Hi,

My name is Jeff and I recently had a partial glossectomy about 1 week ago. My Dr. removed a large (but thin) portion from the underside and then folded the tongue back underneath to close the defect, and stitched it all back up. I am not sure of the percentage that was removed, but my guess would be about 10% or so. The stitches run from the tip of the tongue along the underside all the way down to the base of the tongue where it meets the floor of the mouth.

My doctor called today to check up on me and filled me in on a few things. One thing that he told me was that the pathology showed "moderate dysplasia" in some of the portions that were removed, and "severe dysplasia" in one sample. I mentioned to him that I had read where some doctors consider severe dysplasia to be the same thing as carcinoma-in-situ, and he said that was true, but that it didn't matter because either way he got it out and there were clear margins around the removed sample. So, my first question is whether or not CIS is the same thing as severe dysplasia for oral/tongue pathologies.

Also, everything is progressing nicely with the exception of my speech. My tongue is still very numb in a large portion of it and I have good speech with the exception of a few sounds like "S"s, where the tongue is a big part of the sound. How long should it take before I see improvement in the numbness, or in my ability to say S's? I am no better now than I was right after the surgery.

Thanks!