Had the pre-surgery meeting today. They ran a lot of tests - two hours of 'em. And then I met with Dr. Kim.
1. Four page questionnaire to help assess current voice and goals.
2. A strange test I don't understand with a bunch of electrodes stuck to me.
3. Blood test.
4. Read the rainbow passage which was video recorded and spectrum analyzed.
5. Put on a mask and say a tone (aahhhhhhh) for as long as possible. Turns out this checked several things.
6. They placed a camera down my throat, say aahhhh at different pitches. The camera is tiny, wasn't bad. And it isn't just any camera - this takes very high speed video. Vocal chords move much faster than 30 frame per second video - so their camera has to run faster.
7. XRay of throat area. That involved a walk across street to a different clinic, then back to Yeson.
8. Anesthetic sprayed into my nostrils and ... a small camera shoved waaay up my nose. All in the name of science so I'm ok with that. Dr. Kim ran this particular test - all the others were by assistants.
Equipment used for test #5:
Equipment used for test #6:
After two hours of tests I met with Dr. Kim for a half hour. The tests don't just show whether someone is a good candidate for this surgery - the tests show where things are out of norm (regardless of gender) and may be a factor in the surgery plan. He showed me a couple areas where my voice has additional problems that might be unrelated to gender, although made worse by pushing my voice into a range my vocal chords don't like.
Test #5 showed I use twice as much air to speak as the average person. Test #6 showed this isn't because I am loud, it's because my vocal chords don't quite close when they vibrate and are slightly asymmetric. Watching mine in slow motion compared to one from a sample patient the difference is obvious. Other test numbers showed I am using up to 8 times the energy to create the same sound as other people would.
I have a pretty bad tremor to my voice - a sign of muscle strain. I could clearly hear it during some of the tests. This is from my brain learning to compensate for problems by tensing up the muscles in that area.
During surgery he will work to correct these physical things but I'll also need to re-train my brain. This is why the results are not immediate - in addition to months of completely healing and settling in, there are voice exercises to do starting 2 months after surgery. I'll be getting a botox injection to calm down the tremor, but that is temporary and I'll need to train my brain to relax and adapt to my new voice.