WCMH chief meteorologist Dave Mazza told viewers he’ll be off the air for a bit after undergoing back-to-back surgeries on Monday.
Mazza said that he will first be having a procedure to correct his “fairly deviated septum.”
“Mine is grossly pushed to one side of my nose on the inside, making it nearly impossible to breathe out of one side of my nose,” Mazza said. “Even at this moment, the ‘good side of my nose’ on a good day feels like I have mild congestion, the ‘bad side’ feels like I could maybe get 5-10% of air through if I tried real hard.
Mazza said the second procedure will be a laser vocal cord polyp surgery.
“It might be hard to notice on air because I wear a microphone on my tie, but basically since December I have been having issues with a raspy voice, and at times a sore-ish throat because I have been pushing my voice a bit to compensate,” Mazza said. “I have worked with an expert on voice therapy to make the vocal cords stronger, but I have a bump (I don’t know exactly what the ENT would call it) on one of my vocal cords. It is small, but he is going to remove it after my first surgery.”
Mazza said he thinks he’ll be cleared to be back to work on Tuesday, May 23.
For the vocal cord surgery, he won’t be able to use his voice for several days.
“I do now know exactly how long I will be instructed to be quiet, and will find out after surgery next week,” Mazza said. “So if you see me somewhere, I will likely wave and smile, but will not be vocal. I also will likely be wearing some cool bandages on my nose for a week.”