Hi everyone,
I decided to book with Yeson. Jessie told me there was availability around 19th but she's going to give me a final surgery date tonight.
I'll be alone in seoul late march. Anyone else going to be there?
Lisa
Congratulations! Keep us posted on your progress.
Now I am in Seoul.
At daytime, it was like spring, but at night, it's a typical winter day.
My present schedule says I will be in Seoul on Feb. 28-March 2 and on March 9-10.
Government officials and supporting staffs can call me at any time to Seoul.
If I go there during your stay, I will let you know.
barbie~~
I will!
Not to seem like a stalker Sarah, but, it was really your info that convinced me. Ive been told my voice is good but to me it still takes effort and certain times it breaks. Once I listened to your "male", female and falsetto voice clips and then your post op ones I was sold. While I thought your pre op female voice was s great, your post op blew me away and I was able to see how a trained voice sounded after.
I can only hope I get as good a result as you and Jen had!
Thanks so much!
Quote from: Boca.Lisa on February 19, 2014, 11:33:46 AM
I will!
Not to seem like a stalker Sarah, but, it was really your info that convinced me. Ive been told my voice is good but to me it still takes effort and certain times it breaks. Once I listened to your "male", female and falsetto voice clips and then your post op ones I was sold. While I thought your pre op female voice was s great, your post op blew me away and I was able to see how a trained voice sounded after.
I can only hope I get as good a result as you and Jen had!
Thanks so much!
I appreciate that a lot Lisa! I'm so glad my updates can help others feel comfortable with this procedure since I believe it's been one of the biggest parts of my transition to date and freed me from the constant repression caused by my self consciousness with my previous voice.
I can't wait to hear your results too. It's coming up quite soon now!
I posted in jenns thread, but I am here. If you need help with some stuff, I'm willing.
Hi Everyone,
Well, I'm only a few days away from heading to Korea. While I am freaking a bit, I remembered that I had promised to do as so many others have and post before clips of my voice and then I'll post some post op as well.
This one is my "Boy" voice. I have not used it in so many years that I cant actually say if its what I used to sound like.
http://vocaroo.com/delete/s11dC3Ifp4Zb/c78258651b209aba
This is my "trained" voice. I know its not great which is why I am going to Yeson.
http://vocaroo.com/delete/s1FDQ08CRcHf/d97bddcb7ec8d7ae
I can only hope that I'm fortunate enough to have an incredible result like Sarah, Jenny and so many others who have shared their experiences!
Fingers Crossed,
Lisa
Hi Lisa
You have a quite a nice trained voice, so I think u'll have a great outcome after healing. I heard my old "male" level played back to me from my coach last week and I just cringed and cried stop playing that! - that was 133Hz. Then I recorded 187Hz average, which...didn't make me cringe hearing it back. Harder to judge own voices seems like though.
So yes, wishing you good luck for your trip and hope you can have some fun out there too afterwards!
dani x
Boca. Lisa I totally agree with you as well, Sarahs voice is extremely inspiring as is Jennys. I hope to have VFS sometime this year as soon as possible
Hi Lisa, I guess you're in Korea still. I hope everything is going well with your recovery. Have you had the follow-up meeting with Dr. Kim yet? Also, how has it been with the whole not talking thing so far? I hope everything is going well.
Hey everyone,
Had my follow up yesterday. Healing was as planned with no surprises (good news)
The botox injection wasn't too bad but it did give me a small headache. Last day in Korea today do making a day trip down to Suwon then tomorrow home!
I must say the not talking thing is very hard. It'll be a much welcomed day when I can talk again. So now is just a waiting game. At 2 months will need to do the vocal exercizes so as to retrain my new vocal folds and then pray that this worked and that the result was good.
Hope everyone is well!
Lisa
Good to hear that everything looks good! I can't wait to hear your results.
Remember, go extremely easy on your vocal chords until at least 1 month post-op. I remember during that time I wanted to talk so bad and it was hard to keep myself from not doing probably more short recordings than I should have. Also, remember that until at *least* the 1 month mark your voice will likely sound like crap when you try to do little recordings. It's not really until the 1 1/2 month - 2 month mark when you'll really start to feel like your voice is taking shape.
I'm sure you'll love your new voice, Lisa. Keep us updated as your recovery progresses, and enjoy your last day in Korea.
Not that anyone really cares, but, i'm home. I've been pretty good about not talking, coughing or clearing my throat and following Dr. Kim's instructions although Iave noticed that when mouthing words i sometimes end up whispering very softly so I need to be careful.
At 9 days post op there is no pain or discomfort. The congested feeling of flem in the throat has completely passed. I will say the Botox has not given me any trouble swallowing which was a potential side effect.
Im planning to stay quiet for as close to 2 months as possible and then religiously do the vocal exercizes.i am still anxious about the outcome and although im not religious (god and I had a falling out about the whole gender mix up thing) im praying for a good result.
Ill update soon.
Lisa
Quote from: Boca.Lisa on March 29, 2014, 06:49:35 AM
although im not religious (god and I had a falling out about the whole gender mix up thing) im praying for a good result.
LMAO - indeed - that is one thing tha tis hard to forgive....
Oh but great to hear you are home and good luck with not talking and all that. 2 Months is quite some time but I guess it gets easier if after 2 weeks or 4 you can do some words on occasion...
Dear Lisa,
Quote from: Boca.Lisa on March 29, 2014, 06:49:35 AM
Not that anyone really cares, but, i'm home.
Please don't feel that way. I think everybody somehow involved in these Yeson threads cares a lot and wishes you the best of success and luck. I know I do. Please don't feel as though nobody cared! Hang in there, you'll make it and hopefully end up with a lovely new voice, young lady :-)
Amy
Glad to hear you're back home now Lisa. I hope your recovery goes smoothly. Take care.
Hi everyone,
So today is the day I was told I can begin normal conversation. unfortunately, my 30 day result isn't like Jenny or Sarah's. My "chest voice" may be fractionally higher than pre surgery but my new voice is far less passable and a lower pitch than the trained voice I used pre-op. When I bring my voice up using a higher pitch its much weaker than before and about the same as it was. No improvement at all.
I must say im quite dissapointed and at this point have decided to be silent for a while longer. I can only hope that at 60 days I see a better result.
Really wish I could report something different but this unfortunately is my reality right now.
Lisa
Hmm - did you make recordings before and after of the different pitches? It is easy to misjudge when just talking without a recording or a comparison. Anyways I guess after 30 days its too ealy to judge. maybe let an ENT take a look but I guess if the suture is there it can be that swelling is causing a pitch decrease. my voice therapist said that length and thickness of teh vocal folds are both causing a low pitch or timbre and this is why my voice now sounds lower even if I try to go up a bit in pitch, als I am using now my full vocal folds again and their mass ist large, so it will swing and cause these low undertones even if I do something to stretch them to increase pitch. If you have swelling it might increase the mass. I am not sure if not talking at all would help, but maybe talking very little is a good idea? :\ - I hope things will improve with some more time. Maybe you can post a pre/post recording?
Hi Lisa,
Quote from: Boca.Lisa on April 21, 2014, 07:03:42 PM
No improvement at all.
I must say im quite dissapointed and at this point have decided to be silent for a while longer. I can only hope that at 60 days I see a better result.
I brought this up in my conversation with Dr. Kim today. He said it's different from individual to individual when the bulk of pitch increase occurs. For some, it's immediately, on average, it takes 2 months for speaking pitch to settle, but can take as long as 6 months, depending how fast the healing progresses. Not speaking a lot in that timeframe is generally good for you.
So do take care and give yourself a little more time. The swelling might not be fully down yet or the vocal cords not yet adapted to the new shape. But according to Dr. Kim, it's definitely too early to jump to any conclusions.
Hope this helps,
Amy
Hi Lisa,
Yeah, I have to agree with what Amy's just written - from everything I've read since I started researching Yeson (I'm now booked for middle of June), not everyone sees the pitch increase immediately...so don't panic, read over all the posts again if it puts your mind at ease at the moment..and I'm sure you'll see the change very soon and be really happy!
Lots of luck for your recovery and looking forward to hearing about your progress!
Gigi
Hi Everyone,
This isnt a voice update as im 45 days post op and still staying pretty quiet. I have spoken a couple times but my voice seems to remains about the same as it was pre op so im waiting to do the exercizes beginning at day 60 befoin I make another recording.
This message is about a potential complication. While im not 100% sure it's pretty coincidental. Pre op, I was a bit of a gym nut (hate it but hated being a fat blob even more) I used to do 1-2 hours of cardio and low weight supersets daily just to stay in shape. Since getting back, ive noticed my recovery from cardio is very labored. My heartbeat goes up faster and I tend to run out of breath and get dizzy. This happens when I work larger muscle groups or do anything with explosive movements but not when I work smaller muscle groups.
My doctor says it is a classical symptom of oxygen deprivation and I should watch it.
Im hopeful that this is just a temporary issue due to some lingering swelling and and not related to a permanent narrowing of the airway.
Im going to send a message off to Dr. Kim shortly to see what he thinks as well.
Lisa
Quote from: Boca.Lisa on May 05, 2014, 10:47:49 AM
Hi Everyone,
This isnt a voice update as im 45 days post op and still staying pretty quiet. I have spoken a couple times but my voice seems to remains about the same as it was pre op so im waiting to do the exercizes beginning at day 60 befoin I make another recording.
This message is about a potential complication. While im not 100% sure it's pretty coincidental. Pre op, I was a bit of a gym nut (hate it but hated being a fat blob even more) I used to do 1-2 hours of cardio and low weight supersets daily just to stay in shape. Since getting back, ive noticed my recovery from cardio is very labored. My heartbeat goes up faster and I tend to run out of breath and get dizzy. This happens when I work larger muscle groups or do anything with explosive movements but not when I work smaller muscle groups.
My doctor says it is a classical symptom of oxygen deprivation and I should watch it.
Im hopeful that this is just a temporary issue due to some lingering swelling and and not related to a permanent narrowing of the airway.
Im going to send a message off to Dr. Kim shortly to see what he thinks as well.
Lisa
I really hope you get a good answer in this subject as it could affect me too.
I too am a cardio idiot, and if this problem occurred due to the narrowing of the vocal folds, I might be reconsidering the whole procedure o.O Been fighting the weight since the SRS, it's a reason why cats become fat and lazy after being neutered :P
- MegC
Lisa, I would encourage you to still do recordings now. You don't have to post them, keep them for yourself for now if you feel uncomfortable with them, but they may be helpful in documenting your progress for yourself and maybe later for others too. It may be that your voice actually did change and you just do not notice it tha tmuch without doing a recording and comparing it side by side to pre op. maybe others will notice more of a change than you do.
45 days seems a long time to stay quiet. I expected something like 30 days from the previous reports but I guess it may be up to 60 days where you are supposed not to say too much generally, right?
The lowered airflow is something I was actually warned about by those questioning my idea to go for a VFS. I was told the same by someone I talked to who was at Yesons in December, thats 5 months ago and she said it does not affect her sports abilities but it is noticeable - for her it seems to mostly be noticed when singing (breathing is fast). The airways are of course constricted and I guess for sports, the body will have to get used to the different situation. The airflow should not be less than in any other female, but your body if it is really well trained may be used to getting ait in faster. I can imagine some of that will go away during healing but some of it may require you to breathe differently when doing sports? Thats an interesting question - how do female athletes manage - after all they are running marathons and such and still are not running out of air despite smaller airways than men, so I cannot imagine that this would be an insoluble problem, more one of how to get used to it and some further healing
Boca, I hope you get better & better and everything's going very well with your voice ..
Quote from: MeganChristine on May 05, 2014, 05:20:18 PMBeen fighting the weight since the SRS, it's a reason why cats become fat and lazy after being neutered :P
this is quite opposite to me .. 2 of my friends who had done SRS in their 30s , all gained weight after post-op ..
for me,i'm quite lucky that i lose 10kg. since I had SRS .. and i am trying to stay in shape & trying to shed few more kilos as well .. not easy .. :icon_ballbounce:
Hi Everyone,
Ok so here is my most recent recording. I'm 52 days post op. I'm quite uncertain if its much better but I also understand I need to start vocal exercises in one week.
I can say my voice still gets a bit tired so still being very careful.
http://vocaroo.com/i/s07uQYiSL4Js
I had posted boy voice and pre op trained voice samples earlier in this thread if anyone's interested.
Thoughts and comments are welcome.
Hi Lisa,
congratulations! Even though there appear to be points where your voice still sounds a little frail, it still sounds unmistakably female! All the ugly low frequencies are gone. I'd say, give it another few weeks and you'll be absolutely fine!
Me, I'm only 3 weeks postoperative and will have to wait another week before I can begin to start talking, which I'm much looking forward to after the long silence.
Best wishes for your continuing recovery,
Amy
Lisa,
You sound absolutely female on the post-op recording. 100% success! :D
Just one question: what would happen if you tried to talk in your "boy" voice? Is that gone forever?
Hugs
Charlotte
Lisa, you sound great! I got goosebumps listening - you're voice is beautiful! My only thought is that there must be something about that rainbow passage but everyone who reads it starts sounding a bit mechanical after a while. When you're voice is stronger, I'm sure I'll hear the little inflections you are adding, which will keep it from sounding that way. For 5 weeks post, I think it's great. I'd pay for that in a heartbeat!
What a fantastic voice, Lisa. It fits you SO well. :D
@Charlotte: You wouldn't happen to have 1110 in your nickname?
Yah! Its very feminine and suits you well.. Im so happy for you lisa! I remember from reading on here, you really didnt talked for quiet some time. Now its paying off!! Congrats! ☺️
Sounding great Lisa!! Great job!!!
Wooo makes me so happy!
I hope you are happy with it too :)
Hey Lisa,
I'm going for my surgery mid-June and I just knooow that with my personality I'm likely to be just as unsure and paranoid about my result..probably a lot more...but having listened to your latest recording..I know it might be hard to hear yourself because being impartial about ourselves is so hard.,..but I really hear a definite improvement with your result...though your pre-op feminine voice was really impressive, your post-op voice really does show a subtle lack of any of that slight masculine/more resonant quality that was present before...there's definitely a smoother quality to your post-op voice so I'd say that's a resounding success. From everything I've read, it seems your ability to use your new upper range may take a bit more time but it will come and I'd be so happy with your result so far..well done!
G
As people have asked, is your post-op voice your chest voice, or are you still modifying your pitch a certain way to reach your feminine register? I feel like if this is how you sound without trying, then the surgery is a success. While looking at the yeson surgery, I was thinking to myself that it would be nice if I managed to obtain a higher, more feminine pitch. But as of right now my practiced voice already sounds more than feminine, and having my practiced voice as my chest voice post-op would be a good enough result for me.
Its not my chest voice. Still pulling it up to my head. What ive noticed is the voice is the same as my trained voice with the rough edges (lower tones) removed.
Hi Lisa,
Quote from: Boca.Lisa on June 03, 2014, 05:43:57 PM
Its not my chest voice. Still pulling it up to my head. What ive noticed is the voice is the same as my trained voice with the rough edges (lower tones) removed.
That's what it should be. Plus the likelihood of falling into the lower register is greatly reduced, as the amount of range that lies in that frequency band where that register "speaks" is much smaller postop.
Amy
So as I understand it, the picture is, that post op you loose the ability to do lower notes, involuntarily - as a main speaking pitch as well as "undertones" of your trained voice. This probably means you can relax more and have to do less resonance control as well, but it is not something that just works without any voice training. In some of the cases it seems that the natural "without thinking" pitch is raised, but not in all cases? Possibly it depends on how much you already got used to speak at an elevated pitch as part of your normal speaking pattern. E.g. if I was an A2 before anything and now I have a trained D3 and such a dsurgery would give me a change from A2 to D3 or E3, I would not notice much as I already got used to speak at D3. This is only my speculation now, I dont know what the other's experiences first hand are like.
I think that assessment is correct.
Yeah it seems to me about half of the people (or more) seem to take the full 2 months to muscularly strengthen & relax into the new vocal fold dynamics. There is also a large amount of mind adaptation you must do in order to learn how to "relax" into it on top of the muscular aspect. I mean think about it: you are changing the fundamental physics of your vocal cords- this is something that rarely ever changes abruptly in a person's life. Everything has to change in order to become "good" at using them in their new different state. Just like switching from a tenor saxophone to an alto saxophone (which is one half register higher and has a slightly different embouchure/mouth position). Firstly it will take some time to learn the new embouchure in order to simply make a noise (relaxing), and secondly learning how to get the most musically out of a higher sounding register (adapting style).
As far as my own experience, there was a huge amount of adaptation involved during the part where muscles are changing to the new shape. I was up to the challenge though, whatever it took- I refused to get discouraged by a voice that wasn't acceptable to me. At first I experienced similar feelings with loss of range and worries about how my voice compared to other women. I channeled the stress/anxiety into an ongoing study into how I could make my voice better, and it still goes on today (I am still learning). I think I finally began to really relax about it around the 7-9 month mark, and now I am nearly almost completely relaxed about it (13 months post op). Things haven't changed much, except that I definitely have relaxed and I'm not pushing my voice to be somewhere specific- I just kind of flows in and out of higher and lower pitches. It varies wildly depending on the situation. Sometimes I use a very low voice at 170hz- especially if I have been talking a lot. I am still dealing with how to not tense up after long conversations. On the phone, my voice is much higher pitched ~230hz at times (but still depends on who I am talking to). When I talk to my mom on the phone my voice tenses again and I go down to 170-180hz (I do tend to talk a very long time with her though). It could also be due to the vocal tremor Dr. Kim was able to find with his super slow-mo laryngoscope camera (one side flaps slightly faster than the other making uneven closure). He said botox would help this, but the only injection I have had is a week after the procedure.
Just wanted people to know that I am still working through certain things, and is a constantly evolving process for me. If you don't like the sound of your voice after 2-3 months, you need to focus more on really getting your money's worth and learning to use your new instrument. You can't expect that it is some magical procedure that does all of the work for you, because it doesn't. Yeson just gives you the instrument, you still have to learn how to master it ;) I suspect this could take 2 years or more.
still your voice sounded awesome even at the two months mark if I recall correctly Jenny :p :)
Quote from: FalseHybridPrincess on June 09, 2014, 09:54:16 PM
still your voice sounded awesome even at the two months mark if I recall correctly Jenny :p :)
Thank you :D I was probably about 70-80% there for where I am now, I am very meticulous and relentless when I want to learn something. I probably have severe OCD- luckily it just tends to go towards productive things? Lol..
Hi Everyone,
Today is 3 months post op from VFS and I thought I would post a new recording along with providing some real world feedback.
Overall, I am still not sure if the surgery was worth the time and cost. I do think some people will benefit greatly from the surgery, however, because I had over 5 years of vocal training pre surgery trained voice was at 207hz when measured by Dr. Kim. The end result for me seems very similar to how I sounded previously. Unfortunately, I have not experienced any improvement in my upper range and still struggle 2x per day to hit the higher notes in my vocal exercises which I within a single octive. I am not finding it easier to reach those higher notes even after doing the exercises for a month. I'm hopeful, but not optimistic, that I'll pick up range at the higher end.
According to my parents and friends, the general consensus is that my voice still sounds about the same although they have commented that the voice sounds a bit smoother from time to time. I guess that's the result I can expect.
Not complaining, just would have liked something a little better. Here's the new recording. This is voice that comes out without any effort to raise pitch.
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0nhoHcdpiLc
Lisa
Well - I think the voice is good, but if you say it sounded the same before...? Did you compare recordings pre and post? If you had 5 years of vocal training before and got a voice that was similar, what were your expectations for voice surgery? An increased pitch? As I understand it, you say that now you do not have to raise the voice anymore and it comes out like that. Isnt that a good benefit compared to previously where you had to raise the voice to get the same pitch? I hope that you will manage to get the higher tones work properly. Even if there is little increase in the upper range, it should at least be reachable and useable the way it was before and I think that is manageable. After 3 Months I think you are still well in that training and vocal exercise timeframe, right? So from what I get, up until month 6 there are some significant improvements to be expected, esp if you had Botox.