was back on the job in China, but his voice, while no longer spasming, was weak, breathy and raspy. Because his vocal cords were farther apart than before due to the surgery, he also had to push out more air to make sounds. As a result, he got light- headed when he talked for an extended time and often felt exhausted. Sometimes he pretended to be Marlon Brando in The Godfather to lighten the mood, but after months, it became increasingly difficult to carry out his work duties. Finally he bowed to the inevitable, quitting his job and taking a year off to travel and fully recover. He channeled some of his creative energy into a blog, SpasmodicDysphoniaSurgery.com, about his up- and-down recuperation. “Dr. Berke and his team told me it would take up to eight months to get my voice back to normal, but I selectively heard ‘two months,’” he says. Now, three years post-surgery, Laurence is in charge of marketing at FeeX, a New York startup, and his voice, to his great joy, is no longer an issue. “I don’t have to measure my words anymore, and I’m back to the fun-loving person I was a long time ago,” he brags. His only regret: going back to work too soon, without giving his body sufficient time to heal. WE LISTEN IN AWE TO THE SOUNDS emanating from the mouths of a Joan Sutherland or Luciano Pavarotti and marvel at how these We listen in awe to the sounds emanating from the mouths of a Joan Sutherland or Luciano Pavarotti and marvel at how these vocal titans play their voices like fantastic musical instruments. U MAGAZINE 21