Dr. Haber recovery begins

[Katie]

Surgery today went good. I'm in hotel with what feels like a standard sore throat. I am very glad I didn't drive!

dr. Took me to one month no talking which really sucks. I can say that accidently I said a word and already noticed a difference.

[Dena]

He must have done more extensive work on you if he gave you the one month limit as he didn't ask that of me. My work was just the standard tie job. That puts me at the 2.5 week limit before I should use my voice much. I also have had a few sounds escape and they discourage me from trying anymore, I think I still have a good deal of swelling and until that goes down, I am going to sound like I have a really bad head cold. There is one case here where a woman wasn't able to speak for a month as the result of the surgery. I hope that's not the case for me.

[Katie]

He said it was because of scarring from past Adams apple shave and past smoking.

[Dena]

I understand now. I was careful not to abuse my voice, something my speech therapist was very clear about. I have never smoked because I am allergic to smoke and a few other things and my adams apple shave was very conservative. I had a reconstructive plastic surgeon do it and he told me at the time he didn't want to take any more that that off because he feared damage to my voice. I was a little unhappy with it at the time but nobody notices my neck so I think he made the correct judgement call.

It sounds like he may have cleaned up some damage to the sound making surfaces of your cords much like Dr Kim seems to do often and that gave you the additional healing time. The good news is your sound quality will be better that that of the old voice if you follow the proper voice rest. I am happy for you.

Also give my thanks to your hidden companion for taking good care of you 

[iKate]

I'm pretty much at the 1 month mark but I had surgery with Dr Kim. I said a few words yesterday and today. There is a huge, huge difference now. Most people tell me it sounds femme, some people say it sounds gender ambiguous but leaning femme. I think that is good for 1 month.  Month 2 should be a lot better. The lower ranges are pretty much gone. I can't even attempt it because air just comes out.

I'd imagine Dr Haben would be similar for the glottoplasty part. Not sure about the CTA.

[Dena]

I'm pretty much at the 1 month mark but I had surgery with Dr Kim. I said a few words yesterday and today. There is a huge, huge difference now. Most people tell me it sounds femme, some people say it sounds gender ambiguous but leaning femme. I think that is good for 1 month.  Month 2 should be a lot better. The lower ranges are pretty much gone. I can't even attempt it because air just comes out.

I'd imagine Dr Haben would be similar for the glottoplasty part. Not sure about the CTA.

I think at one month most of the healing is finished and learning how to use the new voice is what will give it the feminine touch. Pitch is only about half the voice and the other half is speech pattern. I have heard vice samples come back for Dr Haben where the pitch was in the female range but the voice so mono tone it sounded male. Just a few weeks of working with the voice and they had feminine nailed. I could give you a Stradivarius violin and if you don't know how to play it, you will only produce sounds nobody would want to listen to. I could give somebody skilled in the violin a cheap knock off violin and they would produce far finer sounds than you would.

[Katie]

So I made it home. I am sitting here feeling reasonably ok. I cant stress how it would have been a mistake to think I could have driven home the day after surgery. Today being day two after surgery I feel ok but I am pretty sure I will run out of gas earlier than normal so flying was the choice to make.

Back to how it feels. Basically like you have a sure throat. That is about it. I have this dam tape and a blue string that a doctor has to remove seven days from now but that's about it. No talking for a month.

Got lots of papers and pens.

Katie

[ainsley]

Glad you are home and healing, Katie.  A month is a long time.  I smoked for 17 years, but quit 16 years ago.  I hope I have not damaged it to where I will be limited to one month.

Was the office hard to find, or get to?  Parking an issue?  I am seeing him in one month for a consult on the triple, so any info you can keep dumping in this thread is appreciated.   I cannot do the voice surgery until next spring because GCS is next month for me, and Dr. Haben wants about 6 months of time to pass from that before he will do my vfs.

[Katie]

The office is on the other side of the town from where the hotel and the hospital are. With that said a trick I found is the hotel will take you to the airport (and pick you up as well as many times as you wish). From the airport you take a cab for 20 dollars to his office. You only need do this on Tuesday and then once on Thursday for the trip back to the airport. All other transportation is provided. You DONT NEED A RENTAL CAR since the hotel has many things nearby.

OH we flew out at 5:30 yesterday (hours after last appointment was finished). The hotel was very kind to pick us up at the airport and take us to the mall for the hours we had to wait before flying out. Then then took us back to the airport for the flight out.

You do need a caregiver or you will have to pay for a room at the hospital. The caregiver has to be at the hospital for the surgery on Wednesday.


Since I cannot talk I cannot offer any opinion about what the results are except that I did by accident talk a short bit and it definitely sounded pleasing.

Mind you I never did mind how my voice sounded in my ears BUT if I recorded it I could definitely hear the difference that I didn't like.

Years ago after the yucky and just plain miserable recovery from FFS I swore I would never get any more surgery. I guess I was wrong. This one is a breeze of a recovery compared to the others.

[Dena]

Katie: Don't worry, writers cramp will set in soon. As for flying, they routed me through Orlando on the trip home with a 3 hour layover. That was a total of 10 hours travel time and I was dumb enough to take a shot of the cough medicine before boarding the plane. I think I could have used another night in the hospital but i couldn't sleep there either.
Ainsley: The doctor and the airport are close together as are the hotel and hospital. Between the two groups is about 20 miles. Unless you live so close you can stay at home, a cab ride is the way to go. The hospital picks you up the morning of your surgery and delivers you to Dr Haben for your final appointment so there are only 3 cab trips to worry about. Parking at the hotel and Doctors office isn't much of an issue.
I think I understand what happened with Katie requiring so much recovery time and I don't think smoking will result in you having a month off but Dr Haben will be the final judge when he gets a look at your cords.

[Katie]

Well as I said my long recovery is based on two things and possibly one more that was perceived. The first is I smoked years ago, second I already had a trake shave which had scarring tissue he had to work with.

Finally he might have detected from my personality I am committed to rollerderby and he might have flat out not liked the idea of me playing a full contact sport for one month. This is only a guess since he did not in any certainty say that.

[Dena]

Without more information I can't say for sure, but I suspect you had scarring on your cords from abusing your voice. It would be consistent with the attitude I have detected in you. Using your voice to high, to low or to loud will damage your cords and can result in scarring. To prevent this in the future you may need to tone your voice down a bit. If it hurts when you yell or after you yell, you have gone over the limit for your voice and continuing will result in more damage.
I have been looking at Dr Haben's web site looking at the other work he as done and I suspect he cleaned up some scar tissue on your cords. This needs to fully heal before you use your voice again. Dr Kim also modifies this area in his surgery but Dr Kim seems to do this more often explaining why Dr Kim's work requires a month of rest.
The good thing is the work Dr Haben did should improve the quality of your voice as well as the pitch.

[ainsley]

The office is on the other side of the town from where the hotel and the hospital are. With that said a trick I found is the hotel will take you to the airport (and pick you up as well as many times as you wish). From the airport you take a cab for 20 dollars to his office. You only need do this on Tuesday and then once on Thursday for the trip back to the airport. All other transportation is provided. You DONT NEED A RENTAL CAR since the hotel has many things nearby.

OH we flew out at 5:30 yesterday (hours after last appointment was finished). The hotel was very kind to pick us up at the airport and take us to the mall for the hours we had to wait before flying out. Then then took us back to the airport for the flight out.

You do need a caregiver or you will have to pay for a room at the hospital. The caregiver has to be at the hospital for the surgery on Wednesday.


Since I cannot talk I cannot offer any opinion about what the results are except that I did by accident talk a short bit and it definitely sounded pleasing.

Mind you I never did mind how my voice sounded in my ears BUT if I recorded it I could definitely hear the difference that I didn't like.

Years ago after the yucky and just plain miserable recovery from FFS I swore I would never get any more surgery. I guess I was wrong. This one is a breeze of a recovery compared to the others.

Thanks for the info.  My wife and I are driving, so no cabs/flights, etc. will be in play.   She'll be the caregiver and driver.  And I am glad to hear the recovery is fairly minor compared to other surgeries.

[Katie]

Its been for days since I had surgery. I feel nearly normal with nothing more than a tight feeling in my throat. With that said I cannot begin to say how impossible it is to prepare for not talking. I Feel pretty dam isolated and I can do nothing about it but carry around paper and smile as I write to communicate with people.

Think I said this before but the recovery from this surgery is NOTHING compared to SRS and the worse of all FFS.

Katie

[Dena]

Its been for days since I had surgery. I feel nearly normal with nothing more than a tight feeling in my throat. With that said I cannot begin to say how impossible it is to prepare for not talking. I Feel pretty dam isolated and I can do nothing about it but carry around paper and smile as I write to communicate with people.

Think I said this before but the recovery from this surgery is NOTHING compared to SRS and the worse of all FFS.

Katie

Don't worry, it looks like we are going to be in a contest to see who can write the most notes. At a week and a half, my voice still isn't working. As I live alone, I am kind of used to not talking around the house. The funny thing is every once in a while I want to talk to myself. I also agree on pain except that Dr Haben did a number on my mouth because I have a stiff neck. There are still a few spots in my mouth that aren't back to normal so I use soft foods or the side of my mouth instead of the front teeth. Can't wait to get off Prilosec as it really messes up my insides.

[warmbody28]

im glad your recovering

[Katie]

Thank you Warmbody.


I feel pretty much fine. I will say the month of Prilosec kind of sucks. It seems to mess with me GI tract a bit.

Aside from that I feel fine. In a way that is not good though because if I feel fine I want to go back to normal life but I cant even talk yet. Recovering from SRS was different. You could feel your body telling you its not ready for normal life.

But aside from all that I think all is well. I have said a few things over the last few days. I only have a wisper. With that nothing to report about how I will sound.

Katie

[iKate]

Glad you are home and healing, Katie.  A month is a long time.  I smoked for 17 years, but quit 16 years ago.  I hope I have not damaged it to where I will be limited to one month.

Was the office hard to find, or get to?  Parking an issue?  I am seeing him in one month for a consult on the triple, so any info you can keep dumping in this thread is appreciated.   I cannot do the voice surgery until next spring because GCS is next month for me, and Dr. Haben wants about 6 months of time to pass from that before he will do my vfs.

That month will fly by quickly. At least it did for me.

[Cadence Jean]

Glad you're doing well, Katie!  Bummer about the one month.  He gave me the standard one week, and then light use over the next three weeks.  After about six weeks, I'm feeling really good, a lot of the graveliness is gone.  It's incredible that this surgery is offered now - a workable VFS!  I never hoped that I'd have a feminine voice when I started transition, and now I do! XD  Best wishes on your recovery!

[kwala]

Glad you're doing well, Katie!  Bummer about the one month.  He gave me the standard one week, and then light use over the next three weeks.  After about six weeks, I'm feeling really good, a lot of the graveliness is gone.  It's incredible that this surgery is offered now - a workable VFS!  I never hoped that I'd have a feminine voice when I started transition, and now I do! XD  Best wishes on your recovery!

Just listened to your recordings in the other thread and...Congratulations!!  The difference is very apparent.  Pitch isn't super high but you sound very feminine and have a clear and strong tonality in your voice.  It is already fantastic and will probably get even better with a little more time for healing and adjustment.  Total win!