ASK first before you do anything that someone here suggests, but my surgeon, in addition to the mouth-opening exercises (therabyte, but also stretches...I still do them, many times a day) he also told me to massage my neck where the dissection was done....and he said to do it vigorously, so that the top skin didn't scar down and become tight...to break up fibrous development. OF COURSE you must ask first...and I was not comfortable doing it at first, but I did it....use some nice facial cream so that your hands slide....and now my neck is just as pliable on that side as on the other. Of course, there is no fat on that side (and plenty on the other side, sorry to say!), so I can feel all the interior structures, but nothing is taut, and I am thankful that he told me to "really get after it." (a fairly un-professional instruction, but I did "really get after it."

Colleen--T-2N0M0 SCC dx'd 12/28/05...Hemi-maxillectomy, partial palatectomy, neck dissection 1/4/06....clear margins, neg. nodes....no radiation, no chemo....Cancer-free at 4 years!