I haven't posted for a while but just got bad news from my ENT and had an appointment with a Plastic Surgeon today. I had two surgeries late last year for a SCC in my left cheek but bounced back from that well. I got back to work fulltime and have just returned from a great vacation visiting my daughter in Canada and then went on a two week cruise to Hawaii. I skied in Canada and snorkelled in Hawaii and apart from eating (I can swallow only thickened liquids and soft foods and use my PEG for two feeds a day)was feeling on top of the world!

I had a checkup with my ENT when I got back and he was concerned about an area in the scar tissue of my left cheek. He took a biopsy and it came back positive for SCC. He now wants to excise a large area inside my cheek (left buccal)and some adjacent teeth and I will be having a free flap taken from my left arm to fill the defect. The Plastic Surgeon indicated that it will be very complex surgery due to my history (lots of scarring from previous surgeries and two lots of radiation have left me with lots of unknowns as far as where and how she will get a good blood supply to the flap). I am booked in to have an MRI with contrast to identify relevant blood vessels and check their viability in my head and neck.

The Plastic Surgeon ran through all sorts of scenarios for the surgery which may not be all intra oral but she seemed to think that there would be a good chance of success with the flap. In ordinary circumstances she said the flaps have about a 5% failure rate but with my history the risk of it failing would rise to 15%. Still good odds. They intend to cover the defect in my arm with a skin graft from my thigh and then they will put it in plaster.

Skin flaps and grafts are all new territory for me. I am scared and frustrated! Never having smoked and having been a light social drinker I still am at a loss as to what, if anything, I can do to stop what seems an endless rollercoater. I seem to have spent the last 4 years having surgeries and treatments,recovering and then just when things get back on an even keel it hits me again. I am so sick of all of this. (Sorry for the vent!)

I would love to hear from people who have had similar surgeries (flaps and grafts) so that I'm mentally prepared for what is to come.

Sue G