Welcome to OCF! You are one of the luckiest people to join our family without going thru the horrors of having OC or being a caregiver. The link at the end of this post is about pre-malignant lesions. That should be helpful to you in reading more about dysplasia. Im sorry but our group is made up of patients and caregivers, our members do not have medical backgrounds or training so we may not be able to help you with dissecting the medical terms your physician used.

Something we all learn here is every patient is unique and will respond in their own individual manner. That said, its not easy to say how long it will be for your recovery. As an OC survivor without a medical background, Im not qualified to know how long it will be for your recovery. I do not have years of medical school, clinical and patient experience, or the ability to see the full medical history and examine the patient. Take 2 patients who on paper look very similar as they are the same age, sex, diagnosis, the same height, weight and from the same local area. Those 2 patients can even have the same physician but the 2 patients will be polar opposites as far as how they respond to surgery, anesthesia, recovery, medications, etc. After surgery, inflammation and numbness can last for weeks maybe even months. A few over the years have unfortunately reported permanent numbness but thats usually the patients who have a more complex surgery. Your surgery was only a week ago. You still will have several more weeks to go before the swelling goes down and you know what you are dealing with. For oral cancer (OC) patients, getting a speech pathologist involved to help them learn how to control their newly reshaped tongue usually is a huge help, Im sure this would help you as well.

Main OCF site --- Premalignant conditions