@Dena Quote from: Dena on March 09, 2019, 09:12:02 AM
You still have a lot of swelling from the surgery and this is far from where your voice will settle out. The pitch will change and you will gain more control over your voice given some time. It's unfortunate that you need to wait possibly over a year for your voice to approach it's final form. The good news is your definitely in the feminine range and it will only get better with time.
Thanks Dena I appreciate the advice. I have been told by both my therapist and my Surgeon that time is the key and that the recovery will take a year or more to be 100% where I want it. I agree with your observations in that yes my voice as a long way to go. My pitch is changing almost on a a daily basis as the area heals and the swelling slowly goes down. As far as control goes ...lol there is not a whole lot of that going on...I am grateful just be able to make myself understood. Thanks for the encouragement it means a lot coming from those who know about this stuff...I am a complete novice to it all.
Quote from: EmmaD on March 09, 2019, 06:10:45 PM
Hi Liz,
The recordings work perfectly well. By way of background, I am a Yeson graduate (Feb 2017) but I wouldn't say I am particularly evangelical about it! Once I made the decision to go to Dr Kim, I was buying into his program.
That all said, I just went back to my medical file to look at the post-op instructions (these may have changed a bit since then). Yeson required 7-day complete voice rest period but recommended 1 month. I did the month of silence which is interesting when you are travelling internationally. They then recommend not much talking for the 2nd month. After that, you start the voice exercises 5 times a day. I couldn't do 5 times as I work for a living which is something doctors involved in trans surgeries seem to intentionally ignore (voice and dilation!). So I made do with 2 long sessions a day.
The reason I raise this is that Dr Kim recommends a very long period of voice rest and recuperation. As I understand it, this is for 2 reasons. Firstly, while the wound may have healed, as Dena said swelling may not have. The second reason is that it allows some of the muscle memory to go so that when you start talking again, you can train the muscle groups without as much interference. I can't comment any more on whether or not that works. Dr Kim also injected botox at 1 week post surgery to disable the muscles and I was taking other pills for few months after that. Some things like singing have to wait much longer and every new use like that is tested at very low volumes to see if it is going to cause too much strain.
My thoughts are to give yourself time with this. At 35 days, your voice sounds to me like it needs more recovery time and it is not quite ready yet. Proviso - Your doctor and voice therapist may have a different approach and you should follow their advice. For all that, the pitch is there.
After 2 years, I don't have a perfect female voice (for want of an easier term) and age may have something to do with this. Muscle changes are possibly not that effective as we get older. I did find that do some exercises first thing in the morning does set it up nicely. Whenever I do a pitch test, my F0 is 220Hz which is perfectly fine to me.
Time is the key.
Keep well.
Emma
@EmmaD Hi Emma
Thanks for taking the time to listen to my voice and give the advice you have. As I mentioned to Dena I really appreciate ladies like you and her who are knowledgeable about this stuff giving your thoughts on my progress.
I have to say I was really surprised about the post op instructions I received. 3 Days silence from day 4 minimal talking up to day 14...in my case as I spend most of my days on my own I spoke very rarely in the first couple of weeks. Since my appointment with the surgeon her wanted me to wait a further 2 weeks and then start voice therapy. As it turns out my voice therapist listened to me and advised a further month before we try and do anything significant with my voice. She also talked about months and months of recovery, also that my voice was a long way from where it will finish.
There was no medications apart from pain meds and certainly no Botox. I have heard the results of my surgeons work and they have been very pleasing. I understand the reason fro the rest and think the idea of the muscle memory being lost as a valuable thing. I am having to learn how to speak all over again and find certain things seem to come a bit more naturally. There are still many days that I will hardly speak at all as I am at home and my partner works...then when I do speak it is not for long as my voice is not strong enough. I spoke with Michelle and Laurie on Skype yesterday and could not manage a huge amount of time and was pretty much silent for the rest of the day.
I have noticed over the last few days that I can now actually speak first thing in the morning without having to worry about just "pushing air" like I have every other morning since surgery. My surgeon said to me that part of the problem with not speaking is the muscles begin to atrophy very quickly which makes for a longer recovery. He encouraged gentle use of my voice no whispering, no yelling (lol like I could) turn down noise in the immediate vicinity and if I felt strained in any way to stop and take a break. I have tried to follow these as much as I can...the only real discomfort comes from sleeping with my mouth open and my throat gets really sore...I found (especially in the recent heatwave) that ice blocks feel amazing to soothe my throat. Apart from this I have had not real discomfort.
As far as pitch goes the very quick tests I have done all put me smack bang in the middle of feminie range...the same test prior, even using my trained voice, put me just into the Androgynous range...I mean only just. As both you and Dena have suggested my final voice and pitch will sound different from where it is now. My therapist described that I have to train my voice which is now using a part of my vocal chords it has never usually used to work as my everyday voice and this is just going to take time. Once again I really appreciate you thoughts and advice.
Quote from: Drexy/Drex on March 10, 2019, 04:05:43 AM
wow Liz definite pitch change and it will get better....
hmmm i thinking
thanks for posting
@Drexy/Drex Hi Drexy
As both Dena and Emma have said my voice has a long way to go and will change a fair bit over the next 11 months. I am pitching in the feminie range at about 250htz (will come down a bit) at the moment. I have a few basic exercises to do but apart from that I will have to wait until the swelling subsides a bit more before going on to more. I have noticed already a difference in the way people react to me as the hesitation when I used to speak is gone...they hear me speak and in their minds assign me as female...I would like it to stabilise a bit more but essentially I wanted to remove the "hesitation" (deciding on gender?) I detected with people who had not met me. That has gone...so far so good. The surgeon is very accomplished and looks after the voice needs for all the famous singers who come to this part of the world and by that I am told Australia wide.
Thanks for the input ladies
Liz
