Hey all I wanted to take a min and post some of my results for my vocal surgery.

So I am posting a link to my flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/27063499@N04/23786939021/in/datetaken/. you can watch videos I have done since surgery and one with me doing leg pressed with my voice before surgery.

I am very happy with the results but I have to warn all you the recovery for me has been long and still going on. I was never prepared for this recovery especially the one month of no talking that Dr. Haben imposed upon me. The isolation was nearly depressing. Simply put the recovery was virtually painless but emotionally a huge challenge.

Add to it that after you start talking your voice is going to be everywhere. It will be good one min and drop out to near silence later. Constantly your throat is filled with flem that messes with your ability to speak reasonably. As it got better I gained more volume but I still lacked control because of the effort to simply maintain that volume.

One thing to note. Prior to surgery I used my nasal passages to get resonance for my best female voice. AFTER vocal surgery you simply talk. There is NO MORE USING NASAL passages.


Simply put after six months finally I am getting volume I would like and consistency. That means I can now play with word inflection. (don't think any of my videos have me doing that).

You might ask was it worth it? HELL YES!!!!!!!!! BEST 7000 dollars I ever spent. Even more dramatic upon you than FFS and SRS. I simply have to stress that like the other surgeries recovery is likely to be very LONG..

For those of you that gave me some insight into the results and helped me to make my decision to get the surgery I give you a huge thank you. It changed my life in so many ways I cant explain...................

Katie

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Katie, thank you so much for sharing! You sound great. You're definitely right in saying that recovery is not a quick and easy process. I'm at over 3 months and my voice is still hoarse and gets more hoarse with continued talking. Your video gives me hope that my voice will still improve after the 3 months mark!

Yes I sent Dr. Haben a concern letter a few months after surgery saying something like hey what's going on here my voice is weak. He said something like Katie this is a LONG recovery........................

As I think I stated JUST IN THE LAST couple weeks I am getting consistent volume that I would want to, I can yell, and I can use inflection in my words. I do believe voice therapy would be a good thing and Dr. Haben stresses this. I have not gotten any therapy as of yet.

Just got my followup alalysis from Dr. Haben today.

Here is his message.

Greetings Katie,

Finally finished the acoustic analysis, you sound amazing!  Attached is the pre and post audio file.  The final pitch is well over 200hz, well into the female range.  I am very pleased.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,


Dr. H.

That's good news Katie. So you didn't get any scoping done by Dr. Haben to see the cords have properly healed? How do you get your follow-up analysis? Do you just email him a voice sample?

No no scoping. He sends you an email after three months and you read it and send it back to him. He then analyzes it.

Thanks for sharing, Katie.  Sounding great!

Jolly, what he told me was that everyone is invited for a post op review in person and it's covered by your initial payment, but for those who can't make the trip he requests a voice recording through email for evaluation.

Correct. I am not going to fly back to Rochester for a follow up. He does stress that vocal therapy is 50% of the equation. I have no doubt because it is a big learning experience using the new voice. Crap one issue I have is when I talk my brain expects to have a certain volume in my head (ears) well that is all different and so there are times when your talking to someone and you cant hear yourself very well but the other person hears you fine and you end up saying to yourself "well hell I guess I did speak loud enough".

As it sits now six + months out my voice is far from perfect but I got to say I still like the way I sound and would do it again in a heartbeat. I wish I could post the results he sent me but I don't see where I can put a wav file on here.



Katie

I live in Canada, and it's about a 3.5-4 hour drive to Rochester, so I thought I might as well go there for the check-up since it's not too long of a drive.

Quote from: jollyjoy on January 12, 2016, 01:11:24 PM
I live in Canada, and it's about a 3.5-4 hour drive to Rochester, so I thought I might as well go there for the check-up since it's not too long of a drive.

That's awesome.  It's about an 8 hour drive for me and I'm lazy so I flew in for surgery.  My original plan was to just send him a follow up email at 3 months, but I'm at 3 months tomorrow and still nothing worth commenting on lol.  I'd rather not make another trip but I will definitely go back if things don't pick up over the next month.

Is the 3 month follow up with Haben "free", or rather included with the initial price of surgery?

I'm about a 5 hour drive from him myself. I'm thinking the trip might be worth it for some peace of mind. The gas would probably be cheaper than the cost of an ENT here, and Haben is probably most qualified to remark on his own work, lol.

7 weeks to go!

5 hours is not too bad of a drive, especially if you have someone with you. I think I'll be going for sure just to see if the hoarseness is caused by remaining inflammation or by something else.

Quote from: Andromeda on January 13, 2016, 02:09:00 PM
Is the 3 month follow up with Haben "free", or rather included with the initial price of surgery?

I'm about a 5 hour drive from him myself. I'm thinking the trip might be worth it for some peace of mind. The gas would probably be cheaper than the cost of an ENT here, and Haben is probably most qualified to remark on his own work, lol.

7 weeks to go!

Quote from: Andromeda on January 13, 2016, 02:09:00 PM
Is the 3 month follow up with Haben "free", or rather included with the initial price of surgery?

I'm about a 5 hour drive from him myself. I'm thinking the trip might be worth it for some peace of mind. The gas would probably be cheaper than the cost of an ENT here, and Haben is probably most qualified to remark on his own work, lol.

7 weeks to go!

Yes, the 3 month follow up is included.