Recovery from a botch trachea shave

62
u/Scones_for_Bones
Fri Dec 13 18:05:16 2019 UTC
(17 comments)

Hi all, I saw an ENT today who told me that my voice was damaged from my trachea shave about 6 months ago. He said he never had experience with someone who has had this surgery but he said that the damage was permanent. The vocal chords are intact but mentioned that the surgeon may have taken too much cartilage off and as a result my chords don't have enough support to produce higher sound.

I used to be a singer but I've completely lost my upper third of pitch and have very poor voice quality for the high notes I can hit.

Has anyone had experience with this? Is there a way to repair the damage or I am going to have a damaged voice for the rest of my life?

all 17 comments


32
u/TragicNut
Fri Dec 13 19:20:45 2019 UTC
(5 children)

I'd imagine that if the cartilage is too weak, external support like a titanium plate might help. Another user has already mentioned Dr Thomas, I would definitely second trying to get a second opinion from him. He does VFS, and his baseline technique involves remodeling the voice box, so I'd imagine he could have some solutions to your situation.

18
OP
Fri Dec 13 19:26:45 2019 UTC
(4 children)

I just reached out to his office actually! Thanks so much for your input. I saw one patient on there who went to him after she had a similar issue from the tracheal shave

4
Fri Dec 13 20:28:53 2019 UTC
(3 children)

You're welcome. I'm not exactly unbiased to be fair, he was my surgeon for VFS, and I'm quite happy with my results. :)

6
OP
Fri Dec 13 20:47:44 2019 UTC
(2 children)

Are you able to sing? I'm guessing you didn't have the same complications with a trachea shave as I did

2
Sat Dec 14 00:17:24 2019 UTC
(0 children)

I haven't really tried to sing anything beyond lullabies so far, but I think I should be able to.

You're correct, I declined having a trachea shave done with FFS because I was already booked for VFS with him, and his technique gets rid of the Adam's apple.

1
Sat Dec 14 02:54:07 2019 UTC
(0 children)

I don't think anyone will be able to tell you whether this will be successful, whether Dr. Thomas or anyone else can repair the damage is gonna be highly person-to-person. That being said, I can't imagine a better person to fix it, he's extremely talented with anything voice-related

3
u/Katja80888
Sat Dec 14 03:18:55 2019 UTC
(0 children)

This happened to me too. Am currently looking into femlar with Dr Thomas too

4
u/amber81468
Fri Dec 13 18:15:41 2019 UTC
(1 child)

That’s the worst!! Sorry to hear. I wonder if a second opinion from an ENT who specializes in voice disorders may be able to be helpful. I know Jim Thomas in Portland OR is one. And many university medical centers have a voice clinic. It may be worthwhile to check into seeing someone like this. I hope things get better!!!

1
OP
Fri Dec 13 18:39:07 2019 UTC
(0 children)

Yeah that's what I'm in the process of trying to do right now. I was more so looking for a success story so I could have a bit more hope haha

3
u/thenewmia
Fri Dec 13 18:50:22 2019 UTC
(5 children)

Same happened to me, voice became lower than it had ever been. I had subsequent vocal cord surgery at UCSF that tightened things back up moderately. The road to a healthy, feminine voice is still long and challenging from there, however, I'm still working on it 3 years later. I'll dig around to find out what the surgery process was called and post it here later if I can.

2
OP
Fri Dec 13 19:18:02 2019 UTC
(4 children)

Thank you for sharing your experience! Can you sing at all again? That's really what I want to get back

3
Fri Dec 13 19:25:42 2019 UTC
(3 children)

That's what I wanted too, and so far I have a severely limited vocal range compared to before. Sorry. I hold out hope but it's fading.

2
OP
Fri Dec 13 19:28:51 2019 UTC
(2 children)

I'm sorry to hear that. Is it ok to ask if your surgery at UCSF was successful? Did that help or hinder your range?

2
Fri Dec 13 19:36:41 2019 UTC
(1 child)

Oh it helped bring my "average" speaking voice up, and allows me to work to a higher cis-female speaking range. But I don't feel like my cords are as pliable and I have very limited range. My goal is to cement my speaking voice and then work on training for singing. My 3 year timeline may not be normal, so don't despair about that. First of all I'm in my 50's so everything is harder than it might be for a young person. Second, I've had multiple surgeries with intubation which seem to retard progress. And third, lots of stress that manifested in tightening of the jaw and cords. So if you can beat those issues down you may be far more successful than I!

1
OP
Fri Dec 13 19:41:38 2019 UTC
(0 children)

ok! thanks so much for all of the detail. I am lucky in that I can still get a femme perceived speaking voice after doing vocal warm ups for a while. I'm worried that going in for my voice surgery is just going to damage the quality of my voice further so less pliable cords are a concern for me. I really appreciate all of your help

1
u/Rosie2001x
Sat Dec 14 13:26:51 2019 UTC
(0 children)

Voice feminisation surgery can get your high pitch range back but you’ll lose your low pitch range (but I doubt that’s a bad thing if you identify as female)

1
u/cephalized
Thu Oct 3 00:33:40 2024 UTC
(0 children)

did it ever get better for you?🥺