Tracheal shave questions

[Gamergirl]

Hello everyone !

I'm not sure if I posted this in the right board.

I had a tracheal shave as part of my SRS 16 days ago.  My voice is a little lower, and raspy.  Cant reach the higher notes like before. I am told this should correct itself within a month.

Has anybody had experience with this ?  Is there anything I can do to help heal it ?  Did your voice ever stay this way ?    Thanks.

[Venusxoxo]

Yes, my voice toke time also to adjust after trachea shave, because of the tube they use during anestesia, & being of hrt also makes my voice deeper (believe it or not).

[Dena]

Normally a trachea that is preformed correctly shouldn't change your voice but as a stand alone surgery it can be preformed without a breathing tube. Mine was done while I was sleeping along with mole removal then I was woke up for the nose job but I didn't need a breathing tube  because of  the shallow sleep.

As for what you can do to recover, minimize the use of your voice and don't yell. Try to minimize coughing and throat clearing as they also put a strain on your voice.

[Mia]

My voice dropped very significantly following my tracheal shave, my only option months later after no improvement was vocal cord surgery. Apparently if the shave is aggressive (if the Adam's Apple is very dominant) the cartilage ring can weaken, leading to looser chords and a lower voice. My voice was lower than it had ever been. Vocal surgery has helped tremendously, but frankly the commitment required to change my voice continues to be the hardest and most frustrating undertaking ever.

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[tgirlamg]

My first surgery was a tracheal shave... My Adam's apple was very large (see my latest post in the before/ after thread!).... Dr Bowers said they classify them on a scale of 1 to 5 and I was a 5...

Anyway... I did lose some of the top of my high end frequency but can still speak in female frequency range.... Breathing tube raspiness does take a while to shake off!!!

Onward we go brave sisters!!!

Ashley

[Barb99]

I also had a tracheal shave as part of my SRS. My voice was lower and raspy for about 2 weeks, but it did slowly improve over that time. After 2 weeks it was back to normal.

[Dena]

My surgeon warned me that he was going to leave a little of the bump behind because to remove all of it would compromise my voice. There still is a small bump but it has't outed me and it's so much better that the boat keel that I had sticking out before. Dr Haben could have removed that while I was there for voice surgery but my feeling was if I didn't need it for voice pitch, it wasn't worth the trouble to remove it.

[Gamergirl]

It has been exactly a month today since my trachea shave.  My neck looks fantastic compared to what it looked like before, but I was not able to recover my highest voice.. or at least not yet.

Sometimes I call on the higher voice in certain situations and it comes out a breathy whisper. Also, my laugh sounds a little alien to me. 

Should I try light exercises with my voice to try and recover the pitch , or is there just nothing on my part that can make it better?

[Dena]

Assuming the proper amount of material was removed, it may take a month or so for your voice to recover from surgery. Mine wasn't affected however my surgeon was pretty conservative and clearly avoided taking any of the larynx body in the surgery. As the result, the larynx shows but not enough to be a problem. Take it easy with your voice for now and give it time for the swelling to go down.

[Gamergirl]

Ok, thanks Dena.  I will try to be patient lol. 

You have helpped me so much this month.  *hugs*