Hello,
My name is Doreen and my husband Lee, age 44, has stage IV base of tongue/larynx SCC. I am new to the group and did post previously(maybe in the wrong section). lee had a total glossectomy and partial laryngectomy(epiglottis)
and is now undergoing chemo and rad. He is treating at Univ of penn and received a concurring opinion at Sloan that he had to have surgery since he had rad for tonsillar non-hodgkin's lymphoma 9 yrs. ago (perhaps causing this cancer?) and he could not have enough rads this time without the surgery. He was given about a 10% chance of swallowing but apparently this combo of surgery is not common and there are not a lot of statistics. Apparently, the total tongue and larynx is not done too often. We were told that this combo will make swallowing anything pretty tricky and solids are out. I guess my question is if anyone has had this type of surgery, what is your swallowing status and is/was your trach permanent? Any info would be helpful. I did post under another section, so i'm not sure if it was the wrong section or if no one had this scenario. Thank you and God Bless us all.
Doreen