Why does diane rehm sound so old

Search Query Show Search. Printable Schedule. Show Search Search Query. Play Live Radio. Next Up:. Available On Air Stations. All Streams. John was a Renaissance man who taught me so much about music, history, literature, and science. He had a fabulous education and literally became my teacher [and later my husband]. REHM: After staying at home for 14 years raising two wonderful children, I realized they would soon be gone.

My husband had his career, but what was I going to do? Within two weeks of finishing that course, a friend of mine said she was volunteering at the tiny little station—WAMU—on the campus of American University [Washington, D. So I decided to volunteer too. On my very first day, the talk-show host was out sick. The manager was going to do the program and invited me into the studio to help.

For 90 minutes we interviewed a representative of the Dairy Council. I was so excited at having had this opportunity and I had asked some challenging questions. My mother died from liver cancer when I was 19, and my father died of a broken heart 11 months after my mother passed away.

I wanted to know why, and there were no answers. REHM: By being concise. Your career as a radio host depends on your voice, which was afflicted by a rare condition called spasmodic dysphonia. How did you deal with that? It started with a cough, a tiny little cough.

I went from doctor to doctor to doctor, all of whom kept putting tubes down my throat. I think the insertion of those tubes did not help my condition.

The last day I was on the air was in February Back at WAMU, she broke down. He never once failed me. But Rehm finally found her way to him at the recommendation of her internist, two months after taking her leave from the show. Flint made a fairly quick diagnosis: spasmodic dysphonia. The treatment is this: injections of Botox — botulinum toxin — directly into the vocal cords. First a needle in the throat to kill pain, then the toxin to paralyze the cords.

And this doctor is so gentle and careful, and has now determined how much painkiller I need…. The Botox, in spite of the painkiller, because he has to move the needle around, hurts more, and sometimes it hurts a lot, and sometimes it hurts much less. The first two times, she lost her voice completely. It took six weeks the first time and four weeks the second to recover adequately for broadcasting.

Rehm has with her speech therapist Susan Miller started a support group for people with spasmodic dysphonia.

The two women expected 15 to 20 people for the first meeting and got 40 instead. Some can seldom utter more than a syllable. Rehm now talks about her work for SD awareness as a calling. It has its trademark see-saw expressiveness, but more importantly, clarity and a lot of strength. Rehm expresses gratitude for her radio career. She had thought it was over, she says. Despite a recent Washington Post article which seemed to suggest Rehm wants to retire in a year or two, Rehm says no.