I had both my tongue and ND surgeries the same day so my experience is a little different. The neck was not much of a problem, but because they had to do the tongue, I needed a trach tube to breath in case the tongue swelled to much and blocked the airway. I was on an ICU step-down floor because they needed nurses who were accustomed to dealing with trach tubes (that was probably one of the worst things to deal with). It turned out the trach tube did help because the first few days my tongue was so swollen that it did not fit inside my mouth. My neck is stiff on the dissection side and stretches are a daily routine for me as well.


Jim