Shelby,

I had almost the identical procedure. I was in hospital for 9 days, returned to work 3 weeks after surgery.

There was surprisingly little pain considering they cut open my neck, arm and did a skin graft from my thigh.

My speech is almost back to normal and I was eating solid food within a month of the surgery date.

The NG tube sucks, but is necessary, as is the tracheostomy tube. It's a good day when you get that out! The trach was in for 7 days, and by day 7, I had all 4 drains out, and only had the doppler wires left (they are connected to the "new" tongue to listen to the blood flow).

I was worn out, but all in all, not too bad.

Keep us posted and good luck with the surgery!