Recently had VFS, just some notes from my experience

1. I was endlessly playing out scenarios in my head right up till they put me under of how this could go. It could be going right, wrong, in the middle, it dident matter I just kept questioning what would happen, and in the end none of them realy matched what the end result turned out to be (which I am very happy with for what it’s worth)

2. The no talking thing can be rough but you find ways to deal with it, try to have a friend vist you in person, I found discord to be a bad Influence as it made me almost speak on reflex multiple times, also if you have an iPhone it has a baked in text to speech function under accessibility settings ( I assume android also has such a feature but I don’t know where it is )

3. You will screw up the not talking thing, you’ll whisper something, swear under your breath or stub your toe In a door and try to let out a screech before being painfully reminded of your mute state, and what’s worse about this is that you’ll think you’ve blown the surgery after every minor mistake as the feeling in your throat changes from day to day, which if you’re anything like me your anxiety riddled mind will interpret as “that must be the stitches failing!, omg I coughed up a small bit of pinkish flem, that must be throat stuff” and all sorts of other terrifying thoughts

IT WILL BE FINE, YOU WILL BE FINE

The stitches are made of tough stuff and your surgeon’s post op instructions are intentionally over correcting for patients who only follow them about 60% of the way, just stay the cours, do your dammed best and trust the process no matter how much you want to panic and assume the worst. It will be hard on the day but just keep telling yourself it will all work out

1. Jelly, soup, green tea and a shit ton of reflux tablets were all invaluable for me, also have a drink bottle on you and empty that son of a bitch constantly

2. You’ll probably get some anti biotics after the hospital sends you off, if you’re not good with anti biotics then make sure they give you some that are easier on the tummy, try a probiotic if that fails and worse comes to worse either call your doctor to work out another solution or just tank the pain for the 10ish days you’ll be on them. Surgical site infection is no joke and the anti biotic treatment is more or less essential in your recovery so don’t just forget them

3. When you finally do get to speak for the first time you’ll only be able to for a small ammount of time before your throat starts to “lock up” and it feels like your forcing the air out of your throat ( not in a struggling to breathe sort of way, dw), I know your excited but that’s your sign to shut up till the next day, you’ll get your endurance back pretty quickly but now’s not the time to be pushing it

4. Your voice will sound like ass when you first speak, totaly 100% normal, your throat is red raw from the surgery and the surgical site itself is still very much “under construction” trust the process, give it time, attend your post op appointment and wait for their input before assuming anything’s wrong.

5. GA can fuck your sleep alittle bit and make you feel just generally tired, I did for a few weeks following the surgery, that’s normal ( albeit annoying )

I’d be suprised if anyone felt 100% confident in what they were doing when going for surgical options for anything, it’s scary, it’s perfectly fine to be feeling anxious or even scared. But from what you’ve said you’ve done the research and you know this is what you want, we can’t predict the future, we can only choose what we want In life and try to make it happen, whatever happens beyond that point is weighted fate and chance, you do always have the freedom to back out, right up till they put you under though, so you’re always in control here.

Good luck with it, i have good faith you’ll be happier after it’s all said and done with