Pre-op went well. They had some modification to the usual instructions for me, but I'm on track. For example I take my blood pressure meds before the surgery.
They have some modern equipment here but some of the basic ones tended to not behave, like the blood pressure cuff. Anyway after a few tries they were good to go.
I went in a dress and that was probably a mistake as I had to undress for EKG and chest X-Ray and wear a pair of pants in the exam room. However it was no big deal really. Dr Kim said wear whatever I want.
They did the whole comprehensive exam. They are extremely thorough, going through every last little detail. Dr Kim did the whole "camera up nose" thing to take pics of my vocal folds but also had to make me stick out my tongue for the endoscopy. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, just a little ticklish and I had to try not to gag when they did the one via the mouth.
Jessie was there all the way and was really super nice. She had to interpret for the assistants who only spoke Korean.
I have tremors and Dr Kim showed me that. I also have asymmetry. So I do get the botox next Friday as well. He showed me videos of Jenny and the Korean girl as well as some others of normal vocal folds to illustrate the issues I was having. He explained everything very well. When they did the air volume test I had like 4x the air volume of a normal person, which is expected since I have trained myself to project my voice for public speaking and radio.
My Fo was 160Hz, "trained" voice was 190Hz and lowest was about 140Hz. At 190Hz I was almost breaking to falsetto he was saying. This is a surprise as it's higher than I thought. I think since going full time I have been raising my voice subconsciously. He said I would get anywhere from 205 to 270Hz post op but to just speak naturally so I don't go too too high. He said I will definitely be female range but he wants me to train for the middle. I joked and said that not even he could make me sound like Mariah Carey... but I will try! He laughed.
He asks a lot of questions, how do you train your voice, do you sing etc. He also asked about how long I've been transitioned, living full time etc.
I know in the past people had concerns about misgendering by the staff but I had none of them. Jessie referred to me as "miss <my passport name>" as soon as I came in. I told her I go by (Kate) now and she asked what should she call me. Nobody misgendered me, at least not in English. One of the assistants thought my mom was there for the op and not me, lol (and my mom is obviously cisgender).
One more thing, my mom was a nurse in the ENT ward for many years and she was there with me for my consultation. Dr Kim called her in as well to help me understand. It's really nice if you go with someone, especially someone who knows.
