I spent the last two days at the Blizzcon convention center in Anaheim and did a lot of talking (and drinking, I know, I know, broke the rules big time), and my voice seemed to have done just fine. People I was introduced to who would find out I was trans said they couldn't believe I wasn't born female, and that how even if some trans girls looked good, you could tell by their voice. I took that as a compliment that my voice was passable enough lol.

But anyway, did a lot of talking the last two days and it is a LOT easier and (most importantly) a lot more relaxed to talk in a trained voice. By trained voice all I did was control chest resonance and I didn't have to pay attention to increasing or controlling my pitch. As it stands my voice is only a bit higher (~20 Hz). Subtle increase in pitch but it seems more than enough that now I only have to watch for resonance and can ignore any issues with pitch.

I was in the androgynous area beforehand at 160 Hz and the small 20 Hz increase just locked my natural voice into a comfortable female pitch at 180 Hz. If I chose to *actually* manually increase my pitch, which is what I do for work, I can get it to 240-260 Hz.

I am close to a month post-op now and wish I would have gotten a bit more of an increase. It seems most women got the majority of their increase after the first month, and then further increase as the weeks go by. But I'm still waiting out the next couple of weeks to see what happens. Either way, the surgery was definitely for the better.

I am not into video games but you were less than 3 miles away from where I lived when I transitioned. I lived about 34 years in Anaheim near the convention center.

Quote from: Dena on November 08, 2015, 07:30:06 PM
I am not into video games but you were less than 3 miles away from where I lived when I transitioned. I lived about 34 years in Anaheim near the convention center.

Nice! Yeah, gamer girl at heart here. I was about to say if you lived near the convention still I wouldn't have minded meeting you next year when I return for Blizzcon 2016!

Quote from: Roni on November 08, 2015, 07:54:05 PM
Nice! Yeah, gamer girl at heart here. I was about to say if you lived near the convention still I wouldn't have minded meeting you next year when I return for Blizzcon 2016!

So, today is officially 3 weeks after my surgery and I STILL cannot produce anything more than a whisper.  I'm a bit concerned.  I know, I know, we all heal differently but in all but one of the recordings I've heard from Haben patients, they've at least been able to speak with some amount of tone, even if it's hoarse and breathy by this time or earlier.  If I still can't speak at all by the 1 month mark I think I should email Dr. Haben and see what's going on.  I really hope I don't end up like Lunarain who was unable to speak at all for many months.

We had several people in a row who recovered quickly form the surgery and that gave everybody high expectations about the surgery. Dr Haben has said it can take 3 to 6 months for the voice to stabilize. While I can talk, at almost 4 months, my voice is still healing because I have slight pain and hoarseness when I use the voice very much. I was two weeks before my cords would vibrate and then my voice was very weak for almost 5 weeks when it started to recover. Then at 5 weeks the sutures were attacked by my body and I lost all that I had gained.

I really want to start working on my final voice but I can't do it a few minutes at a time until my voice fails. Dr Haben sometime give a 1 month time out to people who have had more extensive work done so they don't hear the voice before it's had time to heal. I ask him about a longer period for me and he said it wasn't necessary for me but as slow as my recover has been, I think 3 months time out for me would have been a good thing.

I'm near 5 months post op yeson and I'm still improving. I have a 1 month recording and a later one in the yeson thread I would say a full year is needed for your final final voice.

I also get the "I wouldn't have known" too. I won't go into details but sometimes my own ability to pass amazes even me.

Kwala, don't worry, I'm sure you'll be fine. I was so paranoid and anxious during those initial weeks of recovery, so you're not alone. For some people, it just takes longer to get the voice back for some reason. Yes, Lunarain's recovery took a long time, but she got her voice back at the end, that's what matters the most!

Thanks for the words of encouragement , ladies!  I know I have to be patient it's just frustrating to be completely unable to speak.  I don't have to talk much at work but it was really awkward the last few days when people would say hello and I'd just wave and smile lol.  My good friends know, but for those who don't I just said I had some vocal nodules removed.  Other people just assumed I had a cold and I didn't bother correcting them.

My voice was so weak for a while that I continued to carry my note pad and pen. The common theme was voice out of order

Girl you will be fine! Just a little slower when it comes to healing, but girls here including I have gotten anxious during the initial healing period and we are fine now.

I am two days away from being a month post-op. While I am able to converse for hours a day, my voice is still not as clear as it was pre-op, and it gets tiring to talk after a while. I always end up having to take vocal breaks for periods during the day. But it is a lot easier for me to reach trained voice now.

I am returning to work in 4 weeks, and I am using the next 4 weeks to do complete voice rest in hopes that I will have a clear voice when I return to work in December. I too didn't expect how long of a recovery I would need because as Dena said, there were people here who healed super fast and it gave us a skewered perception on the healing process.

Best of luck to you my dear, and I'm sure when everything is all healed and done, your voice will sound lovely! I remember you having an already passable trained voice pre-op.

Quote from: iKate on November 11, 2015, 04:13:51 PM
I'm near 5 months post op yeson and I'm still improving. I have a 1 month recording and a later one in the yeson thread I would say a full year is needed for your final final voice.

I also get the "I wouldn't have known" too. I won't go into details but sometimes my own ability to pass amazes even me.

I'm sure it's not only the voice at this point! It helps that you don't look masculine.

Quote from: kwala on November 11, 2015, 04:58:47 PM
Thanks for the words of encouragement , ladies!  I know I have to be patient it's just frustrating to be completely unable to speak.  I don't have to talk much at work but it was really awkward the last few days when people would say hello and I'd just wave and smile lol.  My good friends know, but for those who don't I just said I had some vocal nodules removed.  Other people just assumed I had a cold and I didn't bother correcting them.

Yes, that gets old. Especially someone like me where people assume you aren't talking because you don't speak English. I even had one gas station attendant try to touch me. I pulled away from him. (why do I attract such creeps is beyond me).

However I've found creative ways to interact with people and my smartphone thumbs are like lightning anyway (some of my long posts here are on my iPhone).

I just wrote, "I lost my voice." That's it. I didn't explain to people at all except my friends and close colleagues.

Quote from: iKate on November 11, 2015, 08:50:11 PM
Yes, that gets old. Especially someone like me where people assume you aren't talking because you don't speak English. I even had one gas station attendant try to touch me. I pulled away from him. (why do I attract such creeps is beyond me).

However I've found creative ways to interact with people and my smartphone thumbs are like lightning anyway (some of my long posts here are on my iPhone).

I just wrote, "I lost my voice." That's it. I didn't explain to people at all except my friends and close colleagues.

Major EWWW about the gas station attendant!  Glad you were able to pull back.

*****

So, I made a very brief recording today as there has been a tiny bit of improvement.  I don't expect this to be anywhere near representative of the final voice but I thought I should probably put it out there to track my progress and also to give an idea of what the voice can sound like during the healing process for those considering surgery.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1c0r76fhuw0

Mean frequency is 253 hertz but I take that with a grain of salt. I think a lot of the tone is unintentional overtones popping out and, while this sounds gross, I have a feeling that the build up of phlegm is vibrating more than my actual cords lol so we will see how it sounds when I'm stronger and the site has stabilized. Now back to being quiet!  I actually made it through the entire work day without saying a word.  Some people may have thought I was being rude by avoiding everyone but my voice comes first and now I have the whole weekend to be a shut-in and rest up.

Voice is still pretty rough from the surgery to be expected. I make the pitch out to be around 220 hz which is still pretty good considering you will gain a bit more over the next month or two. Judging from my voice, you should see at least 10 to 20 Hz more as the voice recovers. I think you got your moneys worth out of the surgery and now all you need is for it to heal so you can use it.

Note the way I figured the pitch was to match it with my own voice and check it with my pitch meter on the phone. I don't have a trained musical ear so this may be a bit rough on the guess.

Quote from: Dena on November 13, 2015, 09:15:32 PM
Voice is still pretty rough from the surgery to be expected. I make the pitch out to be around 220 hz which is still pretty good considering you will gain a bit more over the next month or two. Judging from my voice, you should see at least 10 to 20 Hz more as the voice recovers. I think you got your moneys worth out of the surgery and now all you need is for it to heal so you can use it.

Note the way I figured the pitch was to match it with my own voice and check it with my pitch meter on the phone. I don't have a trained musical ear so this may be a bit rough on the guess.

Well, I'm a musician with three degrees and I have absolute pitch (meaning I can name any note any time I hear it without reference- Dr. Haben even tested me on his piano lol) and to be sure I actually used praat so I'm absolutely certain of the measurement.  Though, as I said there are some false overtones present due to the hoarseness that I expect to diminish as the swelling goes down. 

Just a tip, but using your own voice (which can vary greatly on its own)as a base and "guestimating" the pitch of another voice in a side by side comparison is not at all a good way to get a measurement.  Especially when you consider that hertz measurements are not absolute in scale and increase exponentially and we are talking about the average, not isolated notes.   If you don't want to use praat, a slightly better (but still not fool proof) way would be to use a piano or any app or instrument that can create a stable drone so at least you have an absolute base to compare from. And that's also assuming you have some degree of relative pitch knowledge.

Sounds pretty good for three weeks, at least you can talk now! Your final voice will probably sound completely different once it heals.

Quote from: jollyjoy on November 13, 2015, 10:43:39 PM
Sounds pretty good for three weeks, at least you can talk now! Your final voice will probably sound completely different once it heals.

Yeah, that's what I think, too.  Right now is mostly just crackling noise lol so this really isn't representative of the final product.

I think it will stabilize and what you hear today is not representative of what the final product will be. That said it seems to be on the right track.

Tomorrow will be the four week mark since my surgery and I still can't speak above a whisper.  I'll be sending Dr. Haben an update and voice sample to see what he says.  I have been following all of the instructions and resting my voice as much as possible.  Hopefully I'll be able to produce a real sound soon.  Even if it's hoarse and scratchy!

This means you still have surgical laryngitis. Mine suddenly went away around six and a half weeks after hearing some deep, weird sounds. Before that, my voice was also whispery. You should be fine, but it wouldn't hurt to check with Dr. Haben.