I am preparing my family for the effects of oral tongue cancer. I want to know how we should treat my father in law, who will have a portion of his tongue removed and have speech problems for at least some time. He is a retired commanding officer who is very keen on being a help to others, and is used to speaking before thousands of people. I do not know if he is going to take this well. Can you please offer your own experience and hopes without getting to detailed about the specifics so that we might pass this on to him? And can you please tell ME how i and other family members should approach papa when getting him to try and speak and practice his speech? And anything else we should know? what can I do to comfort him???
thanks and god bless.

I had part of my tongue removed last Aug 3rd along with the neck dissection. I just wanted my family to not push me too fast or try to make this their worry. I had radiation tongue implants this past Feb 29th and that doen't help either. Just give your dad some room and encourage him the best you can. It didn't take ,me long to get back into life, but I had a positive attitude going in and still have it. He will progress as fast or slow as his mind allows him to. I'm glad he has family near him to assist in needed. This I don't have but sure wish I did. My friend took off and hasn't looked back. LOL Of course it was all from my being so mean. She has been told by other OC victims that it changes your personality for awhile, but wouldn't believe it. If your dad gets cranky, just grin and bear it, It's the OC talikng and not him. Good luck and may he heal fast.

Here is my take on this:
This greatly depends how much and what part of the tongue was removed. Perhaps someone with more experience can pipe in, especially those who had reconstruction surgery as well.
People learn to compensate, depending on the extent of glossectomy a speech pathologist might help. It also depends what language you speak, I have issues with a sharp ss in english, a sound that is not much that much used in my "mother tongue" (swiss-german) so this also partially depends on the language (at least in my case). A pity that I get to speak this only rarely these days. I have been teaching (in english) since spring and speech has not been an issue as far as I know (on the other hand this WAS Pchem....). Despite this and other things one might complain about, these "inconveniences" sure beat the alternative.
I suggest you talk openly with him; the treatment is rough and now is not the time to fret about issues that he may or may not have a year down the road.

Best

Markus

Jim, thanks for the invaluable information. We will remember to remain patient and expect some difficult phases.

HI, the tongue is not yet operated on, but we estimate about 50% to be removed with all or most of the tip intact. Papa speaks english and hindi, so he will need to practice his "s" a lot. Al the best and god bless.