Hi Christopher,

I too had a stage II tongue cancer. I had between 20 and 25% of tongue removed as well as salivary glands under the tongue. I did also have the neck dissection - but all was clear so no radiation or chemo.

I was 29 at the time and spent about 5 days in the hospital. I had no foods by mouth for the first 3.5 days. When I did start to eat - it was pudding, ensure, stuff like that. My tongue was also left open in the back - but was stiched closed on the side. I had no speech therapy or anything like that other than the one time consult while I was still in the hospital and most people can't tell at all that I've ever had surgery.

As for pain - yes - it will be painful for the first probably 2 weeks. Eat a lot of creamy foods when you get out. I found that applesauce stung the open areas and so I basically had things like pudding, ensure, yogurt and ice cream (boy did I have the ice cream)......I had liquid pain meds to go home with and they were very hard to choke down (as they burned) for the first few days. I was off of narcotics pretty quickly. I went back to work only 3 weeks after the surgery with little to no pain. I had only a little rawness left when I went back to work.

The one remaining side effect that I do have is dry mouth due to the salivary gland removal - but it is manageable. I have found that sodas cut the dryness/tackiness the best - but also sparkling water in case you don't want the calories from the sodas. Due to the dryness - there are a couple of foods that I no longer eat - like dry cereals (I also don't drink milk - so you can see how these dry cereals woul dbe a problem) and my tongue coes occassionally have a hard time "gripping" or "maneuvaring" things like lettuse and spinach that can be slippery.

Good luck!