My husband had 60% of his tongue removed, radical neck, and a small piece of his jaw removed. The doc wanted a clean margin so he cut into the jaw bone. There was no cancer in the jaw bone cut. Anyway this surgery as back in Febuary. He has had all his radiation treatments. Last week his face puffed out in the jaw area. He went to doc said he had an infection. Went on antibioic for a week, went down a little but the ENT wanted him to see a infectious disease doctor. Now he has to go everyday to hook up to IV antibiotics for an hour and a half, even on the hoiday weekend. This seems so serious to me. Has anyone had anything like this done? I am very scared about this any info would help.
Thanks,
Cheryl

Cheryl, while not precisely the same, after the surgery, radiation and chemo, I had no white cells and developed a whale of an infection. They put me in isolation and ran antibiotics IV for several days. Because your husband is being treated aggresively, I don't think you have to press the panic button. You don't say when he finished radiation, but that can seriously compromise one's immune system, and when that is the case, only massive doses of antibiotics will knock out an infection before it gets out of control. Again, don't panic. His treatment seems to be very appropriate. Good call by the ENT!
Joanna

Infection in jaw bone is a very serious issue - I think it is called mandible osteomylitis, which is very difficult to treat, especially for patients who have gone through radiation treatment in head and neck area.

I had infection twice after my surgery and my ENT was also very worried about the infetion got into my jaw bone, he ordered nuclear scan to determine if osteomylitis has occurred in my manible, I also saw an infectitious doctor for the infection. Fortunately, they said the infection was not in the jaw bone yet, so I took about 9 weeks of oral antibiotics. If there were any sign of osteomylitis in mandible, I would take IV antibiotics too.

The best thing to do is to stop the infection before it gets into the jaw bone, sometime, it is necessary to ask for hyperbarice oxygen treatment.