Yeson VFS Experience - Day 2 of 3
The surgery and initial recovery
Day 9/30. Extracts from my journals in Korea while getting Vocal Feminization Surgery at Yeson Voice Center, on the day of the surgery.
I woke up like 7 am. my mind was kinda swirling like “omg i can’t miss it! omg i can’t miss it!”, a bit like before an early morning flight. I didn’t sleep amazingly.
I got dressed in comfortable clothes, took my tote bag, then we went to the clinic.
We arrived slightly early, by around 10 minutes, and waited for the clinic to open. They arrived, opened just after the time we were told to arrive, and let us in.
They brought me to my room, and gave me pajamas to get changed into. So I put down the blinds, took off my clothes, my watch, my catears, and even the red string i had tied on my wrist for way too long now. I then went to the bathroom briefly.
For a few minutes it felt like nothing was happening. Then it started happening all at once.
Dr. Kim arrived and explained the risks of surgery, like 4 main things that i didn’t have any elevated risk for. These were [better explained by Claude as my notes here were messy] as such:
Bleeding / hemorrhage — During or after surgery on the vocal folds, there’s a small risk of significant bleeding (submucosal hemorrhage). In a worst case, this could temporarily compromise the airway and require a tracheotomy (a temporary opening in the throat to breathe through). Very rare, and temporary if it happens.
Tongue bruising — The surgery involves placing a laryngoscope through the mouth to access the vocal folds, and the tongue can get compressed or bruised in the process. Uncomfortable but heals on its own.
C-HNP (cervical herniated disc) — During intubation and surgery, the neck is extended backward for access. In rare cases this positioning can aggravate a cervical disc. Also temporary.
Voice change — The inherent risk that the pitch outcome isn’t exactly as expected — either too high, too low, or the voice quality changes in unintended ways. This is essentially the core trade-off of the surgery itself.
[Author note: The surgery did bruise my tongue somewhat, though not visibly. For a few weeks it felt like I had recently burnt my tongue. It was fine though.]
Then also explained again that healing my vocal folds takes time. There is a period of 4 weeks where I am not to speak at all. then another 4 weeks where I am to speak at most 2 words per day, but the recommendation is to not speak at all. Then after that to voice train, and to provide a sample at the 3 month period.
He showed that pitch increase is a bell curve, usually in the range of 70± 30Hz. I asked how much risk there is of much higher pitch, but he said he will make sure it’s not unnatural.
I signed away on the form.
After I signed, the nurse came in. She put in my IV drip into my left hand, and injected me with both some anti-inflammation thing and some anti-mucosal thing, meanwhile another nurse patch-tested my other arm with an antibiotic. The nurse then tied my hair back in pigtails and put on the hairnet.
I was guided to walk into the operating room with my IV drip.
I briefly asked Dr. Kim another question and lay down on the bed.
I had a mask put onto me and was told to breathe into it, and simultaneously I Could feel my arm getting cold from being injected with something else. I then lost consciousness at this point pretty suddenly.
Supposedly after the surgery, they brought me out, and all stood over and watched me until I woke up. My girlfriend commented that I eventually did wake up, and innocently waved my hand in front of my face, before falling back asleep. But I don’t remember this part.
I then kinda woke up later and was kinda fine.
My throat pretty sore. I kinda needed to pee. I mostly felt like I both really didn’t want to sleep rn, but also was not able to do anything. I listen to some progression fantasy audiobook for a while. It was fine, but my throat was getting to me, but was also manageable. When asked, I rated it like 4 or 5 pain. It was pretty bad but also not that bad.
The nurse asked if I wanted painkillers, but I was unsure, and since the pain was relatively minor she preferred to wait for Dr Kim to finish the other surgery which was still on-going before giving me anything.
(Supposedly the other person getting surgery was more difficult for some reason, though it also did go fine.)
Eventually, around 2 hours after the surgery, I was allowed to get up and could go pee also. I was a bit more relaxed after that, and the brief walk cleared my head a bit. It was a bit too warm in the room, like 24C or 25C, so my friend fiddled with some buttons somewhere.
The nurse asked if I still wanted, painkillers, and was like “maybe”, which I said with real words, my gf noticed and told me I was not to speak. Oops.
I asked for the painkillers, and she came back, and put some into my IV drip. It felt cold in my arm again.
After this, then then brought me a (vegan) watermelon ice lollipop. It was pretty nice. I enjoyed it. The cold did help make my throat feel a bit better too. (Though this may have been the pain killers in part too). At some point they stopped listening to my heartbeat too.
I then listened to some more audiobook, but I was tired so lay there, and I did fall asleep a bit for some time, or at least borderline asleep. I did go to the bathroom a couple of times between naps.
I then woke up and there were more things. I went to go to have a consult with Dr. Kim again. He checked on my throat with the same spray-my-nose-and-insert-a-tube method from the day before. It looks fine and still has the stitches.
He then showed me some images. One of my vocal folds from before, another of my vocal fold having the membrane removed and looking kind of ripped. And a last one of my vocal folds again, with the suture in place. yayyy.
I asked like a couple questions. My notes from my phone when asking dr kim:
Is there any thing i should do for food?
[avoid spicy food, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine] is fine for me
eg: minimum protein? sugar?
eg: better maintain weight and better to gain weight than to lose weight?
eg: supplements i should take? or ones i should avoid?
how much should I do walking? is there too little? too much?
Should i get a humidifer for my room?
Tommorow is eating normal?
No need to take a break from food before meeting at 3pm?
He was mostly ambivalent, and told me not to worry too much. Do avoid caffeine/alcohol/smoking as instructed before. Try not to lose weight. They will give me medications. Walking is good. The air in Korea was kind of dry, but probably not warranting to get a humidifier. And yeah eating as normal tomorrow.
He said that healing takes time, but in general you should just like, not use your voice, not strain yourself too much in ways that make you breath heavily, to make sure to drink lots of water and stay very well hydrated (by avoiding caffeine and such)
Before leaving, they gave me a few things too.
For the first day they gave me more pumpkin soup to eat in the evening, no solid food today, then mostly normal-ish food starting the next day.
I was then given all of the medications for the first week, starting tomorrow. They gave a little white bag full of things, with instructions on what they are and which to take. I am supposed to take one set of medication twice per day before breakfast and dinner, and the remaining sets of medication 3 times per day, after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The medications were neatly packaged in small plastic bags.
Walking is apparently good, even early on, as it prevents blood clotting. We were suggested it’s better walk back to the hotel like 10min instead of getting a taxi.
We were discharged, and I walked back to the hotel, and on the way got some more ice-pops in GS25. I mostly ended up using Claude Code again in the evening, and took it pretty chill overall. I had my soup for dinner and went to sleep at a reasonable time, before going to the check-up the next day.
Tomorrow I will describe day 3. I will probably include the various documentations I got from Yeson in another post too.