All About Adele’s Vocal Hemorrhages (Yes, Really)

A few days ago, Adele took to her blog to explain exactly why all her U.S. tour dates have been canceled. (She’d first rescheduled in June, midway through her U.S. tour, and—as Vulture puts it—“once again, she’s not coming.”)

In her blog, Adele explains that, in January, her voice became “weaker and weaker until it eventually ‘broke.'” Try as she might, Adele was never quite able to regain her voice’s “complete strength,” she writes.

And as for the canceled dates in June?

I was in Minneapolis, which was about halfway through the tour. I made a Skype call in the morning on the day of the show, and during it, my voice suddenly switched off like a light! It was literally as if someone pulled a curtain over my throat.

She went on to perform in Denver, during which she felt “what I can only describe as something ripping in my throat.” But this isn’t a simple case of laryngitis—otolaryngologists diagnosed Adele with a “vocal hemorrhage,” she writes, “which is like a black eye on the vocal cord.”

The Wall Street Journal‘s Speakeasy did a little investigative legwork, and sure enough, a hemorrhage in the vocal folds will typically produce “instantaneous hoarseness,” explains Kenneth Altman of Mount Sinai.

Bleurgh, and there’s more.

Terrifyingly,

The cause is a bleed from a microscopic blood vessel in the cord, most commonly in the jelly-like layer directly under the skin. That can “impair the vibration” of the cord, which is what changes the voice, says Altman. If the blood isn’t reabsorbed, it can form a polyp and cause scarring that can permanently affect the vibration of the vocal cords, he says.

Vocal cord hemorrhages, like other voice issues, can be caused or exacerbated by voice overuse, acid reflux, cigarette smoking, alcohol use, lack of hydration, allergies and other issues, says Altman.

The treatment is “strict voice rest until it resolves” and then careful voice use after it’s healed to prevent a repeat injury, says Altman.

Wow. So basically, Adele either takes it easy or potentially ruins her voice forever. This has to be a very distressing prognosis for Adele, whose fans clamor to hear her perform live. Worse, her latest tour cancellation has been met with due skepticism, since she’s notorious for bailing on tour dates.

But most importantly, in a 2009 interview, Adele copped to cigarette smoking—a pack-and-a-half a day! Uh. Hopefully she’s quit by now.