My husband hand surgery to remove 10% of the base of his tongue and many lymph nodes on both sides of his neck. He had his surgery on June 5th and stayed in the hospital for 7 days. He came home with a trach and NG tube. 4 days later they removed the NG tube and trach. He had difficulty swallowing and 12 days post op I noticed pus draining from his incision site. A trip to the ER was required and he received antibiotic IV therapy. We now go to an ENT who packs the fistula that has devloped (fistula being a "tunnel" of infection) in order to stir up the tissue in the "tunnel" to promote drainage and healing. We go twice daily for these dressing changes. I'm an RN so for the next 5 days I will be able to do the dressing changes at home as the Dr. is on vacation. When we started this process it was discovered that he wasn't protecting his airway after the NG tube was removed so it was replaced and he is still on tube feeding. The trach however is almost closed.