Today's Sheinelle Jones Opens Up About Not Being Able to Speak After Vocal Surgery

Sheinelle Jones is opening up about the aftermath of the vocal surgery that didn't allow her to speak for three weeks.

In this week's issue of PEOPLE, the 3rd Hour of Today co-host details the agonizing recovery process — and how she found peace in being still.

Having suffered from hoarseness on and off for years, Jones made the decision to undergo a procedure in February to remove a vocal fold polyp, after which she had to rest her voice for almost a month.

“It was very hard to slow my mind down,” she says. “I’m trying to find the grace in it.”

• For more from Sheinelle Jones, pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday

On Feb. 24, Jones underwent the 90-minute procedure while under general anesthesia.

“When I came out of surgery, I remember hearing myself say, ‘I’m awake. I’m awake,’ ” she recalls. “And I kept hearing someone say, ‘Sheinelle, please stop talking, sweetheart.’ ”

Overwhelmed with gratitude, Jones burst into tears. “All I could think about was my promising my kids that I was going to be awake,” she says. “And I heard my voice.”

For the next three weeks, Jones — who spent the first five days post-surgery alone in a hotel room to rest and recover — used a whiteboard to communicate with her husband, Uche Ojeh, and their children: Kayin, 10, and twins Uche and Clara Josephine, 7.

“Relaxing was a lot harder than I thought it would be,” she admits. “I kept joking with everybody at work that I was going to write and read and reflect, but I honestly spent the first three days just anxious.”

After six weeks of recovery, she returned to Today on April 6, albeit remote while self-isolating with her family in South Carolina, a planned getaway the family extended indefinitely in the wake of COVID-19.

“I can’t wait to be reunited with my work family,” says Jones.

Now, the co-host, who continues to do vocal therapy and exercises before every show, says she's grateful to have her voice back — and has learned from her weeks of silence.

“It was a time I will never forget,” she says. “When you’re still, you’re able to hear what other people are telling you, and you’re able to hear the little whispers inside of you. It just puts everything in perspective.”