Welcome to The Oral Cancer Foundation, Keith! Im sorry to read about everything you have gone thru. Im sure you're not feeling very well after your surgery only a few days ago.

Our site is dedicated to helping oral cancer (OC) patients and caregivers thru some very difficult, potentially life-threatening situations all relating to oral cancer, treatments, recovery, etc. We do our best to help everyone we can with our limited medical knowledge. Please understand our site consists of OC patients/survivors and caregivers, NOT medical professionals. We do NOT have years of medical school/education, clinical patient experience, etc so often our hands are tied. We really do try to help but with complex medical issues we simply are not qualified to answer questions.

From my limited understanding of benign tumors you do not have cancer and are one very, very lucky patient!!! Im certain for you its no fun going thru this but at the same time your tumor is not cancer so you are in a much better place than the majority of our members. The things we know about are things for cancer patients. Talking about a tumor that is not cancerous is a completely different situation than something to do with cancer. What applies to OC patients may not be relevant to your situation.

The only piece of advice I can give you is to get the areas that appear discolored almost black checked right away. That could turn into a serious situation if that area isnt getting the blood flow it needs to heal. I dont know if waiting until Monday is an option or if this needs your doctors immediate attention. I always err on the side of caution and suggest making a call to your surgeon and asking what they recommend. Doctors always are available 24/7 thru an answering service. If your doc is off duty, another doctor will take over for them and be able to help. It wont hurt to call and get some advice. This could mean the difference between having a routine, relatively easy recovery or needing another surgery to replace the black areas. For cancer patients an area that is changing color, seeming to be turning black is a major red flag that it needs to attention right away. Im sorry I do not have the medical background to know how serious it is for a patient with a benign tumor. Hopefully its just discolored due to being bruised and isnt anything serious. You may also go thru your discharge papers and see if theres a mention about changes in color, having an area look like its turning black.

Best wishes with everything!