Monica,

I'm sure you will do fantastic. Surgery is never fun, but everyone was shocked at how quick the recovery time was for the surgery itself.

My PET was positive for nodes on both sides, but the pathology came back negative on all of them. As a result I had a bilateral neck dissection (both sides of my neck), which entailed a longer surgery, and they "rebuilt" my tongue with my forearm.

I'm happy to walk you through exactly what happens if you have questions (I had thousands when I first found out).

Given that I am missing just over half of my tongue, my speech is very good. Close friends say I sound a bit stuffed up, but many others who didn't know me as well, don't notice a difference.


Tina
Diag: Aug. 13/12
T3N0M0
50% + glossectomy and bilateral radical neck dissection, removal of nodes zones I - V
Surgery October 11/12
Chemo/rad on hold due to clear margins and nodes
Sept 21/13 clear CT with anomaly thought to be the artery, being watched closely.
Dec 16/13 - anomaly confirmed artery, all clear
nickname: "get 'r done"
Plans: kick cancer's butt