My Mom had surgury to remove a tumor on the base of her tongue 2 weeks ago (a 17 hour surgery). They put in a flap from her thigh. Now the front part of her tongue is black a looks dried up in front of where the flap is. Now the doctors want to do another surgery to remove the dead tissue. She will probably loose the front of one side of her tongue. Have any of you heard of this before? The good side of her tongue is very swollen. Does anyone know about how long before the swelling will go down?

Thanks for your help,
Karen

Karen, I am sure this is all very new to you and I understand it can all be overwhelming. If your mother is being treated in a decent (large) hospital, then her doctors are doing everything possible to help. I don't believe what you have described is outside the normal range of side effects when tissue grafts are done. Ask her doctors the next time you see them and don't let them go until you are satisfied with the answers you get.

Likely she will face radiation therapy, something that many of us have been through. Keep asking questions here as you and your mom go down this path.

Take care and have Hope.

Hi Karen. The surgeons probably tried to leave as much of the front of the tongue as possible initially, hoping to have enough blood flow to keep it alive. It sounds like it did not take, just like mine didn't. The same thing happened with my surgery, only they removed the black, dead portion after only 4 days. As I understand it the major vascular network that supplies the tongue comes through the base & if thats where the tumor was, they have to remove enough tissue from around the tumor to get clear margins and leave no cancer cells which effectively cuts off most of the blood supply to the remaining tongue on that side. It is amazing to me that the flap gets blood supply & becomes healthy, happy, pink, soft, living tissue, but it does & hers will too! Your mom is in a tough time right now, but she'll be OK! The swelling will go down. I can imagine you are beside yourself with worry as my wife & family were also when I was going through the same thing. Be patient & let the body heal. It takes time, but will happen. While in the hospital she is surely getting good nutrition. If you take care of her when she comes home, make sure she gets good nutrition. Thats the fuel for fast healing & recovery. My thoughts are with you & your mom, Erik

Hi Karen,

All of the information thus far sounds so reasonable I almost didn't post. I had a portion of my tongue become black after my first surgery, but it was only on the surface. The doctor said it was bacteria, and a concentrated approach to cleaning that area would get rid of it; which it did.

I feel for your Mom and hope and pray for a smooth recovery.

David

Erik,

Thank you so much for the information. You made me feel a little bit better about this whole thing. The problem is we aren't even sure if the flap is taking yet. One day they say it is and the next day they aren't sure. It's so discouraging. Hopefully they won't have to take out the flap too. When you had the black dead portion of your tongue removed was it very painful after surgery? How long did the surgery take?

Thanks,
Karen

Karen, it's all really scary stuff, but she will get through it. My second surgery was 4 days after initial surgery so I was still pretty drugged up & couldn't tell you if it was painful or not, but I would think it would be less tramatic than the 1st surgery for your mom because if the tissue is dead that they are removing then the pain nerves are dead also. I remember a follow up office visit to my surgeon & he trimmed some dead tissue without anesthetic with scissors! It sure felt weird, but didn't hurt. You mentioned the bad part was dry & hard so maybe it won't be that big of a deal. Keep good thoughts, Erik

Karen I also had a graft that didn't take and was removed the day after I got out of the hospital from the surgery. To tell the truth, it was nothing more than a couple of snips with the scissors in the doctor's office and it was out. Thing was, it was so much of a bother that I immediatly felt better and had more mobility with my tongue without the graft than with it. It did serve the purpose of getting the initial surgery to heal without tearing the muscle and sutures.

More of an emotional and mental trauma than physical trauma probalby, hopefull it won't be a big deal and the healing can proceed.
Take care
Bob