Hi All, first time on this forum. I'm from down south in Australia and recently had surgery to remove a cancer on the floor of my mouth and a section of the side of my tongue as it was pre-cancerous. They took the graft & artery from my forum to replace the lost tissue. I started noticing a slimy feeling on the back of my tongue in the area of the graft and when i asked the surgeon he really didnt say much. Upon close inspection i can see a lot of fine hairs on the graft on my tongue and its these that are creating the "slime". Has anyone experienced the same post surgery and what did you do to get rid of it? I'm contemplation laser surgery to get rid of it. I will not be having chemo or radio therapy at this stage, they believe they got everything. Lucky as hell in one way, but radiotherapy kills off all the hairs on the tongue i have been told. Help please, im constantly sucking at this area and brushing it and using tongue scrapers etc etc. Nothing works.

Welcome to OCF, Paul!

Unfortunately, hair on the new tongue is a something most patients who have this type of graph experience. If you use the search bar in the top right corner, you will find other posts about it. Use only the word hair or hairy for best results.

Have you discussed this problem with your doctor?

Yeah - I've heard of this. My graft was from the inside of my wrist - thankfully I don't have that issue. As Christine said it is a common problem. Hopefully this is the worst of it and you won't have to worry about rads. You could have it lasered but that would likely hurt... I would wait until your tongue is fully healed (say six months) before doing anything about it. One of the guys on here would have to trim it... admittedly KINDA GROSS. But this disease does that to you. It may after a while wear away as you use it more. The guy I was talking about was unable to eat by mouth so it would essentially grow and grow. I think over time that may change and the hairs will wear away. Some else here might be more helpful. Hugs and welcome.

My flap was taken from the inside of my wrist as well, but there were still some hairs that came along for the ride. They went away after maybe six months, although I did have radiation, so maybe that's what killed the hairs off.

Kris's flap was taken from his abdomen and did have hairs. After about 6 months they disappeared. I would just wait awhile and would not recommend laser treatment.
Tammy

My partner had second cancer removed in throat and flap for reconstruction from his chin. He’s Italian so lots of hair. Same experience with slime and hair growth since radiation was not required.
Doctor cuts hair when its an issue for partner and “kills” hair follicles with an instrument. He’s on fifth treatment and doctor has to review after each session to determine if more treatment is required to stop the hair follicles from growing. Also depends on partners comfort/discomfort with any remaining hair.
Laser is not possible since it’s in his throat.
So
1. Trimming hair when required
2. Permanent hair removal but laser is not possible…takes about 10 minutes of surgeons time with patient under I believe light sedation. It’s a surgical procedure each time so from start to finish can be 3-4 hours with preop and postop.
We have to drive 2.5 hours each way for top notch care.

I had a large (almost 8 inches long) graft taken from left thigh to replace floor of mouth all the way down my throat.
It was hairy, had a lot of chuckles, braid it? Cut it? Comb it?

The only thing Drs said was don’t pluck them and if you trim be very careful and don’t cut the skin, can’t feel it and big chance of infection.
Did a lot of swabbing to keep the “icky” junk under control.

It’s almost all gone now, came out on it’s own, enzymes and so forth. Took about 7 months for it to take its course.

It was insane, have to laugh at some of this shtuff, no point looking at downside all the time, we all have too much more to accomplish while we’re still here!

This too, shall pass!