She will be having surgery at Vanderbilt within the next 2 weeks. Doctor's plan is to cut from below her ear to her chin, make a zig zag incision up to her lip, remove a tooth and cut through her jaw bone for better access to the area. He estimates that he'll need to remove about half of her tongue. She'll have the transplant from her forearm main artery and veins and skin graft from her thigh. Trache and feeding tube. I've searched everywhere to see pictures of people who have had a similar surgery to see how they healed and what the scars look like, but with no luck.


Sister, 18yr old, diagnosed with oral tongue cancer 10/08/13
Total Glossectomy and neck dissection 11/18/13 (saved the back left portion of her tongue base only)
Forearm flap reconstruction
Trache and NG feeding tube after surgery (both removed now)
Tumor 6.7 cm
All lymph nodes tested came back negative for cancer
Radiation- 30 treatments (ending 2/18/14)
3/20/14 Recurrence- tumors in both lungs; likely metastasis