Anita,

Sorry to hear that your husband is having to deal with this. Just when you think that you can get on the road to recovery BAM something like that happens and you have to deal with something so major all over again.

I have had nearly all of my mandible replaced & reconstructed with bone from my hip. They also had to do a tongue flap reconstruction because of the necrosis damage. Besides the bone they also used the skin/tissue from my hip area to reconstruct the tongue flap. They could have used my fibula for the mandible but then they would have had to of taken skin for the tongue flap from else where anyway, due to the hair follicles on the leg area.

I had a screw become exposed last year under my chin, thankfully that was removed without any major dramas in day surgery before any infections could occur.

The surgery for my mandible took about 14 hours, but that also included the tongue flap reconstruction. I was in hospital for about 4 weeks. I had a trache for the first 12 days due to the swelling, which I was advised of before the surgery. I have 7 or 8 plates around my reconstructed jaw bone with at least 18 screws (what I can see on the OPG xray)

As there was about 5 cm of my jaw reconstructed - my jaw/chin is not the same shape that it used to be and I will need to have further surgery to improve that.

In my situation there was also the possibility, due to surgery, of some nerve damage at one side of my mouth, so that is something that you definitely should ask the surgeon about.

Please send me PM if you have any questions that you think I might be able to help with.

Karen