This is my first post on this forum so Hello.

I'll try to keep the background brief. My MIL has tongue cancer - she is a non smoker and non drinker and we suspect she got it from her workplace. She is 68 years old.

She had her first op on 28th December to remove the tumours in her neck and 1/3 of her tongue removed and reconstruct with a flap from the veins in her left arm. This failed after 5 days. She has now had 4 operations, used both the right and left arm veins and all have failed. Her blood keeps clotting and they don't know the reason why.

Tomorrow she has her 5th operation to sew down whats left of her tongue into the base of her mouth to fill the gap and also to insert a PEG tube. This will leave her without speech and nil by mouth.

She starts 20 sessions of radiotherapy on 28th January.

Can anyone advise what sort of quality of life she will have with PEG tube and no speech? Also any ideas why the reconstructive work kept failing because of blood clots?

Thanks for any help anyone can offer. We thought we were fighting cancer but now all these extras have been added into the equation.