@anjaq Not speaking is really easy for me. It's the coughing and stuff that's harder. I haven't even tried to say a word since the surgery, but I have had a couple of really light coughs. They say not to cough for 3 weeks, I believe.

@delani25 They say not to smoke for 3 months after at least, I believe. However, with something like this I would say it's a perfect reason to get the motivation to quit altogether!

@kiwi That sounds great that your vocal folds looked so good! I'm so worried I've messed them up every time I accidentally cough or something, but it sounds though that it takes a lot to really mess it up. That's really reassuring. Sorry to hear about your bad tour experience too. Also, I think we're going to check out the Hyundai department store either today or tomorrow along with some other places.

Quote from: SarahR on November 15, 2013, 05:05:33 PM
@anjaq Not speaking is really easy for me. It's the coughing and stuff that's harder. I haven't even tried to say a word since the surgery, but I have had a couple of really light coughs. They say not to cough for 3 weeks, I believe.

@delani25 They say not to smoke for 3 months after at least, I believe. However, with something like this I would say it's a perfect reason to get the motivation to quit altogether!

@kiwi That sounds great that your vocal folds looked so good! I'm so worried I've messed them up every time I accidentally cough or something, but it sounds though that it takes a lot to really mess it up. That's really reassuring. Sorry to hear about your bad tour experience too. Also, I think we're going to check out the Hyundai department store either today or tomorrow along with some other places.

yes it's certainly motivation thanks alot....and I hope all is going well with your recovery 

Wow, no coughing for 3 weeks, thats hard.
I wonder how this works with the no changes vs quite dramatic changes right after surgery and the voice training afterwards. So how come that there are these differences and they actually say not to expect any changes in the short run even? And then we hear Jenny sounding great immediately...?
And what do these voice trinign exercises do - are they doing something with the surgery or are they more general voice training stuff that also could help those who do not have a voice surgery to get the voice better?

I think most doctors are usually conservative with their directions and estimates just to be safe. I'm sure some people just heal differently and so they see changes at different times. It's all based on the healing process. Dr. Kim actually drew a little graph showing that within the first 2 months the change is very minimal, then it starts to spike up after 2 months, and then is done after 1 year. However, it's only an estimate in the end.

From what I know, the excersices are pretty generic vocal excersices. Anyone could probably do them and get benefits as well. They're likely similar to what you'd find with any other vocal coach. I believe they even have the video of them on their YouTube channel. After VFS it's to help increase the strength and vocal range and quality again.

Thanks for the Info, Sarah. How does this work with the healing and increase in pitch - the vocal cords are shortened right away after all, how can it be then that in some cases this shortening has no effect immediately and what happens during the healing process that makes it happen?
I heard of some people claiming that they got only little increase from this type of surgery (in Germany though) and then moved on to Dr Thomas for the huge surgery there. I wonder how this could be that such a procedure with definite changes could lead to no changes in the voice. I wonder though if they did not know that the healing takes a year and increases can happen in that time. Maybe they jumped towards the next surgery too fast. So I am interested in the healing process and how it would affect pitch, as the general configuration of the vocal cords is changed immediately after the surgery already and doe snot build up over time. Just want to make sure that its not the vocal exercises alone that producemiuch of these pitch increase effects in the long run.
Another idea about why for some it may seem to be the same is what I actually expect to experience if I should do this - I already do not talk in my old voice anymore but in one that is at +50Hz. Now if the surgery basically removes the lower pitch range, I am already not using it anyways, so an increase in 75Hz would in the end bring me up only 25 Hz and I might feel disappointed but that increase would be me talking with a relaxed voice compared to before where it is relaxed but still changed by practice. I dont know - maybe that is something thats happening? Kiwi - is it easier for you now to talk the way you do compared to before even if the voice sounds according to your post rather similar? I can imagine you changed your voice already a lot in the many years in the past and maybe what I described there applies to you?

I dont know if nikki is in the forum or not but Dr.Thomas did her voice surgery I think she sounds great but I seen another girl on youtube who was not satisfied with her results, so I guess voice surgery can be risky all together

@anjaq I don't want to presume I understand what's going on during the healing process :-) but my general idea is that the differences could be due to swelling and stuff maybe going down more quickly in one person than another, and maybe that leads to faster apparent changes. If the vocal folds are still swollen I could imagine they'd be lower pitched since they'd be thicker. So ones who get results quicker are maybe the ones who are healing quicker as well. Just my uneducated guess. I like your idea of already speaking in a higher pitch so not seeing a difference really in the early recovery. I would imagine that would change though later in the recovery as the pitch starts to go higher.

Quote from: delani25 on November 15, 2013, 07:02:00 PM
I dont know if nikki is in the forum or not but Dr.Thomas did her voice surgery I think she sounds great but I seen another girl on youtube who was not satisfied with her results, so I guess voice surgery can be risky all together

I don't know what she sounded like before so maybe it's an artifact of her old voice but to me her voice sounds a little raspy. It doesn't sound bad at all, she sound perfectly female to me, but if the surgery gave me raspiness like that I would be a little less satisfied. I haven't heard any raspiness like that in any of the videos from Yeson.

Quote from: SarahR on November 15, 2013, 08:59:55 PM
I don't know what she sounded like before so maybe it's an artifact of her old voice but to me her voice sounds a little raspy. It doesn't sound bad at all, she sound perfectly female to me, but if the surgery gave me raspiness like that I would be a little less satisfied. I haven't heard any raspiness like that in any of the videos from Yeson.

Yea i don't know what her voice sounded like before either but i do hear the raspy part to it also but nevertheless its female

Holy ->-bleeped-<-, I had to go and mention that it's easy not to talk!!! Just this morning I've already accidentally tried to talk twice! I was doing so good too. Ugh, c'mon Tuesday, I need confirmation I haven't ruined everything now!

Luckily they were only single words and I wasn't trying to project much. Nothing came out at all, and there's only a slight bit of sensation that goes away quickly so I hope everything's still good.

Quote from: SarahR on November 15, 2013, 09:37:40 PM
Holy ->-bleeped-<-, I had to go and mention that it's easy not to talk!!! Just this morning I've already accidentally tried to talk twice! I was doing so good too. Ugh, c'mon Tuesday, I need confirmation I haven't ruined everything now!

Luckily they were only single words and I wasn't trying to project much. Nothing came out at all, and there's only a slight bit of sensation that goes away quickly so I hope everything's still good.

Haha, you're fine!! If you read back through my posts I did the same thing and I was SO pissed at my self. But don't worry

My understanding is the voice exercises work on the new (shorter) vocal chords.  I understand too that it takes a year for the chords to tighten, hence the improvement.

I have to admit to being "naughty" I used to put on a mans voice sometimes on the phone to trick people who I was.  Not until talking to Dr Kim did I realize this would have affected my vocal chords and perhaps that's why they looked so strange...they did.  Like a V but one side was shorter than the other and both chords had a thick whitish look.  The only way I can really describe it is to think of raw chicken, sorry!

I am happy with things, but feel the exercises will push my voice through a barrier to the other side, the feminine one.

Question: is blowing on hot food doing the same thing as whispering? The reason I ask is because I haven't been blowing on my food to cool it down since I think it's similar to whispering and I don't want to do that at all. However, isn't the problem with whispering the turbulence of the airflow? I don't think the controlled blowing to cool food is as turbulent as that, so maybe it's fine? Or should I just not do it just in case?

Sarah! I'm glad to hear that things are going so well!

No, blowing on your food is totally fine. The whisper sound you are hearing in that case is coming from your lips and mouth.

I wouldn't worry about accidentally trying to say one word, it happened to me too and everything turned out great.

I'm so excited for you! Keep up the great recovery-ing

Cool, thanks for the explanation.

So nothing new to really report for today. Woke up feeling good as usual. Still no pain or anything so that's good. I'm getting really excited to see what it looks like now. It's getting closer and closer to being able to talk! I'm pretty sure I'm going to be getting Botox which means I'll have another week of no talking.

Is there any way Dr. Kim would allow me to try and say a word or two before he does the Botox?!? The only reason I won't be able to talk for another week is only due to the Botox right? Usually patients can start saying a couple words after 7 days? If that's the case then I'd LOVE to be able to give my voice a test drive on Tuesday first and then have him do the Botox. Yeah yeah, I know, but I'm impatient at this point :-) If not then I guess I'll have to wait until next Tuesday to hear it. Aaahhh, I'm so excited!

Today we're going to go to Insadong and Myeondong to do some more perusing and shopping. It's been crazy cold the entire time we've been here but at least it's still been sunny. I think it'll get up to 44 degrees F today.

Tomorrow is the big day when I finally get to see if everything is healing well. This morning I woke up and my throat felt kind of...tight. That's best word I can use. It's not pain or soreness, but just feels tight. I hope it doesn't mean anything bad. It's not as bad as it was earlier but it's still feeling that way a little bit.

Anyways, I'll post again with the results of the post-op exam tomorrow.

Woop! Sounds like fun.

My favorite shop was in Insadong. There is a lady there who makes beautiful painted ceramic necklaces (and matching accessories, too). I liked the one on the right so much I had to go back on our last day to get more! There is rarely an occasion where I am not wearing one of these



The quarter is just for scale. I do not wear money as accessories. Lol

Quote from: SarahR on November 17, 2013, 07:31:32 PM
Today we're going to go to Insadong and Myeondong to do some more perusing and shopping. It's been crazy cold the entire time we've been here but at least it's still been sunny. I think it'll get up to 44 degrees F today.

Tomorrow is the big day when I finally get to see if everything is healing well. This morning I woke up and my throat felt kind of...tight. That's best word I can use. It's not pain or soreness, but just feels tight. I hope it doesn't mean anything bad. It's not as bad as it was earlier but it's still feeling that way a little bit.

Anyways, I'll post again with the results of the post-op exam tomorrow.

Insadong and Myeong-dong are very different but both very neat. I enjoyed walking around both a lot and did way too much shopping. Jenny, I'm really jealous that I didn't come across that vendor because those necklaces look so pretty!

And man I wish it was 44 degrees when I was there. In the middle of August the heat index was over 100 every day and the humidity was ridiculous - way worse than the already bad mid-atlantic humidity than I'm used to. I want to go back in the spring time since it's supposed to be really nice that time of year.

I can't believe it's been almost a week already! Please keep us updated.

I took the initiative and phoned Yeson today and spoke to Jessie.  I asked her how my voice sounded and she said it sounded really good and that I was doing well.  I asked her why I had "stuffiness" in my voice and she said she could hear it.  I told her how I drank maybe 6 mugs of coffee a day (only decaf) and she told me I must stop this as I should only drink water & juice.    I would never have knowingly done this, so you can suppose I must have some sort of dementia!

It is hot here (we are in our Summer) so it won't be hard to stop the coffee.  (and I thought I was doing so well with the decaf!)

She was pleased, that's the main thing.

I must be brain dead!  LOL 

Oh my god it was such a great day today! We went to Myeongdong, after missing the stop initially haha, and had lunch, then walked around a bit. It actually started snowing a bit, just like snow flurries, so we decided to head back down toward Gangnam. Before hopping on the subway we decided to paruse the underground shops. We didn't find much that was worth the price there so after a couple hours we headed back to Gangnam. We did some more shopping there and found some cool stuff that was reasonably priced. It was so much fun going through all the little shops down there. We ended up back at the hotel and I had a hot cup of cocoa.

I really love Seoul and can't wait to come back when I have a voice again. Speaking of that, I'm about 19 hours away from my post-op exam with Dr. Kim and I'm really excited to see it and maybe hopefully get to say a word or two.

I do have a question though. At what point can laughing resume? Is that after one month when general conversation begins, or two months when most everything else can resume?