What a great day!
I had my first appointment with my speech therapist (Dr Karen B...) All I can say is that she is a wonderful person.
My appointment was for 9:30 AM so as usual I arrived at the hospital way too early
and made my way through the corridors to the Speech Pathology Clinic. Karen was on time and she took me to her office. We started off with each of us relating our backgrounds and a brief life story so to speak. This really put me at ease as I was a little nervous at first, but this could have been due to excitement as well.
She went through my medical history, who was apart of my transition (doctors, therapists etc.), what medical problems I had, what medications including HRT I was on, and finally what was the biggest concerns as far as my voice were and what I saw as an acceptable result of the therapy.
Using charts and diagrams, she then went on to explain how the voice is produced which really surprised me as I didn't realize how complex it was. She finished giving me several pages of information on what she had just covered. It was very, very interesting. She then focused on my fluid intake, and the types of fluid I was in-taking (apparently I intake the wrong ones)
. She went on to say that the therapy will/could strain my larynx and lots of water will counter that. To wrap up the session she gave me home work to prepare for the next our session next week, part of it being to observe how women laugh, clear their throat and cough. Should be interesting.
Karen is great, the whole session was conducted face to face across a small table eye to eye the whole time. She was recording my gestures and how I carried myself as well as women tend to be more expressive that way, and she was very pleased. We will be meeting weekly for as long as it takes or until we/I get to the point that we have done as much as we can. Fortunately this is all covered by the Province so there is no cost to me. Yay
I'll keep you posted on how it goes.
Steph
