I am still relatively early in treatment, but I suspect others thought of the "when can I go back to work" question early, as well.

I'm 3 weeks post-surgery, and I guess I am due to start radiation in 2-3 weeks, probably for about 7 weeks. For my job, I dictate into a microphone much of the day. I still have minimal speech capabilities, though most of what I say is intelligible to the people used to hearing me. My work eventually wants some sort of return date, and I was wondering what everyone's experience has been. Also what the experience of people with a partial glossectomy (about 40-50%) has been with regaining speech and swallowing (still on clear liquids). Thanks.

Hey!! My sister had her partial (3/4) glossectomy on June 2. So we are about 8 weeks post surgery. Her speech is about 90-95%. She has trouble with double t's( like better or little) but otherwise she is doing well. She went back to work about a month after surgery( she works with animals and was afraid of the hair getting into her wrist where they took the flap from or she would have been there sooner). Friday is her last day of work for 6 weeks due to her radiation treatment. The hospital she is going to is about an hour drive away so she will be staying in cancer society housing. She was eating soft food about 2 weeks after she was home and about a week after that she was back to whatever she wanted. She did have some complications after like stitches coming out to soon in the hospital so u might be even faster. Tomorrow we are making a thanksgiving dinner for her. She is afraid it won't taste the same after radiation. Any questions don be afraid to PM me. My sister was where you are now and is doing extremly well. So stay positive!!!

No one will be able to predict when YOU will be able to return to work as there are way to many variables but my experience was that I was able to start back appx 2 months post Tx and only PT at first gradually building up to full time. I was fortunate in that I didn't have anyone putting pressure on me returning other than myself of course. You will soon learn that we can all react differently to the same Tx so you may bounce back sooner or later than what my experience was but do not push yourself as your body will be in a healing mode for at least the first year post Tx and perhaps longer.

To improve your Tx experience and recovery please consume at least 2500 calories and 48ozs of water each and every day during and post Tx. In fact start now fattening yourself up like a turkey BF T Day whether or not you think you need it!

I returned to work part time 3 weeks after I finished treatment. I went back full time 3 weeks after that. My main problem was that I got tired easily. I work in an office so talk to people on the phone and in person. My speech is good, some words give me problems but people can understand me fine. My swallowing was hard two weeks after treatment ended and then got better. The speech therapist gave me swallowing exercises to do before and during treatment and I think that helped. I did not have a feeding tube because I was able to maintain my weight (lost 9 pounds) through treatment. Hang in there - you will get through it all eventually.