“When I got my voice back, that’s when the cough came,” Shulund said.

The Hamilton woman went to doctor after doctor. “I’ve had every kind of test in the world trying to stop this cough.”

Finally, she visited Dr. Eric Stern, a pulmonologist in Missoula. Shulund said that right away, Stern told her he couldn’t help her because he believed the cough was connected to her vocal cords, not her lungs. And he asked her to see Slovarp, “Dr. Laurie.”

“She was kind of funny,” Shulund said. “She said, ‘I heard you coming down the hall. I heard you breathing.’”

Slovarp taught Shulund correct breathing and showed her some exercises. After just three or so sessions, Shlund said she had learned to stop her cough.

“It’s a whole new lease on life,” she said.

She went to a movie with her children in Arizona and sat through it without having a coughing fit and stumbling through the dark to try to leave the theater.

“I even talked to my husband the other day and said, 'I think I’m ready to go to the movie theater and see a movie here,'” Shulund said.