Booked With Haben

[Lunarain]

Anybody else get the feeling like a hair was stuck in your throat?

It's the dissolveable suture I'm sure. I had that sensation for a few days when it was dissolving.

[Cadence Jean]

Cool, that makes me feel a bit better. I remember a dissolvable suture poking out from my BA incision for a couple weeks or more. Probably the same deal here.  I can feel it a hit now, but not nearly as much when it must have first "sprung".

How did y'all take care of your throats? Any special drinks, concoctions, etc? In the past few days, I've taken to drinking a blended tea that has a substantial amount of slippery elm in it. I'm putting raw honey and ground ginger into it. I'm also taking the honey by itself at time. I'm having a couple honey and propolis based lozenges a day. I haven't noticed much difference, but it's only been a couple days and I like the stuff anyway. 🙂

[anjaq]

I avoided ginger at first because I felt it was too spicy. I bought honey with gelee royale though and licked on it and mixed a herbal tea with salvia and thyme and some other things that are also good for colds. I drank a lot of the Aloe drinks they sold here at Asia stores - preferrable organic and fructose-syrup free 😉 . If it was really sore from overuse, ice cream also helped.

[Lunarain]

Cadence, I had my surgery several weeks before you and I've had the toughest recovery I'm aware of due to the fact that I'm an extreme sweller! I'm now only starting to regain my voice 7 weeks post-op! Oh BTW, since you mentioned earlier, Dr. Haben also told me that he sutured up my vocal chords by 50%! When he saw my eyeballs popping out of their sockets in shock, he said "Well, it's more like 40%." I hope he knew what he was doing. LOL... Here's a link to my thread.

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,190269.new.html#new

[Cadence Jean]

Thanks for sharing your experience, Luna! I posted a full reply in your thread. 🙂

I think I'll wait until Wednesday to post a sound clip. That will be my four week mark. I've actually not recorded voice a D played it back to myself yet. I've been told it sounds pretty good, underneath the whole "sounds like you have a bad cold"  hoarseness. 🙂

[Cadence Jean]

Alright, without further ado, here's my voice as of today, something like seven weeks after surgery:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1GCdp9YxdDc

As the weeks go by, I'm happier and happier with the results.  VFS was definitely worth the monetary and emotional price!!

For any easier side by side comparison, here are my befores:

The (in)famous Rainbow Passage in my daily speaking voice: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1sSyKAXjFcc

The passage in my "relaxed" voice that I no longer use(except to freak people out! lol): http://vocaroo.com/i/s1ShlOrkxg8V

I am astounded at the difference between my before relaxed and my present voice.  Haben is a miracle worker!!!!

[runaway]

Alright, without further ado, here's my voice as of today, something like seven weeks after surgery:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1GCdp9YxdDc

As the weeks go by, I'm happier and happier with the results.  VFS was definitely worth the monetary and emotional price!!

For any easier side by side comparison, here are my befores:

The (in)famous Rainbow Passage in my daily speaking voice: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1sSyKAXjFcc

The passage in my "relaxed" voice that I no longer use(except to freak people out! lol): http://vocaroo.com/i/s1ShlOrkxg8V

I am astounded at the difference between my before relaxed and my present voice.  Haben is a miracle worker!!!!

Hi Cadence, thanks for posting those recordings! I was set on Yeson before, but I'm seriously considering Dr. Haben as an alternative, since I can get a tracheal shave at the same time, which Yeson doesn't do.

Right now your voice sounds firmly on the female side of androgynous to me. Congratulations!

May I ask why you decided to have the CTA procedure too? I'm on the fence about this due to its invasive nature, but I don't want to regret not getting it either.

[Cadence Jean]

Hi there, Runaway!  I went with the CTA because I figured, why not? lol  I desperately needed the trach shave anyway, and others on here who had the CTA with Haben sounded great to me.  I don't sing(except in my car or during Rockband gaming) or play any instruments.  From what I've read, the CTA isn't so much to raise the pitch, as to kill the ability to drop the voice down into chest voice.  My understanding is that the sutures and cartilage kinda stretch over the recovery period anyway, so you lose some of the pitch increase.  But you still retain that inability to drop it low.  I would have an issue with my voice dropping low when I was tired or, haha, drunk! lol  So, I figured I should probably go with the full monty cuz he was going in there for the trach shave anyway and it was being thrown in anyway.  Haben did mention that the CTA procedure forces the larynx cartilage forward more, which makes the adam's apple jut out more.  He said he would shave as much as he could so that this wouldn't be a problem.  Immediately after surgery, my neck was flat!  And even after much of the swelling has gone down and the skin has tightened up around my larynx, it's still damn flat. XD

I'm not sure how much the CTA contributes to this, but when I now try to "talk from my chest", I only succeed in sounding like a woman trying to imitate a man. lol  VFS is frickin awesome.   I was discouraged at times during the healing process and with some of the difficulty that I had finding my new voice, but now that somet ime has passed and I've experimented and gotten to a comfortable speaking arrangement with between my diaphragm, larynx, and head, I'm so very happy with my results. 🙂

[runaway]

Thanks Cadence! It sure doesn't hurt that Dr. Haben's triple procedure with accommodation costs about as much as Yeson charges just for the glottoplasty.

Apart from slight brow bossing and broad shoulders (quickly shrinking from HRT-induced muscle loss), my voice and adam's apple has been my only real problem with passing. In fact, I never used my trained voice in public, because it's just so inconsistent, strained, and monotone because it's at the edge of my vocal range.

My voice was low and husky before puberty, and it only became more so when it broke. I think HRT has thinned out my vocal folds slightly so my comfortable pitch is now around 120-130hz, as opposed to the 90-110hz it used to be in the past.

This will be my first surgical procedure and my first time under general anesthetic. I'm apprehensive, excited and nervous all at once, so I really, really appreciate you sharing your experience and results. 🙂

[Cadence Jean]

Certainly! I think it's important that us in the trans community share our experiences and offer support to each other. I know this won't stop you from worrying, but I have to say: you will be in great hands! Everyone was great. The drivers, the front desk Staffan Haben's office and at the surgery center) , the nurses, the anesthesiologist. They were all amazing and made an effort to allay my concerns and quell my fears. I felt confident and positive going into surgery!

[Dena]

Certainly! I think it's important that us in the trans community share our experiences and offer support to each other. I know this won't stop you from worrying, but I have to say: you will be in great hands! Everyone was great. The drivers, the front desk Staffan Haben's office and at the surgery center) , the nurses, the anesthesiologist. They were all amazing and made an effort to allay my concerns and quell my fears. I felt confident and positive going into surgery!

Add to that the hotel. I have never stayed in a full service hotel before and when I had a transportation need, the front desk took care of it. When I walked out for a taxi or the ride to the hospital the front desk pointed me to the person who would give me the ride. Note that I would go to the lobby almost half an hour early for my ride and they were there already waiting. I was never late for anything and always early.

[Cadence Jean]

Yes, the Marriott was great as well!

[runaway]

Dena & Cadence, thanks to the both of you, I think I'm set on Dr. Haben! I'll be sure to post my experience and recordings too when my time comes.

My mother was going to accompany me in Seoul since I was worried about dealing with recovery alone, but that shouldn't be a problem with the hotel service at the Marriott, so I think I can go to Rochester alone.

Flying from Vancouver to Rochester is also about half the price, and less than half the time as compared to Seoul, so I can't think of any good reason to go with Yeson over Dr. Haben.

[Dena]

The night of the surgery you spend in the hospital. They will deliver you from the hospital to Dr Haben's office for your after surgery visit with him. Because you are out of country, you might need to remain there a week in which case, you would return to the hotel.

After my last visit, a cab delivered me to the airport where I caught a 1:30 flight to Florida. I had a 3 hour lay over and then took a plane to phoenix arriving a little after 9pm. The trip home took about another hour putting me in bed at 10pm. This sounds good except that I went through 3 time zones making bed time 1pm by my internal clock. With all this, I slept in late and the next day, visited with my mom at work which is 3 miles from my home. I continued to rest for several days after that as the drugs left me a little dizzy for a few days but I cared for myself in that time. As surgeries go, this one is pretty minor. If you have to remain in the hotel, you can eat in the hotel like I did or there is other food near by. If you feel like it you could even visit the falls but I didn't have time to do that with 4 days for the entire trip.

Because I knew I would be caring for my self, I hit the store before I left and made sure I had some soft food on hand. I figured it would give me less trouble with coughing. What I didn't figure on was I gave Dr Haben a bunch of trouble and as the result, he was pretty hard on my mouth. No tooth damage but the soft food was welcome on a sore mouth. At almost 2.5 weeks, I am pretty much back on a regular diet but there are still a few spots in my mouth I am careful with.

[iKate]

Candace, you sound pretty good! I believe that the pitch will go up more so you have more to look forward to. 🙂

[Lunarain]

Candace, I'm so happy that you're pleased with your VFS results!   Congrats! 😀 What's remarkable is that you still sound like yourself yet very different in the same time. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you sound natural.

As for myself, I'm healing very slowly. I'm talking now though my voice remains extremely weak and unstable. There's little range and the volume is also very low. After being out of commission for so long, I feel like a mute person learning to speak for the first time.

[Lunarain]

What I didn't figure on was I gave Dr Haben a bunch of trouble and as the result, he was pretty hard on my mouth. No tooth damage but the soft food was welcome on a sore mouth. At almost 2.5 weeks, I am pretty much back on a regular diet but there are still a few spots in my mouth I am careful with.

Yes, the teeth situation is something to note. I was very apprehensive about it to begin with but Dr. Haben reassured me that I didn't need mouth guards for both top and bottom teeth, just the top would suffice. So I wore a mouth guard on the top to surgery. Upon waking up, I immediately noticed that three of my bottom teeth had become so loose that I was sure they'd fall out. Thankfully they didn't but it took over a month for them to return to normal. If I knew this before hand, I would have guarded my entire mouth just to be safe!

[Dena]

Candace, I'm so happy that you're pleased with your VFS results!   Congrats! 😀 What's remarkable is that you still sound like yourself yet very different in the same time. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you sound natural.

As for myself, I'm healing very slowly. I'm talking now though my voice remains extremely weak and unstable. There's little range and the volume is also very low. After being out of commission for so long, I feel like a mute person learning to speak for the first time.

I think I had a bit more swelling that normal because it toke around 10 days before I could get the cords to vibrate. The only noise I could hear was the air forcing past the cords. At 2.5 weeks, yesterdays was the first day I could hold and extended conversation and that was at whisper level. The voice is pretty monotone because shift frequencies make it unstable.

Thanks to your warning, when my voice didn't work at first, I didn't panic. I figured it was going to take longer to get it working but I had hoped I would have something a bit more useful by now.

[Cadence Jean]

After reading your replies, Luna and Dena, I guess I didn't have too bad of a time with recovery. I remember a couple days after surgery, I managed to sort of... Exhale talk? Lol I didn't move my vocal cords, I really couldn't, but I breathed out and moved the structures in and around my mouth. It was indicate to my traveling companion that we missed our exit. Anyway, I imagine that's sort of how y'all sound...like your cords aren't responding, sort of like... Temporary paralysis, maybe cuz the swelling has pinched the nerves that control them for now. I'm sure as the swelling come down, function will return.

I'm not sure if it's this, but I was drinking a LOT of all natural fruit drinks for the first week or two. Some were by boathouse farms, and some were by... I think k it's called Nature, or something like that. I drank a lot of their green tea or green goddess ones, with some of the others thrown in to break up the monotony. I also drank a lot of "Traditional Medicinals Throat Coat" tea(found on amazon) for like three to four weeks after that. All this may or may not have helped me recover my voice faster. 🙂 ymmv

[Dena]

It feels like the cords are so swollen that they don't have the flexibility to vibrate. Now they can vibrate a little but only of you hit the right pitch and try it early in the morning. As I tend to swell more that normal as a reaction to surgery, I expected it. Normally it is a little sore by when you try to talk, if feels like you have a really bad head cold. It's getting better by the day but I am not expecting much for a month or so.