I really need some advise with regards to pectoralis flaps if anyone knows of them. As some of you know Steve had a reconstruction done on Monday which failed. They did a 2nd surgery to clear the blood supply that was blocked but it was also unsuccessful and the leg bone that they grafted has died. Today they did a 3rd surgery and have now removed all bone and all metal plate. They have harvested his pec muscle, moving it up to cover his neck and the veins exposed and put a skin graft on. But that is it. The ORN has done such severe damage to his jaw bone that the best course of action at this stage is just to leave him without any jawbone or support of any kind on the left side. The main priority for the medical staff is to stabilise him, get him to heal and then work from there with what ever the next step will be.

What I'm wondering is what kind of issues is this likely to cause us. I have no doubt that trying to eat and speak with no left jawbone is going to be difficult. Does anyone know of this or anyone that has had this done and if so how has it impacted them.

Steve is still heavily sedated in ICU. He has been asleep for over 48 hours and is slowly starting to wake. They have him hooked up to all kinds of things and he is still on his breathing tubes as they don't want to take them out until they know he will not need a 4th surgery. He has so far had 19.5 hours of surgery in the last 4 days so they are being extremely cautious with him as the doctor's, like me, just want to get him back to a state where he is off the intensive care list. Any ideas or advise please. I want to be able to help him with this. He doesn't fully know what has been done yet so if I can find out how it works, what impacts likely etc I may be able to help guide him through what is without a doubt going to really effect his mental state. So if anyone knows anything please can you point me in the right direction.