T+3 Months (w/ Voice Sample)

Today is July 11^th 2016. Tomorrow marks three months since my SLAD-R surgery with Dr. Berke.

I feel the progress with my voice has slowed considerably since day 1 post surgery. There are still improvements but they have become smaller steps forward each week vs. the prior larger steps day by day. As long as the progress continues I'm perfectly fine with that! 

I am still in that squeaky and raspy phase of recovery but my voice has gained some volume since my 2 month update. I thought by now I would have a pretty fully functional voice (not sounding like I have laryngitis), but I suppose it will take a bit more time until the raspy and squeakiness disappears. 

Expecting my voice to sound a bit more functional at this point in recovery has caused me to try and push my voice out when speaking in attempt to eliminate the raspy and squeaky sounds. This bad habit caused me to create tension in my throat and as a result, for a few days last week, I actually thought my spasms were coming back. After practicing speaking at different volumes and focusing on not using any techniqe to push the words out – the choking feeling in my throat when speaking is no longer an issue.

It seems I only have issues with my "normal conversation" volume. I was in a loud environment this past weekend with friends. When I attempted to speak over the volume of noise – I could be heard perfectly fine without any squeaks or that raspy sounding voice. But once we were back in the car and I attempted to speak at my normal conversation volume, the raspiness  and squeakiness returned. So I suppose everyone recovers differently.

As far as my day to day, everything is back to normal. I still continue my workouts at the gym 5x a week and also eat and drink anything and everything normally. I am still on paid short term disability from work until Septmeber 1^st. This time away from work has allowed me to heal comfortably mentally and physically.

I will probably post my next update in a month or two. If there’s any considerable improvements to my voice, I will post sooner. Thanks for following and listening to my blog! Message me if you have any questions. Thanks!