I'd really like to thank everybody for the advice. She came through great. They had to take a bit more of the bone than they intended a little over half of the mandible. However they took just about half of the tongue so a little less of that than they anticipated. The bone/skin graft is the worst of it but she's starting to have pain free days. All in all they were super thrilled with how she did. She has afib so had to be on a blood thinner throughout the recovery. The plastic surgeon was certain she was going to bleed and he would need to go back in, but not so much. She did great. Because of prior radiation her swelling hasn't gone down as quickly so she's still on the trache but that will be coming out next week. She is doing well with the speaking valve which she always wears except when she sleeps.

Rads start next week and she's despondant because she was really hopeful about being able to get implants after all of this, but other than that? All is going pretty well.

Oh, that and a pesky case of the shingles. Really? Shingles? On top of everything? She had the vaccine and everything. Oh well. We got the anti-viral started within 24 hours of the onset of the rash so we're hopeful it won't be too bad.