... And just an afterthought about people's understanding for what I was going through... I had some friends telling me " just enjoy the rest, I'd love to sleep for 12 hours" and others who went way overboard on the "oh my goodness how awful" reaction... I don't have a partner and my daughters live abroad so couldn't be here too much, so in the end I just decided to drown out everybody else's thoughts about how i should be coping/reacting and concentrated on keeping my inner me protected from them all and focussed on keeping calm and matter of fact about it.

March 2017- operation to remove SCC tumour from upper left palate. Partial maxillectomy, free flap forearm reconstruction, left neck dissection. Tracheostomy was c/o as a matter of course following risk of swelling. Back teeth removed as precaution as radiotherapy was predicted. Lymph nodes came back clear, no involvement so rx not required.
HOWEVER, 2 years later , Jan 2019, SCC found in left buccal mucosa, removed by laser. Two operations c/o as first did not have clear margins.