Hello there...sorry you have to be here...but glad you found it.

I have never heard of anyone having the "hairy tongue" issue. The area they take the wrist skin from is generally least hairy area. I had my surgery April of 2010, and have yet to have any hair show up on my new tongue.

The neck tissue is new to me. I have only ever heard of the wrist flap or cheek tissue being used, and then a piece of skin from the thigh used to reconstruct the wrist area.

I had half of mine removed and a neck dissection, and then had 30 rounds of radiation, but was deemed "too depressed" for the chemo that i needed, (that made me very mad at the medical oncologist that decided that. What did she expect, I was 25, in nursing school and had to withdraw 6 weeks before the end of the semester and was being told I had a 50% chance of living to see 30 years old. Was I supposed to be dancing a jig? lol)

When I came off the NG tube the first time, I got an infection in my neck dissection area, and was put back on the ng tube a week after it was removed due to the infection. After the second time, when they removed it, I was on everything thickened to baby food consistency just as a precautionary thing.

Usually they will try to do a swallow test with an xray and whatnot or at least test you out in their office before sending you home with free reign. If they do just send you home with free reign and no advise as to where to start, I would start with thicker stuff, almost baby food consistency for food, and like nectar thick liquid, so still liquidy, but still thick enough to help prevent choking. One of the things I did at first was take yogurt and thin it out with some milk and drank that, or mix some protein powder into milk which thickened it up a bit. Most pharmacys should be able to get thickit(or another thickening powder) that you can add to beverages to thicken them. It's usually tasteless and can be added to anything(at the nursing home I worked at, we even added it to pop and coffee and no problems).

Hope everything goes well for you both. If you have any issues during radiation...just get on here and type away, and we will do our best to help. If you would like, you can talk with me too, as I went through almost same exact treatment, except no chemo.