I had some throat surgery this week and was interested as to how it affected my flute playing.
I have obstructive sleep apnea which is to say my soft pallet is way too long and I snore to rattle the walls. I’ve been sleeping with one of those C-PAP ventilator machines for about 15 years but, even so, I was tired all the time. I decided to take the plunge and have an LAUP surgery. Laser-assisted uvulaplasty that is. :roll:
Anyhoo, the guy took his laser and whacked off a fair bit of my soft pallet.
I came right home and tried the flute as I was plenty nervous. It tooted so, relieved, I went to bed to enjoy my terrific pain for a few days.
Ive been doing a little playing and have discovered a few notable points.
My playing is louder
The 2nd octve E wants to play a 1st octave E. This resolved quickly with a slight embouchre adjustment but was interesting.
I can inhale really a lot of air, really fast now!
I can’t growl by flapping my soft pallet.
Glottal stops don’t work at all like they used to (back deep in the throat). Now I have to do them more with the tongue on the roof of the mouth but they still work fine (though they hurt like #@X%!).
I don’t think I can spit from the back of my throat when I speak German anymore.
I wake up feeling better than when I went to bed for the first time in my life. This is a very cool feeling which I heartily reccomend to anyone that hasn’t tried it.
Today (day 7) I ate some cottage cheese and only screamed a little!
Anyway, just thought I’d pass along that flute playing after this surgery is possible and, indeed, in some respects better.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, Doc. I’ve got obstructive sleep apnea as well. I’m going in this Monday to be set up with a CPAP machine, but I expect I’ll be opting for the surgery eventually. My ENT doc says around 50% of patients don’t handle the CPAP very well, and I’ve got some misgivings about having to depend on a piece of hardware for a good night’s sleep, especially one that makes me look like something out of a Joel-Peter Witkin photograph. But we’ll see. I haven’t noticed my big flappy soft palate affecting my flute playing too much (other than having to keep my tongue low when I inhale so as not to snort), but it’s good to know I can expect some benefit if/when I eventually have the work done.
Yeah I know a lot of people that can’t hack the C-PAP. I tolerated it fairly well but it’s kind of a pain in the neck (though not nearly as big a pain in the neck as the surgery ). My wife says it’s like sleeping with Darth Vader.
I’ll tell you what thougth, before you go through with the C-Pap or the surgery you might try pulling that railroad spike out of your nose. Might make a world of difference.
Good to hear that you’ve pulled through, Doc. Who knows, once you’ve healed up you might relearn to do glottal stops. Sounds as if it’s a bit early in the game, yet.
Oh, and the M&E is eyeing a new home! A good one, I can assure you.
I can do them. I just have to do them differently. But yeah, it’s still early.
Funny you should mention the M&E R&R. I actually sold that flute to pay for this very surgery four years ago. I ended up changing my mind at last minute. But hey I’m not chicken…well not completely chicken. Okay, so I’m a little chicken. :roll:
Actually, what you say about glottal stops is interesting. You must not have been doing glottal stops in the first place, since they involve only the glottis (the vocal cords) and nothing in the pharynx or mouth! LAPs or even the dread UPPP (uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, don’t ask) wouldn’t affect glottal stops. Just, well, vocal cord surgery, like removing nodules or whatever.
You may have even been TONGUING! And, imagine that, you weren’t struck by lightning!
(Sounds like you were probably doing some kind of consonant that’s behind K . . . somewhere between K and the Arabic or Hebrew consonant ‘qaf’, like the last letter in “Iraq” if you’ve heard an Arab say the word.)
The epiglottis and uvula/soft palett are very intimately related (at least when your pallet is as long as mine was). There is still a fair bit of inflammation etc. I am glottal stopping a little better today than previously but it is different.
I think normal people must not have as good of stoppers as I had.
Well, yeah, they’re all there, but all you need to do for a glottal stop is close the glottis, which doesn’t involve the epiglottis or the palate regardless of their sizes. Just close the cords. Consider it controlled laryngospasm.
Yeah they gave me liquid (hydrocodone + acetominophen) for the first few days and percadan pills for the next few days. I couldn’t stand how grogged out I was on the narcotics so I switched to ibuprofen which does little more than take the edge off but at least I feel like I’m doing something.
