Thank you all for your continued support! I can't believe this but I cleared my internet cache and couldn't logon!! anyway, I am back and my FIL is in the hospital as I type. He had surgery a week ago today. It took 14 hours to resect his jaw, replace with plate and fibula, and free flap from his leg and chest for inner / outer jaw area. Skin graph from his thigh....after 7 days, He is up to 2x a day of physical therapy, he covers his trach and talks really well and I can't believe how great he is doing. Honestly, my mind/imagination was so much worse. His doctors have been wonderful so far. He moved to regular room out of ICU just a few days after surgery. Thankfully he is swallowing his own saliva which is really good and we did training on maintenece of the trach and feeding tube yesterday. Our doctor wants us there the day they release him from the hospital and wants to see us clean / care for the trach and give him a feeding with no nurse help so he can make sure we know what we are doing. He will go to a rehab facility from there and then home with nursing. The doctors say that the surgery couldn't have gone any better. They did several biopsies and all his margins were benign which is awesome. He had nothing in his cranal nerve that we were concerned with and I can't believe how well he says (or writes) that he is feeling
My biggest concern now is him coming home and us making sure he gets his nutrients and stays as strong as he has been. They want us to feed him 6 cans of ensure type formula a day. I want to ask how long they forsee the feeding tube to be in place if he is already swallowing but this is where we will need your expertise....but I am sure we have a long road ahead....
Thank you to all of you for your notes and advice. (Christine, your advice on the trach was perfect) Now we just pray that his recovery continues to be as good as it has been. I am sure we will hit some bumps in the road but we pray his margins stay clear. The dr.'s want to give him 6wks of recovery and then another round of radiation / chemo just to be sure. The radiation is what scares me. I want the new tissue / bone to survive it and I pray he isn't in loads of pain.
Right now, he looks really strong...I am assuming he will be able to do a lot himself but I think we will be nervous to go to work with him at home ( I only work 1/2 mile from home and am flexible to go home at lunch every day so is my brother in law) just praying we all have the strength to get through this like we have so far THANKS to all of you and I will be back with questions I am sure