Any of you that have had reconstruction of the tongue and now have a flap I could use some advice for my father.
He had the left half side of his tongue removed and to appropriately do reconstruction they took a piece of his thigh and reconstructed the tongue but had to attached it to the right side for blood flow because of his previous neck dissection.
He is one month out of surgery and we do not have a followup appointment with the surgeon until the 21st. He is asking me if his new flap will move and how it is attached.
I remember I think the surgeon saying it would not move.
Do any of you know how if it is attached to the floor of his mouth. If so his next question for me was what about my saliva gland on that side. Which of course because he has been previously radiated 7+ years ago he does not have much saliva but every bit helps. I realize we ultimately need to talk to the surgeon but any insights from those of you with flaps would be greatly appreciated. He has always been extremely diligent in his mouth/teeth care his whole life so he is wondering how it all will work now. He is not allowed anything by mouth as of yet. Too much swelling from surgery and Intraoperative radiation.
Thanks,
Kim