where oh where has my little voice gone?

oh where oh where can she be? yes, it's true. i am speechless. not from awe, not from shock, but from illness. complete lack of voice. very surreal. i've had times before where my voice has been reduced to squeaky or hoarse tones, but never total loss before. sam is having way too much fun with this. on Tuesday, i woke up with a slightly scratchy throat, but nothing too terrible. i took some cough syrup and headed out to work - my marathon day of teaching: 5 lessons beginning at 9am and finishing at 10pm. as the day wore on the throat began protesting a bit at being used so much - that's one drawback of my job at times like this, a lot talking comes with the territory. by the end of the day, my three-hour Intermediate class, i could tell i was going to regret the busy day i had had. the voice was beginning to get hoarse and sparse, but still was at least there. i reached home an hour later and sam greeted me. i tried to respond and nothing came out. literally. nothing. a few more tries and i got a slight whisper. barely. in addition to vocal loss i pretty much felt like doing nothing but sleeping. although one interruption in the a fore-mentioned sleep in order to involuntarily purge all the contents of my stomach did actually improve my comfort considerably. so yes, yesterday was not a good day. today am i feeling somewhat better. i am awake. i've opened the windows and put on my coat and scarf to enjoy some fresh air. but no matter how hard i try, i still can't speak in anything more than a raspy whisper. which effectively cancels any thoughts i had about going back to work today. funny how just last week i was thinking about how healthy i had been for a long time. couldn't even remember when last i had been sick. shame on me.