I lost my voice

So, as the title says, I lost my voice.

Until this summer, I had never lost my voice. Sure, after screaming for hours at a concert, my throat would be a little sore, but I had never really LOST MY VOICE until this July, and it's happened a few times since then.

1st time- ~July 16-17- I had a sore throat, but I could talk perfectly fine. Then, I woke up the next day and I could hardly talk (although my throat wasn't sore). Of course, I still had to go to work (I was a camp counselor). Imagine the fun morning I had trying to teach swim lessons when I could hardly talk. The afternoon was a little better; I was in arts & crafts, and I used the good old pen-and-notebook method (that method doesn't really work when you're teaching swim lessons; the notebook gets wet; plus the kids wouldn't be able to see that when they're at the other side of the pool).

2nd time- ~August 29-31- I had a sore throat, and I could hardly talk. It turns out I had strep throat (isn't that fun?) and I was lucky I got the drugs from the doctor before school started on September 2nd.

3rd time- December 12-14(+?)- On Friday (12), during the day I felt okay. But after swim practice, I was feeling pretty stuffy. I could hardly breathe through my nose (which makes swimming rather difficult); it felt like my whole head was just filled with snot (okay, gross, I know), and I was extremely tired; I went to bed at 10:30 (which is pretty early for a Friday night for me). I woke up yesterday (Saturday, 13) at 9:45 (11 hours of sleep) and felt exactly 0% better. In lieu of doing anything productive, I sat around and watched TV and did friendship bracelets and wasted time in other ways (although I *did* work on some college essays for about an hour). I went to sleep last night at 11:00 (still not feeling any better) and woke up this morning at like 8:30. Yeah. I know. I can breathe now (sort of...), and I feel a little better, but I've lost my voice. I can't really talk, and it sucks.

What I've noticed about losing my voice is that I tend to do a lot more thinking. If I have something to say, I always think about it before I say it. And then if I DO have to talk, I always feel exhausted after. When you lose your voice, talking sucks.

There's a swim meet tomorrow, and I sincerely hope I'm better by then.