All choked up

Today was week 1 of voice therapy.  (Don't worry, those who anticipated a post about dishwashing detergent.  I'll get to it.  I just didn't today.)  My voice has had issues for several years, particularly over the last few months though.  Previous posts show the vascular lesion on my left true vocal fold and describe the muscle tension dysphonia I also "enjoy".  Today I got a new piece of information.  My throat is pretty messed up, lol.

Just below the jaw bones on the throat is the hyoid bone.  Then there's a space of muscles and membrane followed (in a downward path) by the voice box.  My muscles are so tensed up that there is no proper space between the hyoid and voice box.  I have to massage daily the space between the two and try to relax the muscles and move the voice box back and down to where it belongs.  Mostly I just feel like I'm trying to choke myself and I have bruises which are not liking me a lot.  After a few minutes though I can start to feel a bit of a space between the two.  The whole below-the-jaw space (bottom of the tongue) is very tight too so I also have to massage there.
Besides the bruise-inducing massages I am working on moving my voice out of my throat into my mouth.  My throat is trying to create all the resonance instead of taking advantage of the resonant qualities that should be relied on in the mouth.  A lot of it is just plain relaxation.
I'll be interested as this is treated to see if/how much it affects my dysphagia (difficulty swallowing).  Along with several other hallmark traits of MTD, dysphagia can certainly be an issue.  This may be part of the reason I had a 'clear' scope recently (meaning my esophagus didn't need a lot of dilation) even though I was having lots of trouble swallowing.
Right now I'm going to make a bold move and try going to sleep at 10:30.  Should be a blast :)  Two more doctor's appointments tomorrow and a lot of dishes waiting their turn!