I am interested, if you feel so inclined.
Yea, I have had electro and laser, but I still have many grey/white hairs that I have to cut down regularly, so not getting wet would be tough.  I share your sentiment on the hair care and sink washing. ha!  I plan to do the triple (at least that is what he is evaluating me for in Aug.), so I will have the incision.

Quote from: Cadence Jean on June 17, 2015, 11:07:41 AM
If anybody is interested, I could scan the aftercare instructions and share them here?

That would be great, thank you.

I'm glad your recovery is going well, looking forward to hearing your results!

I hope your consult goes well and that he's able to help you out like you're hoping. he's a swell guy. I even patted him on the arm once cuz I couldn't talk, and he smiled like he was affected. Lol hard to describe... I want to bake him cookies and pour him a glass of milk! Lol

Thanks!  I think I totally understand what you mean about him.  I have heard similar nice things about him, too.  My experience emailing back and forth with him was very good, and he is that way in text, too, if that makes sense.  I am looking forward to meeting him.

Hey Cadence, I hope you are recovering well girl! I can't wait to hear your voice.

I'm not ready to post a sample of my voice.  It sounds awful, as expected! lol  I can hear the pitch increase inside of the gravel and grit though.  It's impressive.  There's this sort of...melodic sound to it that I don't recall or remember before?  It's kind of hard to describe.  Maybe the other girls who have had vfs know what I'm talking about?

As promised, here's a scan of the aftercare instructions:

http://i.imgur.com/xmbrL3y.png

And here's a pic of my incision without the steristrips, but with the suture still in:



And after the suture had been removed:



I went to my usual PA to get the suture removed.  Once she got the strips off, she was like, "I have never seen a suture like this before." lol  She had to call in one of her supervising physicians because she was worried about screwing up the incision by pulling it out wrong.  I passed along Haben's instructions to cut the right side of the suture flush with the skin, and then pull from the left side.  So, that's what the physician did.  The suture didn't want to come at first...it felt like it was zigzagged under the skin like you would have expected to see above the skin?  If that makes sense.  So, the physician put a little pressure near where the suture was protruding on the left side, with the fingers of his other hand, and then "pulled the zip cord" with his other hand. lol  It was over so quickly, I didn't even realize it was happening. lol  It hurt a bit at first when he started pulling until whatever was keeping it lodged in there let go.   I'm doing well now - so glad to be able to wash it and shave around it!!  I was told that once that little bit of scab falls off, I can start with the silicone scar sheets.  I think what I'll do though is use coconut oil during the day at work, and then the scar sheets outside of work.  I feel better about not having a big scar sheet on my neck at work...vs showing my incision, I guess.  I don't know why - it just seems more comfortable for me to show the incision instead of the sheet(which looks like a weirdly oversized bandaid - maybe that's why! lol).  Anybody else want to post their scar care regimen?

Quote from: Cadence Jean on June 18, 2015, 09:51:02 PM
I'm not ready to post a sample of my voice.  It sounds awful, as expected! lol  I can hear the pitch increase inside of the gravel and grit though.  It's impressive.  There's this sort of...melodic sound to it that I don't recall or remember before?  It's kind of hard to describe.  Maybe the other girls who have had vfs know what I'm talking about?

As promised, here's a scan of the aftercare instructions:

http://i.imgur.com/xmbrL3y.png

And here's a pic of my incision without the steristrips, but with the suture still in:



And after the suture had been removed:



I went to my usual PA to get the suture removed.  Once she got the strips off, she was like, "I have never seen a suture like this before." lol  She had to call in one of her supervising physicians because she was worried about screwing up the incision by pulling it out wrong.  I passed along Haben's instructions to cut the right side of the suture flush with the skin, and then pull from the left side.  So, that's what the physician did.  The suture didn't want to come at first...it felt like it was zigzagged under the skin like you would have expected to see above the skin?  If that makes sense.  So, the physician put a little pressure near where the suture was protruding on the left side, with the fingers of his other hand, and then "pulled the zip cord" with his other hand. lol  It was over so quickly, I didn't even realize it was happening. lol  It hurt a bit at first when he started pulling until whatever was keeping it lodged in there let go.   I'm doing well now - so glad to be able to wash it and shave around it!!  I was told that once that little bit of scab falls off, I can start with the silicone scar sheets.  I think what I'll do though is use coconut oil during the day at work, and then the scar sheets outside of work.  I feel better about not having a big scar sheet on my neck at work...vs showing my incision, I guess.  I don't know why - it just seems more comfortable for me to show the incision instead of the sheet(which looks like a weirdly oversized bandaid - maybe that's why! lol).  Anybody else want to post their scar care regimen?

Thanks for the update.  If you get past the bruising and redness, that scar looks like it will be really really small in about six months . Congrats on getting through the very critical part of the silent period!

When I had my stitches removed they hadn't ever seen anything like it either. You're a tad more bruised than I was but I'm healing very fast, and I'm positive you will too . In the after care it says don't use scar cream for 30 days after surgery. I just started using http://www.amazon.com/Mederma-Scar-Cream-Plus-SPF/dp/B001PQBELC/ several times a day.
Here's my scar after a month.

Edit: fixed picture link.

The bruising doesn't surprise me. I'm prone to it! My mom too.  My platelet count always comes back low. That prob has something to do with it.

I got a broken link for your pic. :/

PS I'm so glad I have you girls available to chat with about this! Lol Y'all get it from a more detailed and experiential way than my cis friends. I'm grateful for their support in my every day life and I'm grateful for y'all's here on Susan's!

Quote from: Cadence Jean on June 19, 2015, 07:43:20 AM
PS I'm so glad I have you girls available to chat with about this! Lol Y'all get it from a more detailed and experiential way than my cis friends. I'm grateful for their support in my every day life and I'm grateful for y'all's here on Susan's!

True story.  Agreed!

Hey all. Quick update on day 14 here. Acute pain is pretty much gone, even when swallowing. Swelling is going down slowly(typical for me). I'm VERY hoarse when I speak, but I can here the pitch has increased nicely! Over the weekend, I learned that I need to push my voice box all the way down(like talking from chest voice), otherwise it breaks like I'm a pubescent boy. Lol again. Lol It's amazing just how much pitch increase I got already, even with pushing my voice box down. My voice sounds where I was with my trained voice at this point, except I don't really have to think about tightens up my voice muscles. It's so bizarre to untrained my voice! I found my muscles remembering to clench whenever I was around people, like over the weekend at Pride. I had to consciously relax and push my voice box down a little bit when speaking to them, or my voice was breaking all over the place. Lol It's weird having to go against the muscle memory that I developed over the past four years! I still have to pause some times before speaking to completely push those muscles open and let my larynx drop.

Incision is healing nicely. It's swollen and tender on the right side still. Left side is going down. It really looks like the right side of my neck got it worse than my left, since the bruising is clustered over there. I keep drinking Nature, and Bolthouse Farms, and basically any health food juice/shake/protein drink i can buy whenever the opportunity comes up. Lol I think that's helped to a degree with healing. I don't have empirical evidence on that, except that I don't recall healing this quickly or with as little pain from my other surgeries.

I'll admit it seemed like I spoke a little bit too much yesterday. I could feel a bit of a sharp pain within my throat... It was very minor, but focused inside my larynx. I eased way back on the talking then. Other than that bit of pain, all I have is the general discomfort with the swelling at this point. I stopped taking Ibuprofen a couple days ago.

I'm not quite ready to post a sound clip, as I want to read or say a decent amount, but I also don't want to strain my voice(see above). It seems I can handle one or two sentences at a time, but if I speak beyond that, I hoarse up and run the risk of straining my cords. If I keep healing at this rate, I might be able to post a clip this weekend.

So that's my update/ramble for now! Oh! And since there's still a little bit of a scab left on that swollen right side, I've been sticking to coconut oil and holding off on the silicone scar strip for now.

I think this is interestinge - I have to try that to consciously watch out that I dont push my voice box up too high. I think I tend to do that after 17(!) years of developing a muscle memory to make my voice more feminine pre-VFS. Maybe thats in part why Dr Kim uses Botox and muscle relaxation pills - to get rid of that muscle memory

Interesting to note that you actually have to lower the larynx to achieve the correct pitch/tone now.  That will take some getting used to after practicing keeping it up so much.  ugh!

Keep the updates coming!  Glad you are faring well.

Botox would have been nice... I forgot to ask Haben why he forgoes that step when Kim and Spiegel use it(when indicated).

Oh, also forgot to mention, the feeling in my tongue is coming back! The tip and a little bit back from it have full sensation. It's only kinda the middle right now that still feels numb, however, it even feels more sensate then I recall yesterday! XD

I'm very hoarse today. Trying to rest my voice. Hard when I have a few meetings here at work and an eleven year old daughter at home!

Anybody else get the feeling like a hair was stuck in your throat?

Quote from: Cadence Jean on June 28, 2015, 07:28:00 PM
Anybody else get the feeling like a hair was stuck in your throat?

I have a wee bit of it from Dr Kim's surgery.

maybe a surgical thread? usually they should dissolve after a few weeks

Do you have any idea why you ended up with a triple. I have scheduled my surgery and with my hight he wants to target 190 hz. My mouth voice bottom is 130hz meaning only a 60hz push that can be handled with a simple surgery. Your mouth voice sounds a bit better than mine so it sounds like he wanted to push you voice higher than mine. Because my Adams apples was already shaved he didn't want to go there unless he had to.

I wanted the triple, to get rid of my adam's apple and also to block my low end. Which could drop pretty low before.