Hi, I had the surgery about a year ago, and got clean margins. Just last month at my regular checkup, we found a new "spot" and I have now had the pleasure of tongue surgery twice. I won't go into details here, but I have discussed my surgery and recovery time in the "blog" section of the forum, under the "Dear Diary" blog. I have had a total of 1/3 of my tongue removed (left side), I opted to have my teeth pulled, the dentures went in as soon as the last suture was put into place. Actually, getting used to eating and finding the right denture adhesive has been the most frustrating part of the whole experience! I had a great surgeon (same one both times) and had some pudding and apple juice after I came out of recovery the second time (that was pretty gutsy of them...it's a wonder they didn't wear some of the pudding home with them that day!)
Understand, the second surgery was done outpatient. The first surgery, a year ago, was a modified neck dissection, hemiglossectomey (tongue surgery), I was intubated for two days, feeding tube placed, the whole shebang. To my great surprise, I was eating within a day or two, and talking coherently (?) the day after I was extubated. I didn't have chemo/radiation to follow up, and in light of the second surgery, I am probably not the one to ask for advice in that respect.Some folks do well without adjunctive therapy after surgery, I am just not one of those lucky few. Will go in on the 23rd for a PET scan, and then on the 27th to talk about radiation after that.
Hang in there, keep us posted
Andrea