Well, 11 weeks after surgery and although things are still bad I was very pleased to find that some of my head voice returned today.  My chest voice is still low, weak, and grainy sounding but an inconsistent but clear sounding head voice is at least starting to come back so I hope that's a sign that things are healing overall and more improvement should come in the future.  It's really unstable and not a part of my chest voice for speaking, but I really was overjoyed to hear some clarity after almost 3 months.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s153zAA951qy

That's a positive sign! That voice clip reminded me of Mariah Carey's higher register!

Quote from: jollyjoy on January 07, 2016, 09:20:31 PM
That's a positive sign! That voice clip reminded me of Mariah Carey's higher register!

Haha, we'll it's not near Mariah's upper end but I'm glad that my high register is still in there somewhere.  It's gone again today so maybe that was a fluke...at this point I don't know what to think anymore!  My latest instructions from Dr. Haben were to completely forego any kind of vocal rest so I'm just experimenting with any way I can to get tone out of my broken voice.  Hopefully, this was a sign of things starting to settle but I guess only time will tell.  It's hard for me to believe that I'm a few days away from 3 months and my voice is in such an awful state.  Still hoping to wake up one day and have a miraculous change 

Quote from: Dena on December 12, 2015, 10:52:48 PM
A low sugar diet didn't help my voice at all. The primary diet changes I made were soups and soft food that my beat up mouth could handle. I also stayed aways from dry stuff that would stick and need a cough to free. I have hit that age were it has become far easer to put weight on and the best way to control my weight is to watch the sugar and fat intake.

I wonder whether Manuka honey would help with voice regaining?

Usually you should not use your chest. You should use your head voice but without going into falsetto. Otherwise it would sound strange because with your chest voice you have a male-ish resonance whilst speaking with a female pitch.

My voice is currently also higher as it will be when swelling is gone. I think that is normal.

Quote from: Lara1969 on January 09, 2016, 01:35:08 AM
Usually you should not use your chest. You should use your head voice but without going into falsetto. Otherwise it would sound strange because with your chest voice you have a male-ish resonance whilst speaking with a female pitch.

My voice is currently also higher as it will be when swelling is gone. I think that is normal.

Thanks for responding, but this is incorrect.  Falsetto and head voice are essentially the same thing.  The only time there is a distinction is in singing where falsetto is used to describe a weak, breathy version of head voice.  I'm at 3 months so swelling is minimal and my problem is granulation tissue which, unfortunately, Dr. Haben never made me aware of as a possible setback prior to the operation.  In most cases, swelling makes the vocal cords larger and more mass= lower pitch, not higher.

Well, 3 and a half months later, my voice still sounds like garbage.  So no real updates there.

I noticed that recently Dr. Haben has updated his website with a few more examples (I recognized Dena and Cadence) and even added a section about granulation tissue.  He mentions using this forum as a way to contact former patients and also has a link to a Facebook group.

http://professionalvoice.org/feminization.aspx

Sorry to hear your voice is still dealing with the granulation issue, I'm sure it will eventually resolve on its own, I'm rooting for u!

Thanks for sharing those website updates, I recognize three of those voices!!

I'm glad Dr. Haben mentioned on the website that it could take upto 6 months for full healing for some people, so we don't freak out at 3 months if the voice still sounds not so good.

Quote from: kwala on January 23, 2016, 05:44:45 PM
Well, 3 and a half months later, my voice still sounds like garbage.  So no real updates there.

I noticed that recently Dr. Haben has updated his website with a few more examples (I recognized Dena and Cadence) and even added a section about granulation tissue.  He mentions using this forum as a way to contact former patients and also has a link to a Facebook group.

http://professionalvoice.org/feminization.aspx

Holy Bleep. I didn't need to play the audio back, just seeing 64 year old post op was enough for me to know that was my audio sample. In addition, in my 3 month message I explained that I had become a moderator here and explained how the voice section had a number of people looking at voice surgery and a number already had it. I also wondered why he had stuck the before and after voice together and returned it to me. I guess I will need to check his site a little more often. I wonder if I will get a rebate on my surgery 

I had no idea you are 64, based on your profile pic, I thought you were in your 20's or 30's!

Quote from: Dena on January 24, 2016, 11:30:01 AM
Holy Bleep. I didn't need to play the audio back, just seeing 64 year old post op was enough for me to know that was my audio sample. In addition, in my 3 month message I explained that I had become a moderator here and explained how the voice section had a number of people looking at voice surgery and a number already had it. I also wondered why he had stuck the before and after voice together and returned it to me. I guess I will need to check his site a little more often. I wonder if I will get a rebate on my surgery 

Very old picture but the most current one I have. I have been working on a new hair style or I would have taken one before now. I was about 35 or 36 when that picture was taken and if you look at my profile, I have told the truth about my age. My signature contains my surgical date so every post I make contains an indication that I am a real old timer. By the way, I had my surgery when I was 30 years old.

What a coincidence, I'll also be 30 when I have my SRS later this year!

Quote from: Dena on January 24, 2016, 01:41:59 PM
Very old picture but the most current one I have. I have been working on a new hair style or I would have taken one before now. I was about 35 or 36 when that picture was taken and if you look at my profile, I have told the truth about my age. My signature contains my surgical date so every post I make contains an indication that I am a real old timer. By the way, I had my surgery when I was 30 years old.

I'm less than a week from 4 months, so I thought I would post another voice update. 
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0pnr9uTFYYe    *

My range is still very limited and the granulation tissue is still causing that lower "vocal fry" to take over most of the time, but the more feminine voice is starting to show itself now and again as you can hear in the recording.  I never imagined it would still be so wonky sounding at 4 months but I'm trying to see the big picture as best I can.  It's just been so weird the past several weeks to have a sort of Jekyll and Hyde syndrome affecting my voice.  It confuses people and makes me very self-conscious.  I have faith that it will continue to heal and the Mr. Hyde part of the voice will disappear leaving only the lovely Ms. Jekyll, but it cannot come quickly enough!


*Note: I recognize that vocaroo is not the best site because the links expire so I've kept "hard copies" of the audio files on my laptop that I will eventually upload as a sort of timeline on soundcloud or another more permanent kind of site for reference, but for the time being it's just the easiest way to make a quick update.

Sounds a lot better than your last recording! You're making good progress now! Hopefully everything will heal faster for you in the next coming months.

Quote from: kwala on February 04, 2016, 07:36:29 PM
I'm less than a week from 4 months, so I thought I would post another voice update. 
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0pnr9uTFYYe    *

My range is still very limited and the granulation tissue is still causing that lower "vocal fry" to take over most of the time, but the more feminine voice is starting to show itself now and again as you can hear in the recording.  I never imagined it would still be so wonky sounding at 4 months but I'm trying to see the big picture as best I can.  It's just been so weird the past several weeks to have a sort of Jekyll and Hyde syndrome affecting my voice.  It confuses people and makes me very self-conscious.  I have faith that it will continue to heal and the Mr. Hyde part of the voice will disappear leaving only the lovely Ms. Jekyll, but it cannot come quickly enough!


*Note: I recognize that vocaroo is not the best site because the links expire so I've kept "hard copies" of the audio files on my laptop that I will eventually upload as a sort of timeline on soundcloud or another more permanent kind of site for reference, but for the time being it's just the easiest way to make a quick update.

^Hoping the same for you, Jolly!

Kwala:

Hi again. I can imagine that to you your voice might seem incrementally better to you, but to me, I hard more background you coming through. This sounds like a significantly step forward to my ears. I am really happy to hear your latest clip. It has taken you a great deal of time thus far but the improvements are coming.

It is easy to directly relate to the up's and not so up's of this recovery process. Expecting a certain sound and having the wild, frizzy, sort of parallel voice that has a mind of it's own is awkward but manageable.

This time around has been different and some days are a bit of a backward step and then things begin to clear more. Compared to the first week of being permitted to speak, it does seem like I am somewhat backward in my recovery. Not awful, just notably different than I got used to in the first several days. But this is it and there is a long way to go and only as of yesterday reached 8 weeks post op.

We may be heading back to my old hometown for a visit before the summer trip I mentioned. If so, will put in the extra few hundred miles and see Dr Haben for a check up. I want to take a photo of the closed area as I am very interested to see how things healed in comparison to the first surgery.

While dynamic range is of course limited there essentially is no chest voice. Not going to try find it as I am glad to be rid of the deeper tones. It is still a little unusual having the "high pass/low cut filter" and none of the low end frequencies of the past. A sort of physical EQ adjustment. Bone conduction does seem to blunt some of how I sound to me compared to how a recording sounds.

During the day recently rolling easily, I found my self lightly "singing" along with some songs I have on a ride mix. I had a moment of realization that I was singing far too high for the woman whose song I was doing my very untalented rendition of. I smiled and shook my head.

Though cleared for full on exercise, I am holding back and frankly not as inspired to get started on a daily basis. Can't say exactly why. Busy work seems more attractive for now. Some other things we have been discussing are of course their own little piles of angst. But I am more satisfied for now to keep the focus on recovery and not push things hard. Not nearly so.

Kwala, dear, I am really pleased to hear this last post. I am CERTAIN you will continue to progress and finally reach the closure of being fully recovered. Hope you can feel the hug I am trying to stuff through the electronic threads connecting all who visit here. But I do think of you and Audree and the similar recovery trajectories and shared VFS recovery travails. Little steps are still steps.

Be safe girl and please do keep in touch. I'll try and post a update this weekend.

Elaine

May be rough yet but it's well into the feminine range. It will get better but it's just a question of how long. It also sounds a bit like my voice when I over use it except my voice is much lower. I am not going to evaluate the voice beyond that because it will be different and better in a few more months.

Thanks for the virtual hug, Elaine!  I'm not surprised that you feel like your chest voice is gone, or not the same as before.  As I understand, a CTA makes the head voice muscles permanently engaged so this is probably a sign that your surgery was a success.

Dena, thanks for your comments.  It's funny, but after so much time has passed my priorities have totally shifted.  I'm sure the pitch will be in the desired range but at the moment all I want is a clear tone with reasonable volume! 

I know I am healing slower than many but at 6.5 months (I have to do another voice sample for everybody) my voice is much better. It still gets rough with a good deal of use but I have been playing around and my volume is better that with the old trained voice. I suspect if I were to use the elevated volume much, the voice would give out faster but if I want to be heard, I can. I suspect it may take 9 to 12 months for full recover but the voice is useable at this stage.

Because of the different length of my vocal cords, I am unsure exactly how clear the final voice will be and that may also mean the healing will have to be fully complete before my voice and be judged.

I just got the Decibel meter out and at 2 feet I was able to get a reading of 80db. That would be about the amount of noise a blender would make. That should be loud enough for me.

Another quick update.  Still not quite loud enough and very breathy, but for now I'll take it!
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0lq2xELIbiV

I also made a praat recording today that came in with an average of 270hz, so if this healing continues I may have seen a gain of around 100hz.