Hi there, I've visited this site quite often and asked questions previously, but I will fill you in on what is happening.
In short, my husband had a left rad. neck dissection March 2005 and the primary was located on the base of his tongue. He went through 33 sessions of radiation, but 15 months later, the cancer returned at the base of his tongue, 3-4cm. So then he had a tongue resection, where they took a large part of his tongue and did a flap reconstruction from his forearm together with a main artery. They took part of his airway, and the nerve in his tongue was damaged. He's been going to speech therapy and that is coming along quite nicely. He has a peg tube, and manages to swallow "mushy" food.
The question I would like you to answer is:
Does the swallowing improve over time, he seems to have no control over his swallowing muscles and constantly gags and chokes. He's a real trier and doesn't give up easily, but it's wearing him down. Can someone please shed some light on this subject for me. I keep encouraging him, saying he's doing well, but now I'm starting to wonder too.
Also, he is now undergoing chemo as the doc suspected the cancer was travelling along the nerve of his tongue. We were told last week that it was a baseloid squamous cell carcinoma which is very aggressive. Has any of you had this, it's the more aggressive form of the "ordinary" squamous cell carcinoma.
Any info would be truly appreciated. Thankyou