I had surgery in New Orleans at Baptist Memorial Hospital just before Katrina. In fact, Splenda had her surgey there the day I went home. Mine was done by the head of the LSU Head and Neck Oncology unit. I was fortunate to find excellent care in Houston and eventually went to my surgeon who was temporarily in Lafayette. (For those of you who don't know this is 4 hours from Houston and 2 from New Orleans.)
I am so thankful that I decided not to have reconstruction at the same time as the initial surgery. Evacuation was hard enough as it was so close to post surgery. We consulted with the plastic surgeon who would have done it and decided that the extra hours of surgery and weeks of recovery and physical therapy were too much. I was concerned from a functional and not from a cosmetic point. My doctor felt that I would possibly need speech and/or swallowing therapy post surgery but that I could wait to see if I wanted or needed reconstruction.
My doctor is now the chair of the ENT departmen at Tulane so that is where I am going. Reconstuction would be done by the plastic surgeon on that team who trained at Sloan-Kettering.