I do not know if she is Stage IV for certain. It is something I suspect due to the locations and it entering the jaw bone. This does NOT mean she cant get thru this! I was a Stage Iv patient myself going into the mandibulectomy. I know several others who went thru it as Stage IV too and they are fine. We have some after effects but we all have learned to manage them. Your mother in law has oral cancer of the mandible from what you have said.

PLEASE do NOT bring medical info from other websites without stating where they came from as it could be from an unreliable source.

When looking for info online be extra cautious, look for well trusted sites where they are part of Health on the Net. This is very few. OCF complies with the Health on the Net code and is watched to ensure correct medical info is given. There are more sites online that give faulty info than dont so please use caution.

Oral cancer is much more dangerous than a simple tooth extraction. This is something your family will need to learn on their own. Many people are in denial and dont want to know their loved one has a deadly disease. Many people can and do die from oral cancer, while others do not. It is no walk in the park at all what she is facing. Its a very difficult surgery for a patient to recover from as it involves so many areas and her doctors will be sewing together tiny blood vessels to ensure the skin that was transplanted gets blood flow.

My suggestion is to print out several pages from the main OCF pages about oral cancer and leave them where they can 'accidently' be found when you arent there. Leave them laying out like you had been reading it and just put it down. Take a good look at them and see if they had been touched when you go back later. Thats how many caregivers pass info to their patients without nagging or arguing with them.