omygosh thank you girls for all the wonderful comments!!! As I just told Shantel in a PM, I haven't even gotten out of bed and my day has already been made
Nicolette, to answer your questions-
There is still a month of recovery to go, I am probably at about 50% right now as it's been just over a month since the operation. Right now I am not allowed to sing at all (they say don't sing whatsoever until the 2-3 month mark) because singing and yelling put a huge amount of vibrational stress on the vocal chords- so much that it could actually stretch the surgical area and risk undoing the surgery. In exactly one month I begin these range building vocal exercises that they taught me how to do at my follow up exam right before I left Korea. They are supposed to improve my range, resonance, and control over my voice. I guess I am not expecting to have much of a singing voice until I've been doing the vocal exercises for a while. Some of the exercises include up/down sweeps and making various noises at different pitches. Kind of standard stuff for anyone wanting to increase the range of their voice. And to answer your last concern, the quality of one's voice is not altered with this surgery- it is only the pitch. As you can hopefully tell there is no falsetto sound in my voice and it is effortless to keep it at the 215hz fundamental frequency. It is actually hard to talk in any other range. If I do try to talk in a lower pitch, my voice bottoms out around 155hz and it sounds like I am trying to be silly.
Neko- hahaha how appropriate. You want to steal my voice?? Well I am sorry to say but I am already human and have no desire to be anything else. Nor would I trade my voice for anything! I've already experienced not talking and I do not wish to go back!
girl you look fierce- I know exactly what you are talking about. I don't know if you can notice it in the recording, but there is still a hint of resistance in my voice.. i.e. it is not up to full volume yet and does take a little bit more air to make a noise. I expect the color and timbre of my voice to change greatly in another month and especially another year when I am able to completely relax my throat and apply resonance the way that I like to. I have a feeling that it will always sound a little childlike, though, that is just my voice
Thanks again to everyone who chimed in, you really have no idea how happy all these comments have made me about my decision to try this surgery. Hopefully these accounts are helpful for you and others. Dr. Kim does incredible work and I hope that this thread gives other people the information and confidence they might need to decide to go through with it as well. It was definitely a little bit nerve wracking not having a nice big source of info on it and I did feel quite a few unknowns popping up (especially about the recovery), and that is part of the reason why I'm trying to be so detailed here!
