Hi Jab,

I have had this type of operation done as I has cancer of the hard palate which as you probably know is rare in the oral cancer arena. I will totally agree with Christine in that everyone's body reacts differently. So they plan on doing a total maxillectomy and doing a fibula flap to replace everything, is that correct? Are they planning on doing any chemo or radiation? I had one or two recurrences. The third one came right after laser surgery for the second one. Could have been there all along, not sure. In my experience removing the cancer surgically, although better on my body, did not take care of the cancer like radiation did. I think the radiation and chemo did more to kick the cancer than the surgery did. After radiation I had the flap done to reconstruct everything so they were building with fresh tissue.

It is a long road and not the easiest as it is hard to do certain things with a hole in the roof of your mouth and after surgery not having a roof on your mouth, if you already don't have one. I think I could go on for a while but would probably bore others. ;-)

I can understand all your questions about work, paying for everything, etc. Some of those will depend on exactly what they are doing to you and such. I MIGHT be able to help answer some of those with more info. Some I might not be able to help with. I to am single but my parents have been AWESOME through this whole journey that is not yet finished.

Feel free to email me or message me on here if you have other questions or anything. I have been through a lot dealing with this stuff.