed to speak somewhat? I have not tried singing for the past one month. Isn't that enough?