Gosh, it's early days yet. After my first big tongue surgery I couldn't have written a post like that 8 or 9 days after it.

Do you still have the NG tube in for feeding? Great that the trache is out and sounds as if surgery went well. My tongue is partly tethered to the floor of my mouth too but my loud teacher's voice still bellows out. I really don't know how I can still talk so well.I think you can learn to speak from deeper down and use the tongue less ... although of course the tongue is needed for those tricky consonants.

Love what your wife said about the reconstructive surgeon. As a patient I see the surgeons when I'm in intensive care after surgery and through the daze of anaesthesia I hear a sort of "surgeon's high". They've been through hours of intricate work and the patient has come out fine on the other side. It never occurred to me that they might be totally exhausted.

I went back to part time teaching about a year after my partial glossectomy. Not as big a surgery as you've had and talking for a living WAS hard. Right now at 68 and after another cancer I'm retired.

I'm sure you'll feel more like 59 in due course:)