No trouble swallowing here. There is minimal swelling from this procedure- very minimally sized surgical area.

Good news: I'm now about 99.9% free of sickness, just some final clearing out of the system. Finally!

Bad news: My sister (who is going with me) has also had a cold since Monday! Seriously, f*** my life! Now I have to worry about catching ANOTHER cold from her! She also recently got over the flu. She did get antibiotics and is done taking those so apparently she shouldn't be contagious with that, or so I hear. I read up on colds and it's said that it's the most contagious within the first 3 days, so since it'll be about 5 days since she got the cold then I may be fine. Plus, if it's the same strain then I should already have the antibodies and shouldn't get it. However, there are apparently over 200 different viruses that cause the common cold.

Damn, all this couldn't happen like a month ago!?! Ok, 2 days until my consultation, 3 days until the surgery. Please, PLEASE, PLEASE let me not get sick again! Ugh, I can't take any more of this stress

When they ask you if you're sick, just say no. As long as you are not congested and coughing it doesn't matter.

Yer gonna do fine

Hmm- i guess you may want to avoid too close contact with her if that worries you. If you share a room in the hotel, maybe make sure the beds are separated and that you use the bathroom always first in the morning during your stay there. Always wash hands thoroughly. Keep taking your Vitamins and Zinc (maybe not the garlic if you want someone to operate in your throat ), especially after the surgery and I would guess your worries now are more about getting an infection after the surgery and then having to cough.I have often seen people in Asia use these Paper facemasks to protect the breath - is that for avoiding infections? Maybe that is a more severe action to consider if that is so and makes sense (could be nonsense of course, better read up on it). The worst thing I guess is to not worry too much because the stress this causes is not helping either. Yeah I know thats easier said...

You have my best wishes - seems like you will be leaving really soon and then maybe report back from Korea? . Have a good time there.

I will keep an eye or an ear on you all here. Though I just had a talk with an old TS friend of mine who I just met. She tried to "wash my head" (if you know the saying in english) about changing my voice. She thinks it fits the rest of me very well because i am big and not that young and it would be bad if I had a very high voice that would not fit that. Sigh. So IDK anymore - she even thinks I dont need voice therapy, but I will definitely do that for sure. Anyways not to talk too much on that - I send you all the best wishes Sarah to fend off all bacteria and viruses!

Doooont eat garlic after nonono. It's spicy and it will inflamate the surgical area as well as produce phlegm- which you will already have enough of to deal with for those first 3 days in recovery.

Just take it easy and eat as bland as possible. If you want to take vitamins during recovery, ask Dr Kim on the day of the exam. You don't want a drug interaction or something that could thin blood / impede healing.

I'm at the San Francisco airport. The flight takes off in about an hour. Still feeling good health-wise. Just a couple more days now and it'll all be done with (hopefully). Thanks again everyone for your support and suggestions for me to get better. I'm feeling optimistic that everything will work out in the end.

I'll post an update after I have my pre-op exam and of course after the surgery itself. Here we go!

Hope you have a nice flight Sarah! Wishing you all the best

All the best, Sarah! - Have a good flight and safe journey!

Good Luck Sarah!

I hope it goes well for you (it's not a major operation) but the results are so worth it.

Hope.

Thanks everyone. I'm at the hotel now. Seriously, that had to be the easiest process ever. It took about 15 minutes to get through immigration, another 5 minutes to pick up the cell phone rental, maybe 15 minutes waiting for the next bus, and then a quick little jaunt from the bus stop to the hotel. The room is pretty crazy too. It has one of those touch screen panels where you control everything! It's cozy, everything is hidden behind panels in the walls that you slide to reveal.

The flight actually wasn't horrible. The first 8 or so hours went by pretty quick and painlessly. However, I was getting pretty tired near the end of the flight but didn't really want to sleep since it was around 5pm when I landed and I didn't want to stay up all night. I'm a bit groggy from the day of travel, so it feels nice to lay in bed at the hotel. I'm about to knock out, but wanted to give an update.

Woohoo, tomorrow I get to finally meet Jessie and Dr. Kim!

Yay congratulations! I'm glad everything went smoothly. The hotel room is pretty neat, huh?

Keep us updated on your appointment tomorrow, and tell Jessie I said hi!!

Quote from: abbyt89 on November 10, 2013, 09:29:12 AM
Yay congratulations! I'm glad everything went smoothly. The hotel room is pretty neat, huh?

Keep us updated on your appointment tomorrow, and tell Jessie I said hi!!

Yeah, the hotel is awesome!

So the appointment went GREAT today! The staff was so nice and Jessie is sooooo helpful in answering all your questions. She even walked us to a great red bean place and helped us order our food. Jessie also showed us places to go around town. I'm just really, really impressed with everything here. Dr. Kim explained everything in so much detail, showed us videos of the procedure, examples of the pre- and post-op results, and explained what he'll be doing. He said because my frequency is already higher than average that the 1/3 suture is fine. Interestingly, he also noted that my vocal folds are shorter than the average male. I guess that makes sense with how high my frequency is.

The results of my exam matched surprisingly pretty well what I had measured beforehand. My median frequency was 154Hz and my frequency when doing a higher-pitched voice was 197Hz. He said after the surgery I should fall around 229Hz! This is going to be AMAZING after the surgery. I can't believe it's tomorrow!!!

I'm having such a great time in Seoul. Jenny, you're right about the style here, damn they know how to dress. Even the symbols for male and female for the bathrooms were wearing a suit and cocktail dress, haha! And everything is so easy to navigate. I haven't had any issue getting around here with taking the bus, taxi, and subway.

So to sum it up, Seoul is awesome, Yeson is awesome, and I'm definitely going to be coming back here in the future. I'll keep you all updated after the surgery. Yaaay!

Major WOOT!

Glad to hear the exam went well and you are enjoying accommodations. Also hearing about Jessie makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I want to go back! Wish I could be there with you tomorrow!

And also no vocal tremor nor issues with your vocal cords? That's great. Sounds like you won't need the botox

Actually, I do have a vocal tremor and will need Botox. There are also some other issues with them related to my longer history of speaking with the higher pitch, it's affected my vocal chords. He said it will be better after the surgery, which is great. He also showed me how I have to use so much more strength to push air through because of that, that I can't hold a note for long (like 11-13 seconds compared to a normal person of 20 seconds).

I think that alone will be such a great relief, not having to force so much, which will take a lot of stress off my vocal chords and throat. I'm sooo curious to see how different it'll be after the surgery in not only the voice, but just the general feeling of talking and relaxing of the throat.

Good luck Sarah!

Ah I am so happy for you!
Good luck with everything . I wish you all the best!

Quote from: SarahR on November 11, 2013, 03:14:04 AM
He said because my frequency is already higher than average that the 1/3 suture is fine. [...] My median frequency was 154Hz and my frequency when doing a higher-pitched voice was 197Hz. He said after the surgery I should fall around 229Hz!

Thats awesome. Your frequency is already at where I am with my changed voice, wow, that is really high. What would they do if the start is lower? actually reduce it more than 1/3? That sounds a bit much then...

Quote from: SarahR on November 11, 2013, 04:54:59 AM
There are also some other issues with them related to my longer history of speaking with the higher pitch, it's affected my vocal chords. He said it will be better after the surgery, which is great. He also showed me how I have to use so much more strength to push air through because of that, that I can't hold a note for long (like 11-13 seconds compared to a normal person of 20 seconds).

You mean that would stop after the surgery so you can at the same voice actually speak louder? That would be a neat effect - given that people keep telling me that most VFS reduces loudness of the voice. If that is the opposite - yay!

QuoteI'm sooo curious to see how different it'll be after the surgery in not only the voice, but just the general feeling of talking and relaxing of the throat.

Yeah - that would be something for a change - actually relax the throat. Though I guess resonance control still needs to be applied so some tension has to be there still...

Again all the best!

Quote from: anjaq on November 11, 2013, 09:51:52 AM
Ah I am so happy for you!
Good luck with everything . I wish you all the best!
Thats awesome. Your frequency is already at where I am with my changed voice, wow, that is really high. What would they do if the start is lower? actually reduce it more than 1/3? That sounds a bit much then...

I assume if I had a lower frequency he would suture more of the vocal folds, based on the fact that he actually stated it like, "...1/3 is sufficient" which leads me to believe it's variable based on the original frequency. I would think it would range between 1/3 and 1/2. I believe Jenny had just about 1/2 sutured and she sounds amazing, so it depends on the person.

Quote from: anjaq on November 11, 2013, 09:51:52 AM
You mean that would stop after the surgery so you can at the same voice actually speak louder? That would be a neat effect - given that people keep telling me that most VFS reduces loudness of the voice. If that is the opposite - yay!

Yeah - that would be something for a change - actually relax the throat. Though I guess resonance control still needs to be applied so some tension has to be there still...

That's what it sounded like! It makes sense too, since he showed me how much force I used to get phonation compared to normal and I was having to use like 3-4 times the amount. So after the surgery, since I won't have to strain at all to get a feminine voice, I can use that extra power for loudness as opposed to just creating the phonation to begin with.

By the way, the cell phone rental was a really good idea. Even though there's WiFi almost everywhere (seriously), its still nice in some areas where there is none or its slow, then I just use LTE and do what I need. It's so cheap and it's unlimited data that I see no reason not to.

The area in Gangnam is way cool. There are a ton of coffee shops, cafés, and other things along the streets. Also something I noticed, even though it's like downtown, big city, it's surpringly quiet! I would have expected something like New York but nope, there's like barely anyone talking on cell phones, no horns honking from cars, etc. It's kind of peaceful. I've also not noticed a ton of people staring. Every now and then I'll see someone look my way, but not as much as I had expected.

The subway is excellent as well. It's super quick and easy to get the ticket and trains come like every 2 minutes it seems. They make it really simple to follow the routes to get you where you need to go with color-coding and a numbering system.

I'm enjoying Seoul so much! I'm happy I still have another week to travel around and see the different areas and stuff and I won't be bed-ridden like with other surgeries. It may have been expensive to travel here, but I feel like I'm on vacation and I just happen to be getting a surgery done at the same time, lol.

Ok, I'm done droning about Seoul...I still need to try to get some sleep! I have to be up in like 4 hours! I guess I still haven't re-accustomed myself to the new time zone.

Sooo excited for you Sarah. I have a feeling that your result is going to be amazing

And yes he did about 1/2 on mine for a couple of reasons...
1) I had visible damage (blood hemorrhage) to my right vocal cord about 3/8 of the way up. Suturing above this damaged area means that only the good parts of the vocal cords would be used from now on.
2) I was concerned about my trach shave somehow lessening my result. So to air on the side of effectiveness of surgery, I told him that I would rather be too high than too low.

I'm pretty sure that your surgery is in less than 3 hours, so I'll be thinking of you today! Also doing a little prayer to bid farewell to your 154hz voice. If your result is anything like mine (as I'm sure it will be), your lowest pitch will be around the fundamental of your old voice. So, you'll only be able to hit 154hz if you really stretch for it

Thanks Jenny!

That makes sense about how much you got done. Yep, 3 hours from now I should be going into surgery! That's crazy to think that I have only 3 more hours until 154Hz (or higher maybe) is the lowest I can go. Woohoo, so excited. I haven't gotten much sleep but I feel surprisingly rested anyways.

I'll post an update once I'm able to after the surgery.