Hi Christopher,

Good luck. I'd say you'll be able to talk when you go home if you aren't staying over night in the hospital. I had a good sized piece of my tongue removed, saliva glands removed and the neck dissection and could still whisper talk the following day. They didn't want me to do too much talking the actual day of surgery - but you'll be too medicated to really want to that day anyway.

Like Jerry said - the hard part will be the pain meds if they are oral. Maybe you should ask about the patch pain meds. I haven't used them b/c I didn't know about them when I had my surgery - but if I had, I'd have asked. It was not fun to swallow those liquid meds. But, the pain was very controlled and I don't remember having much of it.....so don't worry about that part.