Need advice about which VFS doctor

[iKate]

I already emailed Dr Haben about this and he hasn't responded yet, so I am looking for second opinions here.

How soon am I able to drink alcohol? It's halloween and there are a bunch of parties lined up. It doesn't say anything about alcohol on Dr Haben's VFS website---just smoking. And I am not talking about crazy amounts of alcohol. Just enough shots to get buzzed.

Dr Kim says 2-3 months. It was a long 3 months, lol. I missed Mike's, Smirnoff and my red wine soooo bad.

But there are some who said they drank wine with dinner even while in the first 7 days of recovery and they came out great.

So I don't know what to say other than "ask him." But if you want to be super cautious,  2-3 months.

[Dena]

I don't have a clue because I haven't had a drink in 64 years  but I would think until the sutures dissolve there might still be some raw areas exposed that could make you regret the drink. You would be better off with beer or maybe wine as the distilled beverage could be like applying alcohol to an open wound.

[anjaq]

Honestly, I would wait and skip this years Halloween drinking binge . its not worth taking any risks. If you later find your voice is not clean, or not high enough in pitch or if a suture opens at some point, you will always think that maybe its your fault because you had those drinks ...

Dr Kim says 3-4 months no alcohol, some drank occasionally some alcohol, but I don#t know if that included drinking a lot. I guess a lass of wine or beer or even a cocktail does not hurt, but having a bottle of wine or a couple of cocktails may be too much. Also I am not sure how Dr Habens sutures take the alcohol. Dr Kim uses permanent sutures, so they may be less affected by such things. For me, alcohol often also causes some reflux and that is clearly bad for the voice and bad for non-permanent surgical thread. Any acid is - which is probably why sour drinks and fruit juices are also not suggested.

[Roni]

Awww dang! Well, I guess Halloween just won't be as fun for me this year. Thank you for the replies everyone!

[iKate]

Alcohol also dehydrates you. Dehydration is a huge enemy of this kind of surgery.

[Roni]

Just got a response from Dr. Haben. He says one month minimum of no alcohol, 6 weeks at least would be ideal. What a bummer lol.

[iKate]

Just got a response from Dr. Haben. He says one month minimum of no alcohol, 6 weeks at least would be ideal. What a bummer lol.

Well on the bright side, when your voice is all healed up you can get as drunk as you want and not get clocked by your voice.

[kwala]

Just got a response from Dr. Haben. He says one month minimum of no alcohol, 6 weeks at least would be ideal. What a bummer lol.

I did stop in at a Halloween party tonight, but I brought my own huge water bottle so I would be less tempted to drink and I only stayed for an hour since I could really only communicate by text.  Was a bit of a bummer since this is my favorite holiday, but I'll be thanking myself in a few months when I have an awesome new voice

[Roni]

I did stop in at a Halloween party tonight, but I brought my own huge water bottle so I would be less tempted to drink and I only stayed for an hour since I could really only communicate by text.  Was a bit of a bummer since this is my favorite holiday, but I'll be thanking myself in a few months when I have an awesome new voice

I ended up not doing anything Halloween night. I instead went grocery shopping at a 24-hour Walmart. Upon returning to my car with all my grocery bags, I realized I must have left my lights on or something as my car battery would not start. I've been good about resting my voice, but had to use my voice this time to ask for a jumpstart from people. It seems my voice and I completely passed to the two men who helped me, which I am extremely happy about! They asked if I had already celebrated Halloween and said "you probably had a sexy cat costume and everything, huh?" Haha it was flattering.

[kwala]

I ended up not doing anything Halloween night. I instead went grocery shopping at a 24-hour Walmart. Upon returning to my car with all my grocery bags, I realized I must have left my lights on or something as my car battery would not start. I've been good about resting my voice, but had to use my voice this time to ask for a jumpstart from people. It seems my voice and I completely passed to the two men who helped me, which I am extremely happy about! They asked if I had already celebrated Halloween and said "you probably had a sexy cat costume and everything, huh?" Haha it was flattering.

Cute story!  We'll have to party twice as hard next year to make up for a somewhat subdued Halloween this year

[Roni]

Cute story!  We'll have to party twice as hard next year to make up for a somewhat subdued Halloween this year

Girl I'm gonna party THREE times as hard this New Years just because I didn't get to on Halloween haha!

[kwala]

Girl I'm gonna party THREE times as hard this New Years just because I didn't get to on Halloween haha!

Sounds like a good plan!

[Roni]

Anyone know the best time post-op to see an ENT to check if your vocal folds are fully healed and conjoined? I'm less than three weeks post-op, and had an appointment with an ENT today, but ended up cancelling it because I figured it was still too early in the healing process, that I should probably wait a little bit longer to get my sutures checked? That way I save in insurance and out-of-pocket costs as well, if I'm going to get checked again down the line anyway.

[Dena]

Until your voice sounds very good, it's still healing. If you lived close to Dr Haben he would check it for you free of charge at 3 months as part of the package. My guess is the sutures don't dissolve until week 5 or 6 so take your pick.

[Roni]

Until your voice sounds very good, it's still healing. If you lived close to Dr Haben he would check it for you free of charge at 3 months as part of the package. My guess is the sutures don't dissolve until week 5 or 6 so take your pick.

Thanks Dena! I'll make an appointment with my ENT around the 5 week mark then.

[Roni]

I am one month post-op now and my pitch has gone even higher!! Originally I reported my pitch has gone up probably 20Hz, and was told to wait a couple weeks so the swelling could subside. I have done additional vocal rest the past couple of days.

Today I decided to make a personal recording after the vocal rest and was shocked to find out how much higher I sounded. I am probably at a 40 Hz increase now! I would like for it to go higher to the promised 75 Hz. Still doing 4 more weeks of voice rest before returning to work in December. You ladies were right---patience is everything. I'm happy!!! 

[iKate]

Anyone know the best time post-op to see an ENT to check if your vocal folds are fully healed and conjoined? I'm less than three weeks post-op, and had an appointment with an ENT today, but ended up cancelling it because I figured it was still too early in the healing process, that I should probably wait a little bit longer to get my sutures checked? That way I save in insurance and out-of-pocket costs as well, if I'm going to get checked again down the line anyway.

Yeson said 2 months. I still have to go. Anything sooner is a waste imo. I'm going soon just have some financial difficulty these days.

[jollyjoy]

That's good news! And yes, 4 more weeks of voice rest for you is a good idea! I just finished the 7th week, and it's getting much easier for me to not talk.

[anjaq]

If you are worried about the suture, you can let them check the suture sooner - Dr Kim did a check after just 7 days of course. But it makes sense to wait for 8 weeks post op to get a good picture of the healing. With Dr Haben maybe it makes sense to check earlier to see if the threads are still stable at week 4, because some patients recently reportet threads coming loose and the suture opening partially or fully - this could probably be prevented by checking the threads earlier and possibly keep total voice rest for several weeks in case the threads are not holding? But I am not sure about this - its just a hunch.