Greetings,
My mother-in-law was diagnosed with tongue cancer this past June. On June 23 she had about 1/3 to 1/2 of her tongue removed, with reconstruction and lymph node dissection on one side (pardon me if I'm short on details--my husband isn't great at passing them all along). The lymph node biopsy came back negative. Her tongue has remained very swollen since surgery. She had most of the new flap surgically removed about a month ago, and the tongue barely fit back in her mouth for a few days before it became swollen again. She is still--after 3 months--with a trach and PEG and with her tongue swollen well out of her mouth. It is now the good side of the tongue, not the flap that is swollen. Her surgeon (supposedly a top orgal cancer surgeon at UPenn is stumped. He mentioned removing even more of the flap, removing teeth, etc. We just started her on steriods to see if they would help, and she has a MRI scheduled for next week. He reports that he's never had a case or heard of a case with such terrible swelling for such a prolonged period of time. Needless to say, we are all very upset with and for her. Does anyone have any input regarding such prolonged swelling?
Many thanks!