My husband had radical surgery in February and has had 33 radiation treatments ending six weeks ago. He needs to have another minor surgery which is scheduled tomorrow am, to expose a molar that had been covered by tissue after surgery and was not discovered until he started radiation. The doctors wanted to wait until radiation was over six to eight weeks. It is too dangereous to pull because of the fragile jaw bone. They hope to "move" his tongue over so it will not lay on the tooth and hopefully he will have a chance to chew on that side. I pray that it works and his eating ability will improve. Getting back to my main question, when is the right time to start swallowing and speech therapy, after the surgeries, minor or not? We live in Orange County in California. Does anybody from our area know of a good therapist that deals with patients with throat cancer? I know Brian, our leader is from here. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks, Becky

I am sending you my cell phone number by email. Please give me a call and I will give you an Orange County referral to someone you can talk to about this.