Voice Sample 9-months post SLAD/R surgery

9-months post surgery

How can 9-months have passed already?  I remember reading other blogs, and reading that they were at this point in their post-surgery recovery and just thought it was an eternity away.  Here I am.   

For the most part I really feel that my voice gains strength every week.  I can raise my voice, talk on the phone, and speak to others with no problems.  I have noticed that occasionally someone has trouble understanding me, this is mostly due to the fact that I am soft-spoken.  I was this way years ago, pre-SD, so this did not suddenly come on after surgery.   

I still use my voice amplifier when I teach and just find that after lecturing for a while my voice is not as clear, though last night I lectured for 2 hours without the amplifier and was fine.  I never use the voice amplifier at home and teach a class at church on Sunday’s, I do not use it there either.  

Several weeks ago, with all the trees in bloom, I noticed thought I might have a sinus infection.  I took some Claritin-D, which definitely cleared my head and nose but made my voice horrible!!  I thought the connection was rather weird so I tried it again the next day and had the same thing happened, my voice was horrible- it weak with no volume.  I am amazed that a drug like that could have such an effect on my voice.  I did not take the Claritin after that and my voice went back to normal.  I realized after this, that so many of the OTC drugs can change our voice; we often do not pay attention to the effects many of these things have on our voice and our body.  

I still have a noticeable scar on my neck.  I’m sure it will take several years for this to fade away. You can see in the picture below that the scar still shows but it doesn't bother me at all, some people (like me) just scar easier or they seem to take forever to heal.  I have never tried to cover this up.

I am thrilled with my progress post SLAD-R surgery and hope that if you are reading this and considering having it done that this will help you go forth with life-changing surgery!