Strain/Swelling or damage?

[Sun]

Hi,

I did some strenuous singing, spent some time outside etc and later went to band practise. When I was singing I found I could no longer sing with distortion, and my voice began skipping in pitch etc against my will.

Now an hour after or so, I find that I can control my voice and did some light mix/curbing phonations up to A4 without problems, but I notice if I sing a soft head voice/neutral I seem to have trouble getting the folds to adduct. They just won't adduct properly and sounds a bit scratchy (not all the time though).

I'm wondering if I've caused vocal damage or if the cords are just swollen from strain/dehydration, other notable changes is weather; it's turned extremley cold recently and I've failed to drink sufficient amounts of water. Also the past two or three days I've strained the voice more than usual.

Right now I'm gonna stay completley silent for 48 hours while staying warm/humid drinking water etc. If I after this waiting period still have problems adducting in a light voice, is it time to go to ENT? It just seems unlikely that I would f.ex. get nodules just like that, I mean I was singing as usual just earlier today, but I was straining a bit and then I went out in the extreme cold.

Opinions?

[Sun]

To anyone reading this, I've been silent for 60 hours or so now and tried some singing.

The pitch is no longer skipping, my tiger roar (distortion) is back and I seem to be able to adduct in the light voice again, so it was probably just some swelling. I'll probably do another 24 hours of silence just to make sure the swelling is completely gone.

Lesson: Never strain - ever ever ever. Ever. Ever.