Dear All,

This is my fist post and would beg your indulgence if am not doing this right.

My dad just had his second surgery for the removal of a tumor which is deemed a recurrence from an earlier wide resection of a floor of the mouth CA ( june2007)

This recent procedure , done some 4 weeks back, removed some 11cm of his mandible and the area around it. A titanium plate was installed and a pectoral flap was made for reconstruction.

So far, healing seems OK (despite chemo / rad of the area some 18 months back). My concern , however, is that he still CANT swallow - not even his saliva. The surgeons say that they have have kept the tongue intact and the nerves as well. Thus they see no reason why dad shoudnt be able to "re-learn" his swallowing faculties. BTW, he can move his tongue up and down, sideways a bit but can fully extend it outwards. also noted a bit of a tongue slant towards the resected area of the mouth. His speech is garbled but some words are recognizable.

Due to his inability to swallow, he was on an NGT till this morning when a PEG was finally inserted as feeding replacement to ease the irritation of the NGT. Speech/Tonge Therapy sessions are due to start next week.

Am here seeking your views, experiences and suggestions on this worrying issue. Is this non-ability to swallow normal? if not, cant it still be regained? how long will the rehab take?

grateful for your help -

Mundace