The pitch and inflection sounds good and feminine. The breathiness you already know about. Before this last little go around with the sutures, my voice sounded much like that but at a lower pitch so I expect the breathiness will clear up.

Thank you Cadence & Dena! I'm not out of the woods just yet but I'm begining to hope for a silkier voice once I'm completely healed. Best of luck to us Haben girlz!    

How's it going Luna?

Quote from: Cadence Jean on September 10, 2015, 02:44:23 PM
How's it going Luna?

Hi Cadence! Thanks for checking in on me! I'm doing well and being super patient with my super slow recovery. I don't think I'll have anything to show for before the 6 month mark. Realistically speaking, it may very well take me a year for me to arrive at the place where I'm comfortable with my new voice. Meanwhile, I'm getting by rather well with my current voice. My VFS certainly has released me of the mental anguish I used to have with my voice before. So life is good! 

where is your accent from?

Hi Lunarain, thank you SO much for sharing your experience! My recovery has also been quite slow, your thread gives me hope of an eventual recovery!

Hi, Lunarain!  Hope you have been well.  My recovery has been similar to yours in that I'm now over 5 weeks post-op and still stuck with a whispery voice that has almost no tone.  Just curious if you've seen anymore improvement since your 3 month recording.  Thanks for sharing your story!

Quote from: kwala on November 28, 2015, 07:29:22 PM
Hi, Lunarain!  Hope you have been well.  My recovery has been similar to yours in that I'm now over 5 weeks post-op and still stuck with a whispery voice that has almost no tone.  Just curious if you've seen anymore improvement since your 3 month recording.  Thanks for sharing your story!

I just wanted to pop in and see if either of you had any updates for where you're at? I am officially 1 week post surgery so today was the first day I was "allowed" to use my voice. It didn't go so well! No worries, I didn't say more than 5 words, and I plan on letting things rest for at least another week or two before I try literally just a couple more words. But I definitely have the same thing Luna was describing - I can't get out more than a whisper and I don't dare do anything else in fear of straining myself. I can still consciously notice what I assume to be swelling, so I guess that's expected. I am a little bit bummed because I am so antsy to figure out where my pitch is going to end up, but at the same time I know that I shouldn't expect anything at one week. I just hope I can get out more than whispers by the time Christmas rolls around. I've basically been drowning myself in tea with honey.

Can a moderator move this post to the voice section? Thanks!

Lunarain, I'm interested in hearing your current voice as well! Your 3 months voice sounded good, but somewhat breathy/hoarse, did you notice any improvements afterwards?

I thought it was. whoops

Thanks Dena

If swelling is an issue I would ask dr. Haben about taking ibuprofen regularly to control inflammation. During my consultation he told me it was fine to take, and every day I take one at night to make sure they don't swell at night AND cause coughing I won't be able to consciously prevent.

It may also help with your recovery.

Audree

Quote from: Andromeda on December 09, 2015, 12:44:57 PM
I just wanted to pop in and see if either of you had any updates for where you're at? I am officially 1 week post surgery so today was the first day I was "allowed" to use my voice. It didn't go so well! No worries, I didn't say more than 5 words, and I plan on letting things rest for at least another week or two before I try literally just a couple more words. But I definitely have the same thing Luna was describing - I can't get out more than a whisper and I don't dare do anything else in fear of straining myself. I can still consciously notice what I assume to be swelling, so I guess that's expected. I am a little bit bummed because I am so antsy to figure out where my pitch is going to end up, but at the same time I know that I shouldn't expect anything at one week. I just hope I can get out more than whispers by the time Christmas rolls around. I've basically been drowning myself in tea with honey.

Hi, Andromeda.  Sorry I didn't see this sooner.  I'm 7 and a half weeks post op and my improvement has been really, really slow.  At this point I find that during a few random moments during the day I will have a somewhat audible, but still breathy, voice.  It still isn't enough to really project in a social setting, and even my weak voice seems to disappear after a sentence or two. I've been taking ibuprofen and went back on generic prilosec (just in case) last week.  I'll be at the 2 month mark this coming Wednesday and being voiceless is turning into a nightmare.  I did zero talking the first week, only a few words a day for weeks 2-3.  At week 4 I returned to work where I unfortunately have to whisper a little bit, but always try to minimize as much as possible.  I'm going home for the holidays in 2 weeks and am desperate to have a voice with which to communicate with my family.  Anyway, I wish I had better news for you and I sincerely hope your recovery is much better and faster than mine.  Until Lunarain's thread I had never heard of anyone losing their voice for this long.  I thought the worst that could happen was not seeing a gain in pitch.  Now all I want is ANY pitch. 

PS I sent lunarain a private message a while ago but haven't heard back.  Seems she doesn't check the forum very often but she must be about 6 months by now and if her voice is normal it would be a tremendous relief to hear about it 

Your recovery isn't that much different from mine. At 6 and 5 weeks my voice was just above a whisper and I could only get a few words out before my voice crashed. At 3 months I could get normal volume and pitch for a few words and then I would lose pitch and if I used the voice long enough, the volume would fade as well. I am approaching the 5 month mark and still haven't received my 3 month review but the voice is holding up better now. It still fades but I can have a short conversation before fade sets in. Lunarain had it worst than I did but I was lucky that she posted her status before I went for surgery so I was prepared for it. I knew it was very possible I wouldn't be lucky and my voice would remain messed up more than normal. I am lucky that my voice wasn't as bad as  lunarain's but it was far worst that the others I had heard up to that point.

If you can, one thing that helps if you can do it is avoid normal volume. Your voice will hold up longer if you push it as little as possible. I also used head nods and carried paper and pen for a long time incase I needed to make my self clear and I didn't want to use my voice. My problem is I need normal or louder than normal volume because of background noise and the failing hearing of others so I find myself moving closer whenever possible to get the message across.

Your voice will return but slow recovery happens. The last communication I had with Dr Haben when I submitted my three month voice received the following exchange

Me

Quote
I extended my voice rest a couple of days just in case and because the voice wasn't needed. I decided to check it out on friday should I need it over the weekend and it didn't work. The swelling was so bad the cords refused to vibrate. I didn't force it and only checked it no more than once a day and about the two week period it became usable but only at a very low volume. I stayed silent as much as possible using the voice lightly for the next couple of weeks and then at week 5 after a weekend of not using my voice, I went to use it on monday and found I had lost all the gains I made in my voice. I think my body was rejecting the suture causing a return of the swelling. I don't know exactly when the sutures came out because there is nothing special about that time period. I still can feel a slight pain in the cords from time to time and the voice starts out pretty good and in less that a minute it starts going down hill. I lose the highs and it gets rough. This happened while I was recording the voice sample and the Eeeee after the sample measured with my software 235Hz but from a resting state it would mesure 205 to 210 Hz. I think the difference is noise from the over stressed vocal cords.

Dr Haben

Quote
205 hz would be a great result!  Let me see what I get.  Also, the web does not fully mature for 6-12 months, so any instability in the voice should go away by that time.  Still far to early to call it a "final result."

Quote from: Dena on December 13, 2015, 08:53:20 AM

If you can, one thing that helps if you can do it is avoid normal volume. Your voice will hold up longer if you push it as little as possible. I also used head nods and carried paper and pen for a long time incase I needed to make my self clear and I didn't want to use my voice. My problem is I need normal or louder than normal volume because of background noise and the failing hearing of others so I find myself moving closer whenever possible to get the message across.

Thanks for the tips and info.  Unfortunately, I can't get anywhere near normal volume even at my best moments so avoiding that isn't a problem lol.  I was FINALLY able to get in with an ENT and have an appointment tomorrow so hopefully the scope will calm my fears or reveal an unseen issue.  On the plus side, even in my barely audible whisper voice the receptionist referred to me as ma'am on the phone.  Looking forward to finally getting some answers.

I totally empathize with your fears. I was really concerned about my whispery voice at one point too. Hopefully the issue you're having will resolve with more time healing.

Quote from: kwala on December 14, 2015, 12:34:06 PM
Thanks for the tips and info.  Unfortunately, I can't get anywhere near normal volume even at my best moments so avoiding that isn't a problem lol.  I was FINALLY able to get in with an ENT and have an appointment tomorrow so hopefully the scope will calm my fears or reveal an unseen issue.  On the plus side, even in my barely audible whisper voice the receptionist referred to me as ma'am on the phone.  Looking forward to finally getting some answers.

I hope the exam doesn't turn up anything obviously detrimental, and that your recovery beings to speed up! I would recommend pineapple juice, or Bolt house Farms Green Goodness, or Naked Machine. Also, Traditional Medicinal's Throat Coat tea. I used all.of these on and off for the first couple months.

Thanks Jolly and Cadence.   I know recovery can take longer than expected but being just a few days shy of 2 months, I really can't shake the feeling that something is not right given the current state of my voice.  I sincerely hope I'm wrong and that things will begin to pick up with more time.  Here's to hoping!  I'll definitely update after the exam tomorrow.

Quote from: kwala on December 14, 2015, 02:23:44 PM
Thanks Jolly and Cadence.   I know recovery can take longer than expected but being just a few days shy of 2 months, I really can't shake the feeling that something is not right given the current state of my voice.  I sincerely hope I'm wrong and that things will begin to pick up with more time.  Here's to hoping!  I'll definitely update after the exam tomorrow.

Kwala!! I hope everything turned out well. Please let us know what the good news is

<3
Audree

Quote from: audreelyn on December 15, 2015, 12:24:06 AM
Kwala!! I hope everything turned out well. Please let us know what the good news is

<3
Audree

Thanks, Audree!  Mostly good news!  I posted a more in depth update in my surgery thread.