Sorry I'm so late!

Hi Richard, welcome to OCF! I too had a madibulectomy of my right lower jaw. As you can see, there is no correct answer we can give you as to how you will bounce back from this surgery. It is a hard and long surgery to recover from. Some of us have side effects that the others don't have such a hard time with.

I spent about 2.5 weeks post surgery in the hospital, I had a minor complication (abcess formed in my neck) and had to go back under the knife other than that I think I would have been out a week sooner. I would say you definately need some time recovering and healing, 3 months as Christine suggested might be doable, just depends.

For me, I was also an Oncology Nurse and speech plays an important role when trying to verify telephone orders with drs. My speech has been slightly altered, most can understand me but I do have to repeat myself alot. I had half of the base of my tongue removed and failed all my swallow tests so I had to be on a PEG tube for 18months post surgery. Due to all this, I lost 70lbs. I now can eat pretty normal (2 years later) as long as it's not spicy. I'm a little weirder in that I can't swallow thin liquids, I have to thicken everything up with a product in order to drink. It also takes me about 2-3 times as long to eat depending on what it is that I am eating. As a nurse, you know sometimes you barely have time to go to the bathroom much less eat in between patients.

So the fact that my speech was altered, I had chronic fatigue (no way I could pull my previous 12-14hr shifts), have eating/drinking issues, and for the pure fact that life had new meaning to me, I decided that I would have to give up nursing. I wanted to be with my young kids instead and enjoy life with my family. I will hopefully someday go back to nursing but it will have to be a different setting, not a hospital.

You situation may be different than ours, I hope you breeze right on through it and are back to work in no time! I do recommend getting a 2nd opinion. I live in San Antonio and have to commute to Houston for my appts but during that time of treatment, I stayed in Houston because you are making frequent follow up visits.

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask away--that's what we are here for!

Good luck to you~

Dx 3/27/09 @ 28 years old with High Grade MEC T4N2M0
Elizabeth, 33, mother of 3 girls (4,7, &8yrs old)
3 rds of chemo(Carbo/Taxol)
Rt Mandibulectomy, rt fibular flap,& rt ND with trach, picc,& g-tube.
30 rds of rads with weekly cisplatin
SCANS ALL CLEAR!
OCF Regional Coordinator of San Antonio Walk