Recovery time for surgery can be estimated but it all depends on how her healing capabilities are. If she takes in high protein it can help her to heal faster. The surgery will probably be an extensive one. Has the doctor mentioned any removal of any of her jaw bone or will it only be part of her cheek. She will probably have some donor tissue taken from inside her wrist and possibly more tissue taken from her thigh to cover the wrist. As you can see this can be very involved and can take 6+ hours.

My surgery was a bit different where my lower jaw was removed and a titanium plate put there but pieces of tissue were transplanted from wrist and thigh areas. It took my team of ENTs and plastic surgeons about 10 hours for this operation. Ive seen others here with 12 hour surgeries for similar operations as mine.

Make sure you ask the doctor all your questions and find out all the risks and benefits of the different methods. Ive seen several others who have had their jaws removed which is quite a bit more involved than what your wife is having done. Those patients would recover anywhere from 3 to 9 months. Anyone who encountered complications took longer, 12+ months. If I would make a somewhat educated guess, I would say expect anywhere from 2 to 5 months for recovery. I am taking into consideration she has not had radiation which would make her healing much slower but it would also shrink the tumor. Its my estimate from seeing other patients go thru other major surgeries similar in nature. Of course the doctor should be able to give you a much better guesstimate.

Best wishes with your difficult decisions.