Bruised/damaged my vocal chords?

[Vitamin C]

So a couple weeks back I got cranked pretty good with a RNC. No big deal, but then over the next few days around the top of my larynx became increasingly tender. My voice was fine, but it would hurt to speak and swallow, like I had an acutely sore throat.
Fast forward a week, and it's not as bad, but still a little tender. We work on loop chokes in class, and my larynx takes another good beating from being smashed fast and hard. Since then, about a week and a half, maybe two, my voice has been ridiculously low. I sound like Andre The Giant. Everyone thinks I have some kind of horrible cold, but I really don't. It's starting to get back to normal now it seems.
I'm not worried, just curious. Has this ever happened to anyone here? What is the physiology of the damage? How long does it last?

 

[T1JG3R BR34D]

Tap out sooner.

Happened to me after a night of just guillotines. My partner rolled when i wasn't expecting it, so i got my windpipe tweaked pretty hard. The pain and voice problems were instant. Took about 5 days for it to go away.
Now it only happens when i'm trying to be tough, or when someone doesn't have the choke in tight enough before cranking it (usually new guys). It's easier just to tap out and tell them whats up, than to suffer and work out of it.

 

[Vitamin C]

I've learned my lesson on tapping sooner long before this. I tapped A.S.A.P. The dude is just crazy intense, strong as hell, and squeezes like he's trying to be Marcelo. His angle was off a bit, so instead of flush across my carotids, he caught some of my trachea. He is much more skilled than me, and I fault neither of us in it. Injuries happen. This guy is one of the best in my school to roll with, especially if you want to emulate competition, which he is almost perpetually training for. Basically tapping isn't the issue, I'm not a goon, it's more like I should be defending my neck better.
But like I said, I'm not complaining, I'm just curious about what minor damage can cause the voice to lower so dramatically. Mine has been for much longer than 5 days.

 

[Mad Sweeps]

its just your wind pipe. it will get better. I know if I get caught in a 10 finger and cannot break out quick enough, I will have some pain for a while. youre fine.

 

[Vitamin C]

Again, I'm not in terrible pain. It is mildly tender if I poke at it, but on a medical pain scale I'd say its >1. This is not what I'm concerned about. I'm not concerned at all in fact.
The lowered voice is dramatic though. It's like a rumble. People don't recognise me on the phone. Going on two weeks strong I'm just becoming curious about what would potentially cause vocal chords to react in this way, and if anyone else has ever experienced a lowered voice, with almost zero pain as a result of a hard choke.

 

[JoLOveS]

Go see an ENT and stop asking for medical advice on sherdog. Unless you want us to critique you grammar, there isn't much anyone can do here.

 

[ILikeDogging]

I would go to the doctor. Whilst it' possible you have just bruised the muscles of the larynx you could have damaged this baby, Recurrent laryngeal nerve - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . Although it's unlikely you should probably get checked out to be sure.

 

[Vitamin C]

Oh man, that's that awesome nerve that's 15 feet long in giraffes. Richard Dawkins based an argument for evolution on it, as it's length is so redundant that no intelligent designer would ever have implemented it, and instead just wired the nerve from the brain to the larynx for the giraffe. Interesting stuff.

Yeah... Ok, so no one has ever had this happen then eh? Just thought it would make for some interesting grappling related stories or whatnot. I was never asking for advice or diagnoses, just trivia.
Let's all go talk about why rolling with women is wrong or argue the merits of closed guard over open guard again.

 

[JoLOveS]

Dude, don't take it the wrong way as I had an event on my very first jiu jitsu class we drilled collar chokes the next day I couldn't talk and I almost quit JJ because of it. I went to the ENT and he told me I had an infection and the chokes were not the cause just pure coincidence, but unless I would have gone to a doctor I woulda quit jj prematurely.

 

[lechien]

I know 2 guys that now have a deeper voice for not tapping early to rnc.

 

[Fencer]

That happened to me before. Got choked hard, didn't feel much pain, but then noticed at the end of class I couldn't speak. Kind of freaked me out at first

I went to the ER, nurses made fun of me a bit, and they did an X-ray. There's some bone in there that they were saying you could in theory break. In my case it was fine and my voice came back over time.

 

[GroundGameFan]

Happened to me after a night of just guillotines. My partner rolled when i wasn't expecting it, so i got my windpipe tweaked pretty hard. The pain and voice problems were instant. Took about 5 days for it to go away.
Now it only happens when i'm trying to be tough, or when someone doesn't have the choke in tight enough before cranking it (usually new guys). .

Exactly this happened to me a couple months ago. Now I tap very quickly if the guillotine is primarily on the throat not the neck.

It's easier just to tap out and tell them whats up, than to suffer and work out of it.

This too.

 

[Dwide Schrude]

Just something that takes getting used to.

I don't know the science behind it, but yeah you get choked a lot and your throat will get hurt. You did it all the time and your throat just gets used to it I guess.

 

[dan.jlee]

Hey, I have the same issue with me right now. Did your voice and vocal range eventually recover?

 

[mattemate]

I did my masters in speech/language pathology. I had a guy break my damn hyoid bone as I tried to adjust his RNC. THAT was no fun.

I was aware of the literature and the outcomes/risks of surgery so I just left it to heal on its own, which it did eventually.

It sounds like you've damaged some of the general structures and maybe the cartilage, or even a tendon.

The deeper voice could be from the inability of the structures to contract as tightly. Need more information to pinpoint it, but likely something is preventing your vocal folds from tightening as much as normal.

The larynx and pharynx are very delicate structures.

As long as you're breathing and swallowing fine and not experience pain or discomfort, I would monitor it, avoid letting anyone touch your neck (no more loop chokes even drilling for a while) and if it hasn't made some progress in a couple weeks then seek out an ENT for assessment.

Just like any other damaged muscle or joint, give it a chance to heal first.

 

[mattemate]

Hey, I have the same issue with me right now. Did your voice and vocal range eventually recover?

Dammit just realized this is a Necro thread.
See my comment above lol