My one year results after VFS with Dr. Haben

[GeekGirl]

Hello again, everyone! So here are my voice results one year ago prior to VFS with Dr. Haben (0:00 to 0:22) and about a year after VFS with Dr. Haben (0:23 onward).

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1rKEeLbE9oP

Okay, the surgery has raised my pitch a bit and I like the sometimes buttery smooth effect my voice has. The big problem is my voice isn't very loud at all, so I'm still using a headset to teach yoga. This is okay. I'm used to it now. Another problem is my voice will get raspy after a few minutes of continuous talking and then I try to force words out and I get the male inflections in again and that just ruins it for me. If I just talk normally but not too much and speak softly, I'm fine.

Both versions I wasn't trying to sound any particular way at all. In other words, I wasn't consciously altering my voice. I call this the "wake up out of bed" test. In the pre-VFS voice, I had to put in a lot of effort to sound female. In the post-VFS voice, I have this androgynous quality to my voice. I can now put in a lot less effort to get the voice I want. Yay!!!

We often don't know how much we've changed unless we've documented everything, which I've done. God, I sounded like Foghorn Leghorn (the rooster) before! Now, in yoga class, instead of having the voice of a drill instructor, I'm described by many as "soft and sweet sounding."

So, I was thinking that the loudness/breathiness/raspiness issue has to do with a paralyzed vocal cord. I read the posts here about Prolaryn injections. I considered it for a brief second until I saw a video with someone getting a needle stuck in their throat! Ummm... no, thanks.

[Dena]

I am a couple of weeks short of 2 years now and my voice has continued to improve. While it can get raspy if pushed or I get dry, the strength is still improving and my pitch seems to have going up another 15 HZ or so. Some of us get a good voice right from the start while others take a long time to get the last of the improvement.

I also had a paralyzed vocal cord and I suspect that contributes a little to the raspiness of my voice. I suspect over may years, I learned to compensate for it and now I need to learn how to do it again with the new voice. Between getting back on HRT and a proper voice, I am consistently getting gendered female in normal conversation with strangers instead of sir or avoiding the topic totally so I think some good came out of it.

[kwala]

Hello again, everyone! So here are my voice results one year ago prior to VFS with Dr. Haben (0:00 to 0:22) and about a year after VFS with Dr. Haben (0:23 onward).

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1rKEeLbE9oP

Okay, the surgery has raised my pitch a bit and I like the sometimes buttery smooth effect my voice has. The big problem is my voice isn't very loud at all, so I'm still using a headset to teach yoga. This is okay. I'm used to it now. Another problem is my voice will get raspy after a few minutes of continuous talking and then I try to force words out and I get the male inflections in again and that just ruins it for me. If I just talk normally but not too much and speak softly, I'm fine.

Both versions I wasn't trying to sound any particular way at all. In other words, I wasn't consciously altering my voice. I call this the "wake up out of bed" test. In the pre-VFS voice, I had to put in a lot of effort to sound female. In the post-VFS voice, I have this androgynous quality to my voice. I can now put in a lot less effort to get the voice I want. Yay!!!

We often don't know how much we've changed unless we've documented everything, which I've done. God, I sounded like Foghorn Leghorn (the rooster) before! Now, in yoga class, instead of having the voice of a drill instructor, I'm described by many as "soft and sweet sounding."

So, I was thinking that the loudness/breathiness/raspiness issue has to do with a paralyzed vocal cord. I read the posts here about Prolaryn injections. I considered it for a brief second until I saw a video with someone getting a needle stuck in their throat! Ummm... no, thanks.

I do like the mellow quality in your voice and the pitch has certainly gone up. I've been reading up on the various versions of the Wendler's glottoplasty that are being done and I think Dr. Kim is the one who does it best. In addition to carefully cutting out the mucosa layer at the base and suturing by hand, it seems he also detaches the muscle a bit from the ligament which allows the cords more freedom of movement and more complete closure-
which in my mind are the reasons most of his patients sound the clearest and fullest. Dr. Haben just burns the site, scrambles a messy suture together and hopes for the best. After a year, you are not a "slow healer" waiting for your maximum results, your voice has pretty much healed. That doesn't mean you couldn't get more out of it with therapy, home exercises,  or other procedures, though.  A speech pathologist really helped me get to a pretty decent speaking voice, however, much like you, there is no way I would be able to lead a large class. I simply don't have the volume or clarity.  If you ever get to a place where you think you'd like to explore medical options for improvement it might be a good idea to email Yeson about your situation.  In my conversations with the staff, they informed me that Dr. Kim has had good success correcting other patients with subpar web glottoplasties. I'm heading there for corrective surgery soon. Obviously our situations are not the same with me having to remove my web, but I'll definitely post about my experience and whether or not Dr. Kim was able to help me out.

Anyway, your voice does sound lovely so I wasn't trying to be overly critical or imply that you NEED future surgeries, I just totally relate the frustration of not being able to speak above the background noise. If I'm ever able to sing again I think I'll die on the spot of happiness lol.