Sounds like a good time. I stayed in Myeongdong and the shopping force was strong with that one. I almost bought so many things, but I found myself with similar feelings about most stuff not being worth the price. Honestly, most of the clothing in Seoul seems to be made very cheaply- almost for a one time use. The girl that we met there explained to us that fashion moves so quickly that there is really no need for long lasting clothing. As soon as something is in, it's out... then it's time to buy new clothes! Interesting! I think that's why I liked Insadong so much more, because there were many more arts and crafts type of places, it seemed more unique.

As far as the laughing, I understood it as you can start once you are able to have full conversations at 1 month. That is when I started exploring the new laugh!

I hope everything goes well at your 1 week checkup! I'm sure it will

Ok cool, I really don't know if I'd be able to stop myself from laughing if I couldn't do it once I was doing general conversational speaking. I love laughing and want to start taking advantage of liking how it sounds to laugh now :-)

Oh, I was pretty sure I remembered that you stayed in Myeongdong and it was at a place called...damn, what was it, something Prince. Anyways, I think I passed right by it! I took a pic of it. Was it a big brownish building, with a curved edge facing the street?

That makes sense why the clothing would be cheaply made, but if the styles go in and out so quickly yet are so expensive it seems like it would be crazy expensive to keep up to date with the current styles.

Yep that was it! Hotel Prince!

Kiwi Eva - that sounds a bit odd with the coffee. So you are not supposed to drink coffee, even decaf, for how long after the surgery? I need coffee - I can do some time without it, though thats harder if I cannot replace it with black tea, but to stay away from it forever would be tough.

Its funny - I read so much about how you girls here go on shopping sprees in Seoul and about fashion and accessoires - I get the impression that if I should go to this place, I would have a hard time to be entertained as I am not that much a fan of shopping and fashion...

Anjaq...........I'm in the same boat as you. Not big into fashion or shopping. I have been scouring the travel sites for ideas when I make my trip. So far I think it'll be a trip to the DMZ and moon the soldiers on the North.

Quote from: RachelAnne on November 18, 2013, 10:43:21 AM
Anjaq...........So far I think it'll be a trip to the DMZ and moon the soldiers on the North.

Whatever you do in Seoul, you won't be doing that in the DMZ unless your looking to start a war.  Several years ago a tree was cut down and the people who did it were axed to death.  If you do go to the DMZ please book with a reputable company (usually booked out several weeks in advance) as there are others who are terrible...old buses, no air-conditioning, and they don't make it such a good experience 

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Quote from: voodle on November 18, 2013, 03:05:03 PM
but my vocal chords are more susceptible to problems with phlegm than they were before the surgery, which I guess is why they warn about it.

Ok - that may not be good either as I have that as a problem rather massively already. In 2 days  will have that checked out together with possible voice damage, my vocal range and such - I hope they do a lot of stuff if I have to be there for 3 hours and I hope they can find out why I have these problems with it recently. But more phlegm at the vocal cords is not what I need :\

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What are they checking in the voice exam in Seoul before yout surgery there? I will have a voice examination in 2 days here at home and I am sure they will run a lot of tests, but dont know what to expect and maybe what to suggest to be testing. Whats the purpose of the exam in Seoul? To see if you have damage that needs correction and to get data on the pre op voice frequencies and strength?

They test a ton of things... How much air you use while you phonate, the health of them visually, your fundamental frequency, and they use a high speed larygeal camera to look at them in super slow-mo to make sure they are flapping symmetrically- an easy way to diagnose vocal tremor

Quote from: Jennygirl on November 18, 2013, 09:08:10 PM
They test a ton of things... How much air you use while you phonate, the health of them visually, your fundamental frequency, and they use a high speed larygeal camera to look at them in super slow-mo to make sure they are flapping symmetrically- an easy way to diagnose vocal tremor

I'm glad I didn't reply.  LOL THere's no way I could have answered her so succinctly.  I just knew they did a bunch of tests!

Hey guys, so I had my follow-up exam today and got to finally see the vocal folds again. They look fantastic, the suture was clean and the healing had really progressed nicely! I'm so happy I didn't mess them up this last week. I also got the Botox injection done. It was a really, really small needle that they poke you in the neck twice with and inject it. It didn't really hurt, maybe a little prick. It did leave two little marks for a couple hours though. I think they're already gone by now though.

Interestingly, Dr. Kim said I could start saying a few words a day starting today, so I don't have to wait another week. That's actually easier said than done though. I tried to say a couple words and literally nothing came out! It's so hard to get any sound to actually come out (and this was before the Botox). It'll likely be even harder now with the Botox, at least for a little bit. I'm probably going to just still wait another week or so to really start trying to get sound out so I don't risk trying too hard and damaging something.

Here are my tests results:



The first one contains the "low" voice results, with a mean frequency of 155Hz. You can see above and to the left of that he wrote 229Hz, which is where he says I should end up once it's fully healed. Right in the middle of the female range! The second one is the "high" voice results, where I was trying to use a feminine voice. I ended up using my high feminine voice since I was a little confused what they were telling me to do. I thought they had said to use the highest pitch I could do, so I started out trying to belt out something at probably like 350Hz, lol. I started laughing though so they started over and I just did it in my high female voice, which is what you see there. It's really cool though how their measurements match almost exactly what I had measured myself in Praat with my three different voices. My low measurement was 153Hz, theirs was 155Hz. My high measurement was 190Hz, theirs was 196Hz. Neat.

The other two are just some other measurements they took. The third one contains the phonation results where you can see how much air pressure I needed compared to normal: 2.77 vs a normal of 1.5-2, so I was using almost twice the amount of air pressure I should. Also, my phonation time was 13 seconds compared to a normal of 20-25 seconds, so really short there. I'm not entirely sure what the fourth chart means, but I think that's where he determined that I have a vocal tremor. I don't think it was good either. As you can see the graph goes way outside the bounds of the inner circle, haha.

IMPORTANT: Oh yeah! An interesting thing Jessie told me was to make sure that when I started to talk after the 1 month mark that I should intentionally try to use a higher pitch, as opposed to just trying to speak fully relaxed. The reason is so that I can train myself to work with the new shortened vocal folds and a higher pitch that I won't be used to. She also said that as the Botox wears off in a few months that I might notice that my pitch wants to go down a little lower due to me now having more control over them and not being used to it, meaning it will want to level out lower and be monotone until I train myself to use my full range again. I was thinking back to what voodle was saying about how her voice started to go back down after a few months and that may be the reason why. Voodle, if you're reading this I would say to continue to intentionally speak in a higher frequency for a while to train yourself and it should open up your range and ability as you progress and it'll become more natural and consistent speaking at a higher pitch and across a wider range.

So there you have it. I'm finally done with the first step: getting through the first week. Now I get to look forward to starting to get my voice back and hearing it for the first time, yay! I'll keep you guys updated as I start to get phonation again and I'll post audio and/or video recordings with my progression. I'm so excited to move into the second week of recovery and that much closer to hearing my new voice!

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Voodle, that's great to hear that you're starting to get the results you're looking for! Yeah, the breathiness was very likely caused by the Botox/Clonazepam. That's exactly what Jessie told me to expect to until it wore off too.

So voodle, you were able to talk after the first week, or after the second week? And at what point did you start to actually hear your voice and be able to get a clear word out? I think I'm going to just go slowly and maybe try to say one word each day for the next week until I can start to clearly get a word out, then I'll bump up to two to three words a day until the 1 month mark when I can start general conversation.

Abby/Jenny, how long was it until you started to be able to clearly get a word out as well? I'm so curious since it's literally impossible for me right now, lol.

Yay I'm glad it's healing so well That's interesting about the point that Jessie made about trying to use a higher pitch, still learning so much about my voice and how to use it!

As for being able to talk, it was probably like 10-14 days after surgery that I could get a clear word out, but it didn't sound that pretty lol.

Ohmygod so much good info coming into this thread right now! THANK YOU Sarah and voodle!

I took your suggestion voodle and tried to talk in what felt like head voice.. What a difference!! Such a great suggestion I can't believe I never tried that! I'm going to try to integrate as soon as possible because it's exactly what I've been looking for- I'm just not used to it yet in regular speech. Super exciting. Sarah's directions from Jessie confirm it! Wow- I think my voice might be capable of being a lot higher than I ever initially imagined.

Sarah to answer your question about timing, I think for me it was around 3 weeks until I started saying words not feeling self conscious about how quiet or kinda fluffy it sounded. It took quite a while for the botox to wear off enough. I could however say things very quietly to get an idea at the 2 week mark.

voodle- you're a genius

I'm doing 240-250hz rainbow readings without even flinching to catch my voice anywhere. I've been using a more relaxed head type voice and already a huge difference all throughout my range. This is an incredible discovery. THANK YOU!

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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).

Sarah - I just posted a rather lengthy (sorry) result of my voice examination today: https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,153931.msg1288150.html#msg1288150
It sounded a bit like what you describe here - was this image of the vocal chords I posted there similar to yours and this caused issues with vocal strength and air flow? It seems that I have some issues due to speaking in a different voice for so many years now. The major one seems to be an assymetry in the vibrations of the two chords and the other one is a "gap" where they dont come together. I described it in the post. As a result I can hold a note for only 9 seconds which is even worse than your 12 seconds!