Hello ChristineB, Paul, Laura,
Home from the hospital, ...I really don't know if anyone here has had this experience, but maybe. I might make a new Post, just to ask---
Yes, my tongue Flap is actually sutured down, To My Bottom Lip.
And it's through the roof painful....
This surgery was to go back in, but Wider & Deeper trying to get Clear Margins. After the April double surgery I had.
I was First case of the day at 7am. I got there & checked in at 5:20am. (Same as my April double surgery)
But the day before surgery, I myself found 2 new lumps/ tumors, right up front where the new one was removed in April. One was another Floor of mouth hard lump.... The other one was a larger, soft lump underside of Flap, close to where the surgeon needed to excise again ( to find Clear Margin from April surgery). So, that early morning I showed him, right before they put me under. He felt them with his fingers. ( he has been my doctor for the past 26+ years! We are very bonded, close. I cook for him!)
General anesthesia, Endotracheal intubation, ventilator, etc . 2+ hour surgery. I was
The junior surgeon who came to my room, that evening ( he also has been on my cancer team for the past 2 years)-- He said in Floor of mouth--- "Crystal, we cut out everything we saw. Which was a Lot"
They pretty much Gutted the floor of mouth, all the way across front.
Tongue Flap-- the Holes they had to cut in my flap were so large, that they could not leave them open. So they sutured the Flap down, to my bottom lip. Only way, he said, to cover those large holes.
I have Layers of sutures. Floor of mouth, is bottom layer then tongue Flap stitched down over that, to lip.
( Keep in mind, my lower left lip was Gutted Out Twice in 2017, from invasive SCC tumor w/ deep positive margins that spread from my tongue ( through PNI ??). He Never found clear margins there, thus I had Radiation)
The result right now, of my Flap sutured to my bottom lip??? A very tight, swollen, strained, red streaked, very very Painful Bottom Lip -- swollen chin, under jaws, down into my neck....
On clear liquid diet, antibiotics until May 29th when I see my Primary surgeon in Post Op clinic visit.
No idea what this tongue flap will be like, when released from sutures.
Also, I've no idea what's next for me treatment wise...
2 places Enhanced on the CT scan , in my Flap, before this surgery. One was totally expected, where that tumor had invaded/ grown into the flap.
The other place that enhanced really caught my attention-- a place on the 1/4 natural tongue I have left that's been irritated & painful a long time. That place enhanced..... I finally, after many months of ignoring it-- told my surgeon.
So he biopsied it. ( he said it doesn't look suspicious though. I hope it's just something benign!!)
Monday I'm supposed to get Scoped by my Voice & Swallowing disorders Head & Neck doctor ( my second Head& Neck doctor)-- to look at the moderate dysplasia mass beside my vocal cords, that he zapped with Laser surgery in April double surgery. No I don't feel like getting scoped, but if he thinks it's safe right now, with all I've going on-- I will do it. Anyway, he can check me out.
In pain, so getting to bed soon.
Thank you So Very Much for all the well wishing & encouragement!!! You really don't know how much it means to me!! It's tremendous. To hear from others who actually Know what this road is like-- it is just so important!!!
Today I finished a pretty stitched table topper, that I am mailing to a 50 year old lady who has Multiple Myeloma. She's on 3 chemotherapy treatments and None of them are working.
They've given her only 6 more months to live.
So, I've been focused on Her for a couple days, finishing her project , as I slog through my own pain.
Hoping my tongue Flap can be saved...
Crystal
