What a difficult decision. My experience of both tongue surgery without reconstruction and flap surgery is that the former is far easier than the latter. After my laser surgery in 2007 my tongue scarred down and was tethered but it didn't worry me much as long as I didn't look at it:) When the cancer recurred in scar tissue I had a much wider excision and a flap from my wrist. I had a trach and nose tube and neck dissection.

The various things combined made for a miserable 18 day hospital stay but at 63 I have bounced back amazingly well. I could speak intelligibly almost as soon as the trach was out. My speech is slightly slurred only because after 3 1/2 months the flap is still swollen. I can eat whatever I like but it's a bit of a struggle at times. As far as overall well-being goes, I feel very well - my scars have faded nicely.

All this is made easier for me because my previously operated on tongue was a bit of an obstacle too so I was used to a certain level of discomfort.

I was told it takes about 3 1/2 - 4 months to recover from the op. Because my flap is still swollen I'm behind schedule but if I get speech therapy soon I think I could go back to my relief (sub) teaching sometime in April ...

Sorry this has taken so long to express - less is more!