My dad (63 years old), has Stage 4 tonge cancer. The tumor is 7 cm long x 6 cm wide. They will be removing more than 3/4 of his tonge along with all the lymph nodes as a precautionary measure. They will be reconstructing a flap using thigh tissue. Tomorrow is his surgery date. In my grief this morning I stumbled on this site. Most of our surgery questions have been answered by the doctors and nurses. They have been open with us from day one that speech and swallowing after surgery may never be possible. I am concerned that this reality may still come as a bit of a shock to him when he awakes after surgery and he can't speak. I read in one of the posts that one lady gave her husband a squeaky toy to get her attention - I will be using that idea, thank you!
We have a white board and an iPad for him with the various speech apps. It saddens me to see that so many people are going through this. But I am happy to have found a place to turn for some support.
If I can ask for some positive energy to be sent our way tomorrow to help keep him strong and willing to battle this.
I'll keep you posted - thank you!!
Lea