iKate, this is amazing. You are one of the very lucky ones - fast and great results - no waiting forever for the voice to change and you even already get volume back. Very great. You should do regular recordings and videos - Dr Kim may want to add yours to that of Jenny which he uses for his promotion and consultations
Quote from: Teslagirl on August 09, 2015, 05:00:05 PM
The authenticity you mention is something I wanted, but I am very nervous about eventually hearing my voice properly. I make mistakes from time to time, and it really does not sound any different at all at the moment (I'm two weeks after surgery). If the worst does happen, and I get no improvement at all, I wonder if Dr Kim would operate again? Have you ever heard of anyone going back for a second surgery? I wish I had asked him for a 50% suture now, and taken a chance.
Well two weeks is really too early. I tried and sounded horrible by then. you cannot really fully use your voice and that feeling of authenticity for me mostly comes from involuntary expressions, laughing, etc - all of which is not allowed before week 8
- At week 5-6 I was already noticing that the low undertones are gone, which was good to hear.
So that higher pitches seem to be readily happening when I am saying somethign in surprise or laughing, the other changes are not so much pitch related. My speaking pitch has not changed a lot - it is officially up by 30 Hz, so I am now in the same range I used in daily life by putting in a little effort to increase pitch pre OP. (135 Hz relaxed pre OP vs 160-170 Hz relaxed post op, pre op trained voice with little effort was usually at 140-150 Hz). So the change that is most noticeable for me in normal speaking is the loss of the low undertones, so the way my voice sounds in my head is different - less "rumbling" and such. This makes my voice sound similar to that of other women to my own ears when I speak. I am not even sure how pronounced that difference is perceived by others, but to me it is a big difference.
I am not aware of anyone getting a second surgery of the same type unless something ripped. I know of someone who got a CTA after a glottoplasty that did not work out well - but that was in Germany. And someone I know of is planning to do laser tuning of the vocal chords after glottoplasty to increase the pitch, because her speaking pitch is still low after glottoplasty - but again this is not a Yeson patient. To be honest, I did ask Dr Kim in my 6 month update email now if that option (laser tuning) would be a viable one after his kind of surgery. I am not sure I would do it, but I am just checking options for pitch change. I am happy with the other effects of the surgery so far as I described them, but maybe that massive coughing spell directly after surgery just did not allow my pitch to go as much up as it could have. I guess I should have forgot about the $1500 I would have lost and postponed the surgery by a year or so when I had that cold right before the surgery date and it just barely was over - it probably is what caused that coughing
- I would love to know if Dr Kim would agree on that, but Jessie always told me that as long as the suture held - and that it did - the coughing in the wake up room should not have done any damage.
