Just got back from conference with Dr Haakenslash, accompanied by friend's wife to be a second set of ears, take notes and also ask questions, which she did excellently.

Besides impressive credentials, the Doc has an excellent manner and thoroughly explained his recommended procedures which he will present to tumor board tomorrow.

Good news to me is the scans indicate I have cancer (Hmm, having cancer is good news? Yes, sorta...) only in tip of tongue (what's left of it...) in one-half of the forward two-thirds of my tongue (That 2/3 is aka the 'mobile' tongue) with no spread to lymph system or jaw.

I asked about possibility of more radiation and he said no; all it would do in my case is leave me with a shriveled, useless, tongue and probably not eradicate the cancer. He sees surgery as only option for me.

Plan is to remove that whole area, leaving the nerve center and the muscle, create a tongue bulk to aid in swallowing and talking and remove the lymph nodes under my jaw (not needed as such and are 'tumor cell repositories').

Then he will take a portion of skin and tissue from my left (non-dominant) wrist, along with blood vessels up my forearm a bit. This will all be sutured to the now-missing area of my tongue, with the blood vessels connected to the missing lymph node areas by microsurgery (eight stitches per 2mm vessel; total procedure will involve about 100 stitches).

Finally, he will take tissue from outside area of thigh to replace skin harvested from wrist (Robbing Peter to pay Peter...).

The procedure, which he does two to three times weekly, will take eight to ten hours, followed by a day in ICU, and then six to eight more days in hospital, with some speech therapy and swallowing therapy at some point. Nasal gastric tube for feeding, plus wrist/hand in splint for a week.

In tough cases with a lot of swelling, a PEG might be required, plus a tracheotomy, but neither is likely in my case because the surgery is to the front.

Surgery is scheduled for two weeks from today. That's it as I remember it so far.

On Edit: Since there is hair on that part of my wrist, it will survive the grafting. Friend's wife and I simultaneously asked about having to shave tongue! Doc pointed to electrolysis machine and said he will later use that.