Chandra,

After my initial surgery my tongue was tethered to the floor of my mouth as well, which sounds odd as I didn't have tongue cancer, just a huge primary tumor that was very invasive. It really affected my speech to a point when talking to me you could barely understand what I was saying.

When I went in to have a CNVII to CNXII nerve graft to restore function to the paralyzed side of my face they also clipped the scar tissue that freed my tongue. My speech today is much improved, although I still have to work on it, I am able to get by, I just have to go slow and work on my enunciation. Where I'm no longer able to project my voice due to damage from the ND, I get by well enough, even public speaking to Speech Pathologists with JenSLP to educate SLP's on the effects of Oral Cancer from the perspective of the cancer patient.

Good luck and keep on keepin' on sister.

Eric