Welcome to OCF! Glad to see you have made yourself known and started posting.

If your sister has been waiting for surgery for 6 months, the cancer could have changed quite alot since she was originally diagnosed. Im hoping your sister is being treated at a CCC. There she would have a whole team of experts all working together on her individual case making a treatment plan that is designed just for her while following NCI guidelines. Will she be having rads? Im hoping she already has a speech pathologist lined up.

Its very difficult to answer your question of what to expect. Every patient will respond in their own unique way to a major surgery. So much depends on details like how large the tumor is, if it has any lymph nodes involved, her age and general health, etc. Some patients will sail right thru and be hospitalized for about a week and a few weeks after surgery they are doing very well. Others will take longer to adapt and being to heel. I can tell you that swelling can be significant and take week to go down, it could be months before it is completely gone.

The surgery will probably be a very long one. She should have someone with her while she is in the hospital as it is very difficult for someone in this situation when they first wake up from surgery and arent able to communicate. Having a dry erase board will be a big help.

Ask for a possey muir valve trach. This is VERY important in making it easy for her to speak while having a trach. Tell her surgeon and the nurses, then again when she is at the hospital make certain everyone knows she requires this. I had it and it really made things much easier.

Wishing your sister all the very best with her upcoming procedure.