As you can see from my signature, they took a little over half of my tongue with a forearm flap, and I had a bilateral neck dissection with removal of nodes.

I had a trach tube for 1 week in hospital, so no speaking, eating etc. (had an NG tube for feeding). Once removed, I begged to be let out, and was released a couple of days later and you couldn't shut me up. I talked whenever I could to get used to the new tongue. I was off all pain meds by day 4 (had some allergy issues), while still in hospital.

There's major swelling on the tongue, so I sounded like the godfather for a few weeks, but I made my first court appearance on October 30. I worked part-time for about 2 weeks, then was back full time. It will depend how comfortable you are about your speech. I wanted to get back, as I felt like a sick person sitting at home.

Look on the internet for tongue exercises. I found that helpful in getting it moving right. I also spent a lot of time practicing words that were more difficult to help my speech, and I sang as well.

Good luck Tuesday!