Tina,

What I found in the weeks leading up to my surgery was that the doctors had to give me a range of possible results, because they weren't completely sure what they would find when they opened up the tongue and neck area. They warned me that the "worst case" was that I would lose a substantial portion of my tongue, as well as most or all of the range of motion in my left shoulder and arm. (Needless to say, at the age of 39, that wasn't too appealing.) The actual result was that I lost a little less than 20% of my tongue and many lymph nodes in the left side of my neck, but the surgery healed very quickly and just left me with a minor speech impediment that many people don't even seem to notice. My arm movements were pretty much back to normal after a few weeks of recovery. I was eating soft foods again within a few days and my appetite came back fairly quickly. (Radiation was a whole 'nother story entirely, but I gather that's not under discussion for your mother right now.)

Obviously, no one here can tell you at this point what to expect for your mother, but I think there are many of us who went into surgery anticipating much worse than what we finally ended up with. Try not to worry too much -- just help her to prepare as much as you can. I have to agree with Erik that having cancer changed me in some very positive ways and that I've come to enjoy every day much more than I did before.

Cathy