Barb,

In May of '08, I had the surgery that you'll be having. After about a week, the swelling went down enough for me to put my lips together and from then on, my speech was intelligible. It was another week or more before I could put my teeth together though.

Today, almost two years out from surgery, no one that meets me now has any idea that about 1/3 of my tongue is made from my wrist, and with a new career in sales, I meet new people every week. I believe what 'saved' me is my surgeon was able to leave the tip of my tongue so speaking is roughly the same as it ever was. That said, the radiation/chemotherapy did leave me with a drier mouth, eating is still a challenge and I have to be ever diligent about recurrence, mouth care, etc.

I guess the gist of my post is, you can't predict what's going to happen or what your body will be, do eat your favorite foods as you are able and just focus on one day at a time.

- Margaret

Stage IV SCC lt lateral tongue, surgery 5/19/08 (partial gloss/upper neck dissection left side/radial free flap reconstruction) IMRT w/weekly Cisplatin & Erbitux 6/30/08, PEG 1 6/12/08 - out 7/14 (in abdominal wall, not stomach), PEG 2 7/23/08 - out 11/20/08, Tx done 8/18/08
Second SCC tumor, Stage 1, rt mobile tongue, removed 10/18/2016, right neck dissection 12/9/2016
Third SCC tumor, diagnosed, 4/19/2108, rt submandibular mass, HPV-, IMRT w/ weekly Cisplatin, 5/9 - 6/25/2018, PEG 3 5/31/2018