Great news that it has not spread. I've had the surgery you are about to have: removal of cancer from the inner cheek (buccal mucosa) and patching with a flap from the wrist. Of course there's a neck dissection too to check nodes and join blood vessels to the flap. In my case the cancer was at the back and bottom of the cheek and a tooth socket was involved so all my bottom teeth on that side came out. That was also because of the planned radiation therapy. Sounds as if you won't need that.

The surgery is a big thing, not as bad as a glossectomy but still requiring hours of intricate surgery and reconstruction which means it takes about three days to get over the anaesthetic. You will have your affected arm in a cast and a bandage on your thigh or donor site. This is where they get the skin to cover the area in the wrist where the flap graft has been taken. All the wound sites have drainage tubes and bottles so you feel like a walking Christmas tree for a while. (I always walk as soon as I can.)

For a lot of or most oral surgery, nutrition is via a naso-gastric tube for a week or so to give the mouth time to heal. It's okay. Lovely when it comes out!

In my case I had a shaving off the mandible too because the tumour was sitting close to the bone. Maybe it's because of this that I ended up with trismus or limited mouth opening. If you end up with this it's necessary to faithfully follow instructions for stretching.

Hope this is not too much information. Surgeons have this free flap surgery down to a fine art and it's really quite miraculous how they can remove a cancer and patch up the patients mouth, preserving function.

Keep us posted.