I was surprised, but relieved, that most of it grew back, because if you make a "c" with your hand, that's what the gash in my tongue looked like after surgery. For the first week or so, it was impossible to eat anything other than soups, puddings, yogurts. I tried pancakes after a few days, thinking they're soft, but that didn't work well at all.

My speech was never affected too much. If I'm talking to someone on the phone, they may have a problem differentiating between words I say or spell with "f" or "s". My tongue tends to feel a little heavy if I've talked for awhile, and it has a "numbish" feel to it.

After the first neck dissection, my neck healed beautifully and you could hardly tell I had surgery. The second one pretty much followed the path of the first incision, and I had a neck muscle removed; so it's much more noticeable. I have noticed that the incision scar has healed a bit better the last few weeks....strange since it's over a year and a half since the second surgery. I get twinges and tightness in the neck, but I think most of that is due to the second surgery (I don't recall much of that after the first surgery).