Golly! I wish MY experience had been as painless as others have described. I guess mine wasn't really so much PAIN, per se, as difficulty psychologically dealing with the fact the the doc just yanked the thing right out-the VERY thing that was on the TOP of my horror list for the last few weeks it was in. My stitches came undone at my belly and my greatest fear became that the tube would catch on a doorknob/cabinet, etc and pull out. When this actually happened in the doc's office (SURPRISE!!!!!) I was, to say the least, NOT ready for it. 10 minutes of shock and then I was ready to punch out a certain doc for not telling me about it in advance! :-)
Still not as bad as I had "built it up" to be. Hang in there!
gordon

SCC right tonsil Dx 14 Feb 03
No surg till Apr 03
Lip resection Sep 05 "frankenface"
Recurr Apr 10
2/3 tongue removed Jun 10
SPEECH/SWALLOW/DROOL challenges FUN!
Dec 10 Tumor @ nodes/larynx/cart artery growing
Erbitux Mar 11 Hyoid bone regrows!?
recur Dec 12
begin taxo chemo
10yrs-still kickin!