I was wondering if anyone here has had SCC where a smaller portion of the tongue was removed and no flap reconstruction was done, no chemo and no radiation - just a small biograft at the site where the piece of tongue was removed. That is my situation, which I am constantly told is "lucky."

Originally, my doctor had estimated that roughly almost half of my tongue would have to be removed and flap reconstruction done but once they got in, everything changed for the better. As a result, my in-patient time was reduced from the originally anticipated 7-10 days to 4 days. I am thankful that things took the turn they did - I'm actually thankful for every day.

However - I have ADHD so patience is not one of my strengths. I'm just wondering if anyone here is in a similar situation as me who may be able to tell me whether I MIGHT regain more feeling in the right side (where the tumor was) of my tongue. I still have some stitches in there - my surgery was on April 11th (yes, I know I need to be patient). I did also have neck dissection during which 29 lymph nodes were removed as a precaution. As a result, I still have a great deal of numbness surrounding the incision, but the incision itself is healing nicely. It seems like I have sort of an indentation near part of the incision - I don't know if that will eventually sort of stabilize to look more normal or not. There is still a swollen area just below my right jawline - I hope that eventually goes away. I was ecstatic when I realized that feeling in my earlobe had returned so I'm hoping that eventually I'll have lots more feeling than I do today. My right lower lip doesn't respond like the other side, making my smile look lobsided - I'm hoping that with time, that will go away - I exercise my lip and tongue using a tongue depressor - so I know that the lip DOES function, it just doesn't respond all the time or the same as the other side of the lip.

I think what tests my patience the most, however, is the numbness I still have on my tongue where they removed the piece of it. Last week, I began to feel a slight burning sensation right at the site - where the stitches are now. The nurse told me that could be nerve regeneration. I'm just wondering if eventually I will get more sensation back on that side of my tongue - I hope so. At times, eating drives me nuts because I'll try to eat on my right side - the surgery side - and due to my lack of sensation there, I'm not able to very successfully push food around correctly and end up basically fighting my food to get it back to the left side where I can more easily manipulate it with my tongue.

Am I just having unrealistic expectations of myself at almost 1-month out from my surgery? Until my cancer, I have never, ever had any sort of ailment or injury that I've had to take so much time to recouperate from.

I've been doing some reading about what vitamins and herbs have been shown to aid in nerve regeneration as I want to do whatever I can to help things along...

Ok folks, feel free to give me your opinions - they are welcome and valued!

Thanks in advance,

Impatient and ADHD - Pepper