Mars, welcome to OCF! You have come to the very best place to get help with this enormous decision you are facing. Your life will be permanently altered forever by agreeing to do this major surgery. Believe it or not, almost 3 years ago I was facing the same choice of weather to put myself thru a mandibulectomy or to let nature take its course. The friends I made right here are the reason I am alive today. They encouraged me to at least try before giving up. Nobody knows your situation better than you, your family and your doctors. Make a deadline for your decision and think long and hard about the pros and cons, write it down if necessary.

Medically, it is a very invasive surgery. Several parts of your body will be affected so to be honest, you will be in considerable amount of pain. Recovery can take anywhere from 3 months to 1+ years. For my situation, I had complications which made my recovery take about a year. Ive seen others bounce back rather quickly after such a big surgery. From what you explained, it will be a 10+ hour operation. Mine was 10 hours and I did not have anything done to my tongue. That is where we differ. My speech is very good considering I have no teeth at all. You can attend speech therapy to help you relearn how to enunciate words so you are understandable.

Please feel free to ask my any questions and I will do my best to help guide you (no matter what your decision is). I hope you will consider trying to get thru this. But if you dont and you are mentally ok with it, thats alright too. In my opinion, its better to live with some life altering limitations and still be alive than to have not had the opportunity to thrive after cancer.

Best wishes!