Update:

Hi everyone,
It has been a few weeks. On 8/11/14 my brother did his surgery- his surgery was 11.5 hours long. The surgery was re-resection of the tongue, skin graft from his thigh, forearm graft to do the free flap and a neck dissection. When the doctors got out of the surgery they said that he did wonderful. We got the pathology report back on 8/18/14. The good news was that the tongue was cancer free (he previously had removed part of his tongue on 6/24/14) the bad news was that it has spread to his lymph nodes. 3 nodes out of 10 came out positive. There was 1 positive lymph node in level 1 and 2 positive lymph nodes in level 4. The doctor said he will need to do radiation and maybe chemo (they said they are going to discuss this with their tumor board and we will meet soon.) Today is 10 days after the surgery and he is leaving the hospital without the trach and feeding tube. They took the feeding tube out on 8/19/14. He has had a couple ensures to drink and a little mashed potatoes. Please give me all your suggestions. Has anyone had 3 positive lymph nodes? Also, what are some other good ideas for soft foods? Is radiation going to be horrible or did he beat the hardest part?