Annabel, from the tone and number of your posts I can tell that you're very concerned about your mom, understandably so. Take a deep breath please.

Everyone is different in treatment and the healing process to a certain extent, and even one person having treatments can have different things happen different times. I've gone through two neck dissections and each one was different from the the way the scar healed to the lengh of time from surgery to radiation to side effects of the radiation.

How bad is the wound that your mom has that the doctors feel the need to wait 6 weeks? This does seem a long time, but if she's having trouble healing the wait could be justified. Radiation does a number on the tissues that get radiated kind of second degree burns after a time so it may not be a good idea to start too early if the wound hasn't healed properly. Get the docs to explain more the reason for the wait, other than generic waiting for the wound to heal.

In cases like this you have to be your mothers voice and her health care advocate, kind of checking and following up what the docs are doing.

Bob S.