My husband is a stage 4 Tonsil and Lymphnode survivor. He recently had a partial jaw replacement and free flap. He is 5 weeks out from surgery. Has better range of motion opening his mouth, however, his jaw is out of alignment. Teeth do not come together which makes it almost impossible for him to chew. The doctors say that he needs more time to heal and let the swelling go down. They did X-rays and say he is healing fine and see no problems. Anyone else experiencing this type of misalignment.

Welcome to OCF! You have found a great resource to help you and your husband get thru his recovery.

At 5 weeks post surgery, your husband has a lot of recovering to do before he is healed. Swelling can take months to subside. Ive had a mandibulectomy as well and can tell you it is a huge surgery with a very long recovery phase. For me, my situation had complications which then required another major surgery which was much more involved resulting in a very long recovery. The inflammation took over a year to completely go down. Ive also had minor ORN surgery to remove a few pieces of broken bone shards from my gums and that surgery was no big deal at all. I was back to my "new normal" self in a few weeks. Of course, every patient is different and will respond to things in their own way. There are so many things to consider when talking about this type of surgery. Every detail plays a part in your husbands recovery. Things such as the patients age, prior treatments (especially if he had radiation to this general area), stage of cancer, location of the tumor or ORN, overall general health, other health concerns such as being diabetic, skill of the surgeon, experience of the surgeon, even the treatment facility has an impact on how well your husband is doing. If your husband had radiation previously then you can expect his healing to take longer than similar patients who have not had rads. From what you wrote, it sounds like your husband also has trismus which usually isnt something fixable. With a reduced mouth opening this kind of surgery becomes very difficult. Im sure that is playing a part in his recovery as well.

I know how frustrating recovery can be. No patient can ever get better as quickly as they think they should. Id give it a few more weeks and if your husband still is experiencing all the same issues to the same degree then you may want to have his surgeon check him out again. At that point you may want to consider having him checked by another doctor to get another opinion. Make sure to take all medical records along so the new doctor has your husbands full medical history.

Best wishes to your husband with his continuing recovery.