Hi Mookitty,

My dad had his jaw bone removed in January 2010. Make sure to get a second opinion because in my dad's case, they were going to replace it with the tibia but decided not to after advice from a cancer center doctor. Because of how much they had to remove, the doctors felt that replacing with the tibia would have restricted his range of motion too much. So each case is very different. My only point is that a second opinion can be both reassuring and helpful. As for what to expect, I can tell you that in my fathers case, it was a long recovery but he did recover. Hi jaw bone was broken because the cancer was in the bone. Also, he needed a skin graft so his surgery was very complicated. It took about 11 hours and 3 surgeons. He had a trach tube and a stomach feeding tube. Do you know if your husband will get either of those? I can share my stories as a caregiver if so. Either way, I think the hardest part was that he did swell quite a bit afterward and the swelling stayed for a couple of months, so that was stressful for me. But the doctors kept reassuring me that it would heal and it did. So I guess I am trying to address your question about what to look forward to. Right after surgery you may be surprised by swelling, etc, but just keep the faith that he will recover. You just need a lot of patience. Also, I remember an excellent video online somewhere that discussed the tibia replacement surgery and one of the patients who had it done was talking about his experience. I will try to find it. It was very comforting to watch.