Hey everyone,

My mom's surgery is set for June 30th, at 8am, and is going to take 10 hours. In those 10 hours, they will remove 30% of the tongue, and the nodes on the right side (same side for the tongue). Than he will reform the tongue with skin from the arm, and so on.

She will spend 12 to 14 days in the hospital...

After the surgery how difficult was swallowing and eating? When she comes home, will she have to drink shakes and soups for the first little while? How about taste buds, since they will be replacing 30% of the tongue, how do the taste buds get affected?

Also I mentioned in another posting about radiation, he said that they wont think about radiation until 4 weeks after the surgery... do u think he just said that so we wouldn;t worry about the radiation?

Thanks for the help

H

the world brought me to my knees...
Update: Feb 10/08: Mom passed away on Jan 31,08 - infection (unknown) in her lungs with her weakened immune system resulted in cardiac arrest - T2NO SCC of tongue surgery 6/30/06, SCC left neck and lungs detected Sept 07, 7 weeks rad/3 rounds chemo had no effect.