I doubt it is quicker than CTA. Reading what people have been describing here, you have 2 weeks of not even coughing if possible, then 2 more weeks of not saying more than a word a day, then 4 more weeks of not saying much at all and then you can slowly start, after half a year or so you are almost at the voice that will remain with still more healing going on (I hope Jenny will say how much happened between 9 Months and well over a year one day, so we know if there is still something to be expected). With CTA I guess the voice can be used earlier, but it will be too high pitched at first and then come down - with bad luck it will come down too low. But I am not really aware of healing peropds for CTA.

I read two blogs about people doing glottoplasty in Germany describing their recovery. They both did try to talk within the first week and produced raspy sounds, but say they could whisper and were back to speaking adter 2 weeks. One woman I know of was screaming after just about 2 weeks loudly and ruptured the suture. Do you really think that these clinics were good at judging how long the recovery takes? Me not. For them it is a week of hospital stay and then you go home and do whatever you think, you get the advice to not talk too much. I am not surprised that for those following these "procedures", their voices are not totall healthy in the end

there is a shorter description here: http://selina.web99.de/homepage/index.php?way=1&site=READOUT&DERNAME=Stimm%20OP%20+%20Logop%E4die&dm=selina&USER=selina&goto=1&XURL=&WB=&EXTRAX=X&PIDX=111734
(it says to "not speak, and if so then only very low volume for 3 weeks after surgery" - clearly not enough!)

And one more elaborate description with recovery:
http://www.alexandra-aktuell.de/stimme_logo/stimme_a.htm - it also mentions Prof Remarcle who did a CTA on one patient there

And one more:
http://alex_home.beepworld.de/neue-stimme.htm

That is about all I could find regarding more detailled descriptions and personal experiences from Germany. And they are all rather old. Its a taboo topic in Germany to do voice surgery . No one supports it and people get criticized a lot if they do this, even good results of it are called bad voices or it is claimed it is a waste as the same could have been done with training.

Unfortunately I can't reply to personal messages on this forum - does anybody know why?

Somebody asked me if I know any places to stay near Prof Remacle's clinic: I am going to stay at the Royal Snail Hotel in Namur. I checked out a lot of hotels in the area and this seems to be one of the best.

Sorry - PMs are only available after some time after registration or rather after you have done some posts

I had my surgery with Prof Remacle on Friday and so far everything went very well. Surprisingly, I am not experiencing much pain and discomfort - after reading many reports here in the forum, I expected it to be much worse. Now I am in the crucial phase of not being allowed to produce any noise for ten days. The hardest thing is to avoid coughing, and of course sometimes I just couldn't manage to do it and had to cough very gently. What I heard then was very low and male sounding, but I think that can be expected right after surgery.

One word of advice if you think about having surgery here: Except for Prof Remacle and the anesthetists, nobody here really speaks or understands English. If you don't know at least some basic French, things will be quite complicated.

The clinic itself (UCL Mont-Godinne) is a strange mix of VERY old and hyper-modern - I guess they're in a process of gradual renovation at the moment. Everyone was very friendly and competent, but of course this is a public hospital and you can't compare it to a private, commercial institution like the Yeson Voice Center. There were longer waiting times, some smaller hiccups concerning my payment via bank transfer and so on. I stayed one night after surgery and have been discharged yesterday.

Before surgery, I had an appointment with an anesthetist and a speech therapist who took a lot of measurements of my voice (yes, including the lowest male tone I could produce - very embarrassing!). She said my trained female voice was already very good (at about 200 Hz) and I explained to her that the main reason for me to have this surgery done is to reduce the effort it takes to stay in the feminine range.

Right before surgery, Prof Remacle came to talk to me and he explained the whole procedure once again. We also agreed that he would do a trachea shave in the same session. After about two hours I was brought to the operating room. I was quite nervous, but the anesthetist talked to me all the time and cleverly distracted me till I fell asleep.

I woke up again after about one and a half hours, feeling quite comfortable except for a mild soreness in my throat. After a short time they brought me to my room. The following hours were a little difficult because I had to adjust to not being able to speak and I always had the urge to remove some phlegm from my throat - virtually impossible without coughing. I guess I produced some pretty scary sounds during these first hours and of course I was afraid that I pulled out the suture. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink the first day but I wasn't hungry anyway. The first night was ok, I found that lying on the side alleviated the urge to clear my throat.

The next day I had an ENT exam (transnasal fiberscopy which means putting a little tube in your throat through your nose...) and everything looked fine. I got some prescriptions (antibiotics, pain medication which I don't needed so far, proton pump inhibitors to avoid reflux) and I also purchased a device to inhale three times a day.

Now I'm back at my hotel in Namur feeling quite comfortable. I am very curious how my voice will turn out...

Interesting! Please let us know how your recovery is going on.

Lara

Short update:

It's the end of the last day of my voice rest period, and so I took the chance to say a few words (counting from 1 to 10 - very softly and carefully, of course). From what I can say, my voice still sounds weak, but it has definitely changed: I tried to stay as relaxed as possible and so I expected to hear my old male voice, but what I heard seemed to be about an octave higher! Wow!

Last Friday I also had an examination with an ENT specialist here in my home town, and he said the vocal folds are healing well (no inflammation, just some mild redness on the left side) and the suture is in place.

I am very pleased so far. But now back to voice rest - I don't want to do any damage...

I'm very interested in following your progress. I'm from the UK, and this would be an awfully lot more convenient than South Korea. Did you make a recording of your voice before the procedure? If you're willing to share such a recording, contrasting it to an "after" recording would be very helpful. It'd be nice if Yeson had some serious competition. Monopoly breeds complacency, and worse, after all.

Quote from: NIP on August 06, 2014, 02:29:58 AM
Did you make a recording of your voice before the procedure?

I already posted a pre-op recording in this thread. I'll keep you updated!

Hi all,  been following this thread and threads like it for quite a while - especially the wonderful Jenny's experiences, who fielded a lot of my questions just over a year ago whilst I was still in my *ahem* GCS surgery recovery bed!  But I'd also like to thank Evenstar, as your even more recent procedure gives me confidence too x

I will be undergoing a glottoplasty here in the U.K in less than two weeks.  I'm in a bit of mild panic about the keeping-silent for 2 weeks thing, I may have to tape my mouth shut!

Kate - will you share your experiences with us? What doctor you are visiting, maybe pre and post recordings of trained and untrained voice? That would be great as I think many are in the UK and could profit from a good surgeon there compared to going to other countries, although I always have doubt when it comes to surgeons who do not specialize in this.

I'll definitely make the recordings, and hopefully have the courage to make them available

My surgeon is Professor Janet Wilson.  Interestingly I was originally scheduled for a CTA, but she was very good at impartially recommending that I consider the Glottoplasty - and once I'd figured out what that procedure actually was, I jumped at the chance

Here is a very short clip of my voice as it is a little more than 3 weeks after surgery. I am still only allowed to talk very softly, and my voice is also quite hoarse (which will remain for another couple of weeks), but from what I can say I am very satisfied so far. This is the natural speaking pitch and it takes zero effort to stay there.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1CBG27XfB65

Here another short recording. Today my voice was a little less hoarse and also a little higher.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0F92q2DMe7W

After nearly one month, I am allowed to talk normally now. I am still careful of course. My voice is already fairly clear in the mornings, but it still gets hoarse quickly. This is mostly caused by the sutures and fibrin glue which started to dissolve and get in the way of my vocal cords now. It gets better if I clear my throat gently. Prof Remacle told me that I can expect to cough up the remaining sutures and glue soon.

Here is another short voice clip I recorded today. It sounds pretty good to me (much better than my best pre-op voice recordings) but you notice that it gets hoarse on the word "beautiful".

Post-OP recording August 14: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0K2hXNQzzzT

Here is my pre-op recording for comparison: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1wU59uqwwF4
Pre-OP male voice: http://vocaroo.com/i/s18GGGXZ9K65

Here are also some pictures of my recent ENT exam - you can still see the fibrin glue at the anterior commissure:

   

I am very satisified with my result so far. Not only do I find it nearly effortless to speak in the right range now; the best thing is that the surgery has changed my timbre in a subtle way that makes it possible for me to perceive my own voice as female for the first time in my life!

QuoteIt gets better if I clear my throat gently. Prof Remacle told me that I can expect to cough up the remaining sutures and glue soon.

I can understand that you feel like coughing by the looks of the glue etc. Does this give problems eating and swallowing.? I can imagine that its important that an experienced ENT does the local examinations. If there are post-op problems, these pictures would probably worry an unwary ENT.  Getting the "arch" of the web just right with glottoplasty seems to be crucial for future voice. 

A fantastic result !

I can only hope that my result will be comparable *fingers crossed*

Quote from: thegreenrabbit on August 14, 2014, 03:09:47 AM
Does this give problems eating and swallowing.?

No, no problems at all. I don't feel the presence of the sutures and glue in any other way than being hoarse.

Quote from: thegreenrabbit on August 14, 2014, 03:09:47 AM
I can imagine that its important that an experienced ENT does the local examinations. If there are post-op problems, these pictures would probably worry an unwary ENT.

Actually, the ENT who took this pictures had no former experience with glottoplasties. He didn't seem to be worried at all and just told me that the sutures have started to dissolve.

Quote from: thegreenrabbit on August 14, 2014, 03:09:47 AM
Getting the "arch" of the web just right with glottoplasty seems to be crucial for future voice.

I think that's true. I cannot judge the shape of the newly formed anterior commissure yet because it's hidden under the remaining glue, but I have the impression that Prof Remacle got it perfectly right because my voice already sounds very good when it's not hoarse.

Quote from: Kate_H on August 14, 2014, 03:17:45 AM
A fantastic result !

I can only hope that my result will be comparable *fingers crossed*

Thank you, and I wish you good luck for your surgery!