I'm back from 8 days in hospital! I had a little "fillet" (as the surgeon called it crazy) excised from my tongue and had 3 lymph nodes and a benign tumor removed from a saliva gland. PAthology came back as ALL GOOD- no further evidence of SCC was found anywhere, including the tongue. I am SO relieved grin
We had no idea the benign tumor was there, so that was a surprise but the surgeons think that that's probably what caused the enlarged lymph nodes rather than the SCC on tongue. Any thoughts on this?
I'm on to a diet of puree already (started liquid diet 4 days post surgery. Pain is not to bad (but gee the "hill billy heroin" helps :D). I found the pain in my throat from the nasal gastric tube was worse than the tongue?? My neck has been relativley painless but uncomfortable to sleep on. Still a bit of swelling and stiffness. The only nerve damage I can discern at the moment is numbness in my neck and head that Martin mentioned.
was considering physio for neck stiffness- has anyone had success? Scar doesnt look so bad either...but MUCH bigger than what I expected.
Gee 8 days on those tubes really sucked though!
Thanks for all your advice and support

Monica,33 Mum of 3. Former smoker
SCC right lateral tongue. Intially thought to be cell dysplasia and dx as SCC after surgical excision.
Nov 2010- partial glossectomy (1cm in width), partial neck dissection. Margins clear, nothing found in nodes- YAY! Benign tumor on saliva gland.