Hi Anita,

I'm so sorry about Clark's issues. I truly understand his frustration and never ending pain and discomfort.

One possibility you might look into is a Scar Contracture Release/skin graft. Over the past 4 years I have had this procedure performed several times by a Plastic surgeon that has a history of working with head and neck cancer patients, but she concentrates on cosmetic surgery these days. As we know, flaps after radiotherapy become shrivelled up and extremely difficult to work with, not to mention the risk of infection and so on.

To perform a scar contracture the surgeon makes the incision in the flap, widens the incision several millimetres and covers the wound with a piece of skin taken from another part of the body (in my case usually the hip area). They stitch the skin graft over the wound. During the healing process the skin graft basically blends in and becomes the top of the flap and in turn has extended the size of the flap. Before I met my current plastic surgeon I was told in no uncertain terms by two top notch plastic surgeons there was nothing further they could do for me to help improve my quality of life. My mouth cavity was a twisted useless mess. Thankfully I continued searching because the function loss I was dealing with was truly unbearable. My situation has improved slightly with these ongoing procedures. Every bit helps!

I'm not sure if Clark would be a candidate for this type of surgery, but I would seek professional advice about it.

Please don't hesitate to ask if you would like more detailed information.

Karen