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19-year-old Felicia Sabartinelli loved communicating with people. She was a Communications major in college and took every opportunity she had to talk to and foster relationships with the people around her.
Sabartinelli loved using her voice – but at that point, she’d already had a long history of contracting upper respiratory infections. Her tonsils were constantly swollen and required draining, and after her condition was seen by a specialist, Sabartinelli realized she would have to have a tonsillectomy – sooner rather than later.
The surgery was scheduled for a week just before Sabartinelli had to return to school for the fall. It left her just enough time to recover enough to speak and participate in class and ample time for her to prepare for her musical audition.
Sabartinelli’s surgery came and went uneventfully, as did her week of recovery. But her voice never came back.
A few days after her allotted week of recovery, Sabartinelli attended a karaoke night with her friends. The event left her with a “small tear” in her tonsils, and a few more days of recovery to get over this fresh injury.
Sabartinelli’s doctor, however, wasn’t overly concerned. He believed she would still get better after a few more days of rest.
But the days stretched on. School began, the musical auditions came and went. Three weeks passed since Sabartinelli’s procedure, but her voice never returned.
It was then that Sabartinelli returned to her doctor and had her do some tongue exercises and attempt to say different words and sounds to determine the problem. Sabartinelli felt humiliated that she couldn’t make sounds even a two-year-older could make.
The doctor was, however, finally able to determine that they may have scheduled Sabartinelli’s tonsillectomy a little too soon. The inflamed tonsils had been removed too soon, and the procedure ended up shifting Sabartinelli’s entire palate, essentially forcing her to relearn how to speak.
Now, months later, Sabartinelli has regained use of her voice, but she’s been told that she’ll never be able to sing again. “Part of me wishes that I could go back,” she admitted, “I wish I hadn’t jumped in without knowing all the answers.”
