Hi, Dena
Your hearing issues of course do explain a lot. This makes it harder to do voice training, of course.
If your lower range is 80 Hz, it is a bass, yes - I was at 85 Hz by the way, making me almost a bass as well. But I am not sure if this affects so much the upper limits. As I said, even though I was also in the bass range almost, my upper limit was almost reaching the high C. I dont know the size of my larynx though except that it would be a fairly regular size for a guy. Is yours exceptional large by the examination of a voice doctor? If so, you may be lucky in one aspect, you could get a longer suture - 50% maybe, this would give you a bigger increase in pitch.
I think what happens above the 196Hz for you is that your voice would break into head voice or falsetto and for some reason you cannot do that. Is it known why that is and if it is related to your hearing impairment?
I dont know of course what the triple surgery procedure of Dr Haben will do. I can only speak about the glottoplasty, but for that it seems that it mostly changes your optimum pitch upwards - I am not entirely sure it would shift upwards your upper speaking limit. Someone mentioned that the CTA would do that however. As I said, the worst case I would fear and which you should talk about in a pre surgery consultation (ideally well before making a surgery date), would be if your voice is lifted up but you still have the cap at below 200 Hz, limiting your vocal range even more.
Quote from: Dena on June 04, 2015, 01:29:37 AM
Because I am working the voice so close to the upper limit, I suspect I am unable to generate the harmonics required for a fuller voice. You can try and experiment where you are at the upper end of your range and I suspect much the same will happen.
I think it is hard to compare, because at the upper limit of the chest voice I go into middle voice or head voice and in that I do have a different sound to it, I cannot really say which would be considered my upper limit. Of course if I use my total upper limit, I will sound very weird, as this is well beyond anyones speaking voice.
So my suggestions still are to see a different speech therapist or voice doctor to check your status and see if they can work on the upper range and head voice and get a consultation at the voice surgeon of your choice well before making a surgery date to talk about your special issues (hearing impariment, trouble with your speech, strong limitation of the upper vocal range) and if they conflict with surgery plans or if they can actually be resolved by it.
Be aware that your situation is not the same as common with patients of voice surgery who are reporting in this forum up to now.
