Hoarseness after voice surgery?

[jollyjoy]

Hi everyone, it has been 3 months and 2 weeks after voice surgery, and the hoarseness in my voice still hasn't gone away. It has been making me quite self conscious lately when speaking to others. Do you think it's normal to have hoarseness at the 3 months stage? I read a post here saying that at 3 months the swelling is minimal, which is making me think my hoarseness might be due to something else other than swelling, but I hope I'm wrong on this. I'm just wondering if any of you had hoarseness in your voice at the 3 months mark and whether it went away over time?

[Dena]

I am very near the 6 month mark and a little hoarseness remains if I use my voice very much. It gets a little bit better each day and the amazing thing is as it gets better, the pitch improves as well. Worst estimate put my voice at 190hz and best was 210Hz. I am currently about 215 and suspect I may hit 220 by the time my voice clears up.

[jollyjoy]

Hi Dena, I'm glad to hear your voice is getting better day by day. I hope that the same day by day healing will happen to me and that the hoarseness is not a life long thing.

I am very near the 6 month mark and a little hoarseness remains if I use my voice very much. It gets a little bit better each day and the amazing thing is as it gets better, the pitch improves as well. Worst estimate put my voice at 190hz and best was 210Hz. I am currently about 215 and suspect I may hit 220 by the time my voice clears up.

[kwala]

Well, I have my own separate set of issues so although what little voice I have is very hoarse, I'm probably not the best example.  Have you had a scope done?  Any ENT should be able to tell from the video if you still have a lot of swelling or if there is another issue causing the hoarseness.  In any case, I hope it subsides soon!

I totally know what you mean about being self-conscious.  I was recently told to go off vocal rest so I've been trying to use my awful sounding voice in public but I can see people cringing when I speak because it sounds so scary which makes me want to go back to being silent. 

[jollyjoy]

I haven't done a scope yet, I'll be driving to Rochester later this month for the post 3 months checkup. I hope the hoarseness is due to inflammation and not some other issue.

I guess I've been self-conscious these days because I keep thinking about my career and how my voice would affect it. I photograph weddings for a living. The first wedding I've booked is this May, and I hope by May I will have the clarity and volume that I need. I can imagine it will be very difficult to photograph weddings when my voice is hoarse and weak, especially when surrounded by background noise. Dr. Haben did tell me the final results could take 6 months or longer, so hopefully by the 6 months mark, which will be near the end of March, I will sound less hoarse and can use loud volume.

I'm sorry to hear that you see people cringing when you speak. One point during my recovery, a cashier flat out asked me "what's wrong with your voice?", which I thought was very rude. If you feel uncomfortable speaking in public and have to go off of voice rest, maybe you can just practice speaking in the privacy of your home for now?

Well, I have my own separate set of issues so although what little voice I have is very hoarse, I'm probably not the best example.  Have you had a scope done?  Any ENT should be able to tell from the video if you still have a lot of swelling or if there is another issue causing the hoarseness.  In any case, I hope it subsides soon!

I totally know what you mean about being self-conscious.  I was recently told to go off vocal rest so I've been trying to use my awful sounding voice in public but I can see people cringing when I speak because it sounds so scary which makes me want to go back to being silent.

[Andromeda]

One point during my recovery, a cashier flat out asked me "what's wrong with your voice?", which I thought was very rude.

Pretty sure that has happened to me three times this week! "Are you sick?" "Do you have a cold?" "Do you have a sore throat or laryngitis?"

Hell yeah I have laryngitis, and if you're not careful, my sutures might crawl down your throat and infect you too.

Still have another 5 months to wait out so that might be a tiny factor...

[anjaq]

I had some hoarseness after 9 months still. I still get it sometimes now if I talk too much. Some said they had it after a year and it was still improving in the second year. Part of the hoarseness, the severe part, is from swelling and inflammation. When that goes away there still can be hoarseness as if one has a bit of a cold, but that is often from not using the voice properly. This has to be "trained out" then, by using proper breathing technique, changed speaking technique and habits, using female resonance and phonation pattern, etc. A voice therapist can help with those. Another issue seems to be what Dr Kim calls "vocal tremors" - its when muscles in the larynx pull in the wrong direction at the vocal folds. I personally believe this is in my case happening because I have used these muscles for years to feminize my voice and now they have to learn to just shut up - and this takes a bit longer for me because the pre OP time with having a feminized voice was almost 2 decades.

[jollyjoy]

Thanks for your reply Anjaq. It's very interesting some people have no hoarseness have 2 months and others will have for much longer than that. Thanks for telling me the hoarseness has to be trained out, I just tried using my pre-op trained voice technique, so instead of speaking from the chest, I spoke from the throat, and the voice actually sounded somewhat less hoarse! Is this what you mean by changing speaking technique? I'm wondering if talking like that will strain the voice and slow down healing time?

I had some hoarseness after 9 months still. I still get it sometimes now if I talk too much. Some said they had it after a year and it was still improving in the second year. Part of the hoarseness, the severe part, is from swelling and inflammation. When that goes away there still can be hoarseness as if one has a bit of a cold, but that is often from not using the voice properly. This has to be "trained out" then, by using proper breathing technique, changed speaking technique and habits, using female resonance and phonation pattern, etc. A voice therapist can help with those. Another issue seems to be what Dr Kim calls "vocal tremors" - its when muscles in the larynx pull in the wrong direction at the vocal folds. I personally believe this is in my case happening because I have used these muscles for years to feminize my voice and now they have to learn to just shut up - and this takes a bit longer for me because the pre OP time with having a feminized voice was almost 2 decades.

[anjaq]

Well, I found that in a way I need to use some of the "feminization technique" I had pre OP - especially the resonance techniques, but not all of them. Some things I did previously were now counterproductive and caused more strain and hoarseness, some parts worked well to improve the voice. In the end I had to (and still am doing so) learn a new way to use my voice with the proper resonance and projection. Its not the same as pre OP - its something new and at least for me, voice therapy has helped me to "find my new voice"... also trial and error - if I get hoarse, I am doing something wrong with my voice...

[jollyjoy]

A quick update to this thread, the hoarseness does indeed get better with time, just have to be patient!

[Katie]

Its a bit over six months for me and it is still horse at times. So who knows.