Yep, what Cherlyd says above is very true. I had the trache and similar timelines in terms of the progression of removing and adjusting pieces of it, then final closure of the thing. The trache was probably my least favourite and definitely the most annoying part of my whole treatment/recovery process. Especially in the first few days, it was quite scary when the drool/phlegm/whatever built up in the tube and needed some attention. Lots of coughing while holding the thing in place to make sure it doesn't blow out of the neck. He'll have to cough to try to blow the stuff out the tube. Eventually it won't work anymore and they'll use the suction hose. Then it will work for awhile and plug up again. Then the regular suction hose won't work anymore so they have to pop the cap off and stick the vacuum cleaner hose right in there. It can be pretty scary when you're laying there choking and the nurses happen to be busy with another patient (in my case I was in a room with five patients and three nurses stationed there - usually they were not horribly busy - maybe one would have to tend to one of the patients, but occasionally all three would be busy at the same time, & they'd hear me hacking and wheezing then would have to come tend to me instead). Once they removed the trache, I moved over to a more conventional room in the hospital and didn't have that level of attention anymore.

Also had a similar experience with the wrist flap site & staples to hold it together. I had to keep this wrapped for maybe six weeks after the surgery. My skin graft donor site was my thigh & when I was ready to go home, they still had what looked like a cardboard french fry serving container (with the bottom cut out) taped to my thigh, which allowed the air to heal the scab. I don't want to guess how much Polysporin, tape & non-stick pads I went through.

Even though I had about 7cm (which is just less than 3") of tongue removed, I can now eat almost everything and speak reasonably clearly (with a few occasional exceptions where I have some trouble and need to spell out a word or try to use an alternate word). When I was in the hospital, I used a clipboard, some paper and a pencil. Someone bought me a dry erase board and felt pen combo, but by that time I could already speak. I had also downloaded an app that will translate text you type and speak it out loud, but never actually ended up using it. It'll be helpful to make sure he has access to the dry erase board or at least a pen & paper when he wakes up from the surgery. The first time I tried to communicate with nurses I had a lot of trouble & it was quite frustrating until they scrounged through the storage room to find this for me.